Integrated modelling for Sustainability Appraisal of urban river corridors: going beyond compartmentalised thinking.

Sustainability Appraisal (SA) is a complex task that involves integration of social, environmental and economic considerations and often requires trade-offs between multiple stakeholders that may not easily be brought to consensus. Classical SA, often compartmentalised in the rigid boundary of disciplines, can facilitate discussion, but can only partially inform decision makers as many important aspects of sustainability remain abstract and not interlinked. A fully integrated model can overcome compartmentality in the assessment process and provides opportunity for a better integrative exploratory planning process. The objective of this paper is to explore the benefit of an integrated modelling approach to SA and how a structured integrated model can be used to provide a coherent, consistent and deliberative platform to assess policy or planning proposals. The paper discusses a participative and integrative modelling approach to urban river corridor development, incorporating the principal of sustainability. The paper uses a case study site in Sheffield, UK, with three alternative development scenarios, incorporating a number of possible riverside design features. An integrated SA model is used to develop better design by optimising different design elements and delivering a more sustainable (re)-development plan. We conclude that participatory integrated modelling has strong potential for supporting the SA processes. A high degree of integration provides the opportunity for more inclusive and informed decision-making regarding issues of urban development. It also provides the opportunity to reflect on their long-term dynamics, and to gain insights on the interrelationships underlying persistent sustainability problems. Thus the ability to address economic, social and environmental interdependencies within policies, plans, and legislations is enhanced.

Molecular and ecological evidence for small-scale isolation by distance in an endangered damselfly, Coenagrion mercuriale.

Coenagrion mercuriale (Charpentier) (Odonata: Zygoptera) is one of Europe's most threatened damselflies and is listed in the European Habitats directive. We combined an intensive mark-release-recapture (MRR) study with a microsatellite-based genetic analysis for C. mercuriale from the Itchen Valley, UK, as part of an effort to understand the dispersal characteristics of this protected species. MRR data indicate that adult damselflies are highly sedentary, with only a low frequency of interpatch movement that is predominantly to neighbouring sites. This restricted dispersal leads to significant genetic differentiation throughout most of the Itchen Valley, except between areas of continuous habitat, and isolation by distance (IBD), even though the core populations are separated by less than 10 km. An urban area separating some sites had a strong effect on the spatial genetic structure. Average pairwise relatedness between individual damselflies is positive at short distances, reflecting fine-scale genetic clustering and IBD both within- and between-habitat patches. Damselflies from a fragmented habitat have higher average kinship than those from a large continuous population, probably because of poorer dispersal and localized breeding in the former. Although indirect estimates of gene flow must be interpreted with caution, it is encouraging that our results indicate that the spatial pattern of genetic variation matches closely with that expected from direct observations of movement. These data are further discussed with respect to possible barriers to dispersal within the study site and the ecology and conservation of C. mercuriale. To our knowledge, this is the first report of fine-scale genetic structuring in any zygopteran species.