Pollinators Habitat Capability Analysis of the University of British Columbia (UBC) Vancouver Campus

Pollination is an essential ecosystem service for crop production, where species such as insects and birds help to transfer pollen for plants to reproduce. Many of the pollinators are fully dependent on the plants and trees as their food sources and habitat. From a perspective of an urban planner, we must be able to recognize the values brought by pollinators to our ecosystems. Thus, we are attempting to discover the relationship between species and their habitats as much as possible. Nevertheless, assessing and quantifying habitat for species is a particular difficult task when we are dealing with a complex structured urban landscape. This study has two main objectives: the first one is to delineate and assess the biodiversity hotspots as pollinators habitat to determine which to prioritize for planting design management, and the second one is to determine the difference in tree crown delineation using Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) point cloud and Orthophoto interpretation. As a result, we found that each delineation method has different limitations and advantages. With the implementation of habitat overlay analysis, the mean patch size of biodiversity hotspots is around 2100 m^2, indicating that most green spaces in urban landscapes tend to be more fragmented rather than shrinking in size.传粉是作物生产不可或缺的生态系统服务，昆虫、鸟类等物种通过帮助植物传递花粉以促进其繁殖。许多传粉者完全依赖植物和树木作为食物来源与栖息地。从城市规划者的视角出发，我们必须认识到传粉者为生态系统带来的价值，因此致力于尽可能深入探索物种与其栖息地之间的关系。然而，在面对结构复杂的城市景观时，评估和量化物种栖息地是一项极具挑战性的任务。本研究有两个核心目标：其一，划定并评估作为传粉者栖息地的生物多样性热点区域，以确定哪些区域应优先纳入种植设计管理；其二，对比分析利用光探测与测距（LiDAR）点云数据和正射影像解译进行树冠划定的差异。研究结果表明，每种划定方法均有其独特的局限与优势。通过栖息地叠加分析发现，生物多样性热点区域的平均斑块面积约为2100平方米，这表明城市景观中的大多数绿地并非面积缩减，而是呈现出更明显的碎片化特征。