Sakai City Habitat Potential Map
Visualizing Regional Biodiversity Networks to Contribute to Achieving Nature Positive
As part of Sakai City's initiatives, we received funding from the “Sakai City Startup Demonstration Promotion Subsidy” to create a Habitat Potential Map and verify its utility.
This map combines various terrain data (GIS) such as land moisture levels and green coverage, results from soil microbial DNA analysis, and insights from biological experts. It can also predict areas suitable for creating biotopes.
Please take a look at the Habitat Potential Map of Sakai City, the outcome of this project.
Habitat Potential Mapping Project
Habitat Potential Map
What is a Habitat Potential Map?
A Habitat Potential Map
Habitat potential quantifies the suitability of an environment for various organisms to inhabit, indicating how well the environmental conditions are suited for their survival.
It maps out which areas in our region can support which organisms, and what kind of environments they can inhabit.
Habitat Potential Maps reveal various aspects of local biodiversity and ecosystems: what organisms live near us, which areas support which species, and whether organisms move between areas.
Protect diverse living creatures
Mitigate climate change
Create places of spiritual refuge
Protect communities from disasters
Protect water resources
Create opportunities for learning
The Significance of Understanding Regional Biodiversity
Understanding a region's habitat potential goes beyond simply knowing how many organisms live there.
Rich natural environments that nurture diverse life provide us with various functions, known as ecosystem services, that benefit our own lives and society. The illustrations on the left show examples of representative services.
Understanding the habitat potential for ecosystem services in the areas where we live can provide useful insights for creating a richer environment and society.
Examples of demonstration
Sakai City Southern Hills Green Space
Evaluating the Network of Corporate Green Spaces and Surrounding Conservation Areas
Corporate green space
City-sponsored conservation activity area
moth migration
butterfly pollination
Coleoptera
bees
others
Plant: Japanese Prickly-ash
Insect: Chinese Yellow Swallowtail
Plants: Japanese silver grass
Insects: Sicelis Wood Nymph
The types of insects that visit vary depending on the plant species
A plant-centered network
Visualizing urban ecological networks
Biological interaction networks serve as crucial indicators for evaluating the quality of biodiversity and the structure of ecosystems. These networks reveal which organisms colonize specific habitats—such as green spaces, parks, riverbanks, and woodlands—and how their interactions maintain ecological networks. Establishing green spaces that nurture diverse organisms and provide ample opportunities for them to interact increases the size of the biological interaction network. It also enhances the exchange of organisms between green spaces connected by ecological networks. The formation and maintenance of complex, large-scale ecological networks are essential elements for creating cities where nature and people coexist and for building environmentally friendly communities. The interactions between plants and insects are diverse. Insects transport seeds and pollen, expanding the distribution of plants. These plant-insect relationships are indispensable for maintaining ecological networks.
Southern Sakai Hills Green Space
Evaluating the Network of Corporate Green Spaces and Surrounding Conservation Areas
The soil of green spaces like grasslands and forests is home to hundreds to tens of thousands of microbial species, with their diversity significantly influenced by soil quality, environment, and human management practices. Microorganisms come in various types and possess diverse functions. For example, the soil contains mycorrhizal fungi that colonize plant roots, aiding nutrient and water absorption and promoting growth, as well as saprophytic fungi that decompose organic matter like animal and plant remains, essential for soil maturation. Soil microbial diversity influences plant establishment, serves as a crucial foundation for biodiversity, participates in carbon and nitrogen cycles, and contributes to environmental regulation such as mitigating global warming. Therefore, evaluating soil microbial diversity is vital for assessing the functions of green spaces—the critical foundation of our environment. Microorganisms within the soil are invisible to the naked eye. We have revealed the diversity of microbial functions by analyzing the DNA of collected forest soil samples.
We evaluated the richness of soil microbial functions in Sakai City's forests, comparing them to average values for Satoyama forests in the Western Japan region. The results revealed that the soil in Sakai City's forests is at least as rich as that of average Satoyama forests. Sakai City conducts greening activities under the “Sakai Forest Living” initiative, including underbrush clearing and tree cutting to renew vegetation. The effectiveness of these activities was confirmed in the richness of soil microbial function.
City-sponsored conservation activity area
Corporate Green Space
Fungal richness
(targets for comparison)
Satoyama forests in the western Japan area
Corporate Green Space
Sakai City
City-sponsored
Conservation activity area
Sakai City Biodiversity Potential Map
This map shows the locations of “green spaces” like parks and Satoyama throughout Sakai City.
Green spaces are the white to green areas. The Southern Hills are here.
We've made the background easier to see. Notice how large green spaces decrease from the Southern Hills through the central area to the port area. Can you see how these green spaces are connected by “lines”?
These lines are called the “green space network,” showing connections that allow living creatures to move from one green space to another.
*This visualization uses a butterfly movement distance of 400m as a reference to show the connectivity between green spaces accessible to butterflies.
Let's zoom in on the Southern Hills area!
You can see the network connecting the green spaces in the Southern Hills to the smaller green spaces around them.
The shades of green indicate how well connected the green space is to surrounding areas and its importance as a hub. The Southern Hills are a crucial green space connected to many smaller green areas. That's why it's shown in a prominent dark green.
This is a close-up of central Sakai City. You can see the green space connection starting from the Southern Hills continues through various large and small green areas all the way to the urban district.
While creating large green spaces is difficult in residential and industrial areas, establishing many small green spaces allows wildlife to move through inhabited zones.
This is an enlarged view of Sakai City's port area.
The network continues in a thin thread, but you can see it ultimately connects to the green space along the coast.
Forming an ecological network that allows wildlife to move from the Satoyama to the sea is essential for creating a city rich in biodiversity.
