Habitat Connectivity

Platinum

Index values ranging from 0 (degraded) to 1 (intact)

30m

Annual

Plot

2019 - 2024

N/A

SBTN, TNFD, CSRD (ESRS E4), Nature Positive Initiative (NPI)

This indicator assesses the degree to which a landscape allows for the movement of wildlife and the flow of natural processes. It measures the interconnectedness of habitats, which is vital for maintaining biodiversity, supporting resilient ecosystems, and enabling species to adapt to climate change. Understanding landscape connectivity helps in identifying critical wildlife corridors and planning land use to minimize fragmentation and its negative impacts on nature.

Connectivity is calculated based on spatial and environmental distances using landcover map and the resistant kernel methodology suggested by Zeller et al. (2024). We calculate this on the inverse of our habitat intactness indicator assessment, i.e. treating absence of human impacts as intact habitats, based on which we calculate the connectivity metric. 

We are building on established dataset that have been peer reviewed, and quality controlled for their generalization capability. These include Global Forest Cover Change (Hanson et al, 2018), Mining (Maus et al., 2020), Global Cropland Extent (Popatov, 2022) and others. Each contains an assessment of performance and constitutes the current state-of-the art. Connectivity itself follows a published modelling framework and is quality controlled for consistency, but, due to its nature, cannot be validated with ground data per se.