Research Proposal

Urban Wildlife’s losing battle against overwhelming heat

Abstract

In the last 15 years, more than 150,000 Flying Foxes (Pteropus sp.) have died due to extreme heat events with over 100,000 dying during a heatwave in Queensland in 2014 (Merone,2020). This is largely due to climate change and habitat loss (Welbergen, 2008). Flying Foxes are referred to as the canary in the coal mine to the effects of climate change and are a precursor of the same fate befalling other wildlife species and even humans. Current conservation approaches in cities tend to take a defensive approach through focusing on remnant vegetation. However, these approaches are vulnerable to further urban development (Apfelback, 2019).

This study aims to identify and patch up the weaknesses of current urban landscape design policies through identifying the survival needs of flying foxes, the current solutions that are viable and cater to the needs of flying foxes and whether these are implemented in current urban park design policies. Giving the driving research question: To what degree can urban landscape design strategies in urban parks minimise flying fox mortality rate during extreme heat events in Brisbane, Queensland?

Methodology:

The study will begin with secondary descriptive research with a literature review and specialist interviews to identify the needs of flying foxes and current and possible solutions to ensure the survival of flying foxes to climate change.

Following this is an evaluative review of current urban park design policies in Brisbane, Queensland to identify whether current policies are effective in helping flying foxes or if they can be amended to better suit flying foxes.

With the data from the secondary descriptive and evaluative research, new or amended policies will then be tested in a projective research phase where the experimental designs will be presented to relevant stakeholders for their input on the viability and efficacy of the revised policies.

Aims and Objectives

With the ever-changing climate of the Earth due to global warming, Australia is experiencing increased temperatures, more extreme weather events, etc. These negatively affects humans but even more so to wildlife due to their inability to adapt as well. This highlights the need to start revising urban landscape design strategies and policies from defensive strategies to offensive ones. Currently, Brisbane, Queensland is one of the cities in Australia that is heavily plagued by extreme heat events and the flying foxes have been the largest victims in the recent years. The aim of this research is to identify the weaknesses in the current urban landscape design strategies in Brisbane and propose revisions to inform a framework of design principles that can be used to design park spaces that help to lower morbidity and mortality rate of wildlife due to global warming and during extreme heat events.

The specific research objectives include:

1) Reviewing and evaluating the extent of how much urban landscape design strategies in Queensland help the survival of Flying Foxes from increased temperatures and during EHEs

2) Gather information to inform a framework of design strategies that can be used to design more habitable spaces for flying foxes during EHEs by identifying and fulfilling their needs

Through the evaluation of the urban landscape design policies in Queensland alongside input from experts in the field of flying fox conservation, this study aims to propose revised design strategies and park standards that highlights the needs of flying foxes and how these strategies are adaptive to landscape design. This study might also be used for different species of wildlife as well in the future.

Scopes

Due to the wide range of wildlife species that are affected by global warming and extreme heat events, this study focuses on one of the more noticeably affected species, the Flying Foxes (Pteropus sp.). This study also takes part in Brisbane, Queensland, where mass die-offs of Flying Foxes are recent and well documented.

Research Question

To what degree can urban landscape design strategies in urban parks minimise flying fox mortality rate during extreme heat events in Brisbane, Queensland?