Figure 1

Conceptual framework: different perspectives on the landscape (a) and corresponding goals and approaches to connectivity modelling (b). The horizontal axis (black) illustrates how the landscape definition shifts from a multi-functional landscape in the context of land-use planning to an organism perspective in the context of species conservation. The vertical axis (grey) illustrates how the focus shifts from natural processes in basic ecology to human values and actions in a policy context. These values are reflected in policy that aims to preserve ecosystem services, biodiversity in general, or designated species of concern. Species-agnostic modelling of landscape connectivity may be most suitable in a land-use planning context, whereas focal species approaches may be most suitable in a conservation management context. When biodiversity data are available for many taxa, multi-species overlay can also be an efficient option to model connectivity for land-use planning and conservation programs for a representative suite of species. Validation of structural connectivity or potential functional connectivity based models could also be done with appropriate biological data, to assess actual functional connectivity.