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COHABITAT-Chapter-3.pdf
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- Authors
Boura, Marlène 
- Abstract
- The consequences of urbanization and human activities, including biodiversity loss and climate change, have brought the urgent need to address human-wildlife coexistence in urban areas. To shed light on this complex issue, we present a novel data-integrated analytical framework to assess co-habitation and animal inclusivity using crowdsourced data. Adopting a post-humanist perspective, we recognize non-human species as active stakeholders in urban development, enabling a better understanding of factors that promote or hinder animal inclusiveness. Our approach incorporates spatial, temporal, and species-specific characteristics, allowing for a comprehensive evaluation of multiple species simultaneously in a given urban region. This scalable method incorporates a functional habitat assessment based on the resource-based habitat concept and a landscape analysis. To illustrate the framework's efficacy, we focused on three species in Woluwe, Belgium: Common blackbirds, Peregrine falcons, and Humans. Our findings show that the urban area supports the coexistence of these species, with the city playing a crucial role in the Peregrine falcon population's recovery after facing near-extinction a few decades ago. However, challenges arise for Common blackbirds due to high population density, leading to epidemics and competition for food. Nonetheless, they benefit from human stewardship. Our framework offers insights into species' interactions with man-made and natural infrastructures as well as with each other. It enables an investigation of resource availability during a specific life cycle stage, here the breeding season of Common blackbirds. Furthermore, it facilitates a comprehensive assessment of co-habitation and inclusiveness of the landscape for the species.
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