Urban biodiversity, the only one citizens can experience daily, can be represented by managed spaces (parks, gardens) or not (wasteland, roadsides). We focus particularly on neglected areas: urban wasteland.
Urban landscape strongly disturbs urban flora (habitat fragmentation, urban heat island), as well as human actions (plantations of exotic plants, trampling, pesticides). Wastelands can act as reservoirs of biodiversity, but because of their lack of management, they are potentially unstable places likely to facilitate the spread of exotic species.
179 wastelands were sampled in the cities of Tours and Blois (Centre region of France). Floristic inventories (10 quadrats of 2m ² per site) have been carried out in the spring-summer 2013. They allow us to (1) characterize the typical flora of urban wasteland, and (2) understand the urban mechanisms acting on plant communities.
Our first results show that urban landscape characteristics (eg human population density in the area, % of built-up areas around sites) influence floristic diversity. In parallel, investigations concerning green space managers will be performed in order to collect information on the development of wasteland sites and their potential role in urban planning projects.
The aim of this research project is to link plant ecology and urban planning in order to characterize the potential role of urban wasteland in urban greenways.
Keywords: urban wasteland; plant diversity; urban landscape; urban planning
