Journal of Environmental Management publishes our scoping review on the ‘Blue’ Habitat of Urban and Suburban Areas, analyzing aquatic ecosystems, biodiversity challenges, and innovative methodologies to foster interdisciplinary collaboration for sustainable conservation in urban planning.
Nature AI Lab
2024-12-15
We are glad to share our new paper:
Sun, Pingyao., Chen, Mingze*., Jingyi, Chen*. The “Blue” Habitat of Urban & Suburban Areas and approaches for its biodiversity research: A scoping review. Journal of Environmental Management 2025 | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2024.123567.[download]
🙌Excited to share our latest publication, co-authored with researchers at Nature AI: Pingyao Sun and Mingze Chen, titled “The ‘Blue’ Habitat of Urban & Suburban Areas and Approaches for its Biodiversity Research: A Scoping Review”!
💡 ABSTRACT:
This article explores recent research initially driven by interest in studying the “Blue” Habitat of Urban and Suburban Areas (BHUS), focusing on water-related ecosystems. BHUS, encompassing a wide range of aquatic habitats, is crucial to ecosystem health but is increasingly threatened by biodiversity loss resulting from climate change, land-use expansion, and unsustainable practices. Through a scoping review of 93 peer-reviewed studies, this article establishes a framework to classify BHUS types, identify target species, and analyze diverse and latest techniques in water system research. The main themes for studying biodiversity and environmental aspects of these blue habitats are highlighted, along with the urgent need to address BHUS in urban biodiversity conservation. Findings reveal that water systems are biologically rich but present unique research challenges due to their variability and dynamic, interconnected nature. While there is growing recognition of the need to consider human influence, many studies overlook the complex, adaptive nature of BHUS as an integrated system. The article gives insight into establishing a comprehensive framework and integrating diverse methodologies and technologies for specialized research of the BHUS biodiversity, emphasizing the role of advancing technologies and interdisciplinary collaboration between urbanism and ecology. These approaches are essential to support sustainable development that addresses conservation needs and mitigates urbanization’s impacts on BHUS. Further research should explore how spatial planning and strategies can more effectively integrate blue habitats to strengthen biodiversity conservation within the global urbanization context.
💡 Background and Significance:
This study delves into the Blue Habitat of Urban and Suburban Areas (BHUS), focusing on water-related ecosystems. Through a scoping review of 93 peer-reviewed studies, we developed a framework centered on three key goals: (1) classifying the diverse habitat types within the BHUS; (2) identifying target species strongly associated with BHUS biodiversity and relevant research; (3) summarizing and analyzing techniques used to study BHUS biodiversity.
🔍 Findings and Objectives :
The study highlights major themes for understanding biodiversity and environmental aspects of blue habitats and identifies potential research directions, along with the urgent need to address BHUS in urban biodiversity conservation. It provides valuable insights into establishing a comprehensive framework and integrating diverse methodologies and technologies for specialized research of the BHUS biodiversity, emphasizing the role of advancing technologies and interdisciplinary collaboration between urbanism and ecology.
