Blue-Green Corridors for Heat and Biodiversity Co-Benefits

Timon McPhearson

Blue-Green Corridors for Heat and Biodiversity Co-Benefits

Author(s)	Prof. Dr. Timon McPhearson
Country	United States
Abstract	Urban heat exposure and biodiversity decline are frequently addressed through separate planning programs even though both problems arise partly from the fragmentation, sealing, and ecological simplification of urban landscapes. Blue-green corridors offer an opportunity to integrate vegetated spaces, water bodies, drainage systems, riparian habitats, street-tree networks, wetlands, parks, and other nature-based elements into spatially connected infrastructure capable of generating multiple ecosystem services. This study develops a simulation-based framework for evaluating the combined thermal and biodiversity performance of alternative blue-green corridor configurations. Five criteria are incorporated into a Heat–Biodiversity Co-Benefit Index: thermal regulation, ecological connectivity, habitat quality, hydrological functionality, and long-term implementation resilience. Five hypothetical configurations are compared, including fragmented pocket greens, a tree-lined greenway, a canal-side blue corridor, an integrated blue-green corridor, and a biodiversity-priority blue-green corridor. The simulated index increases from 58 for fragmented pocket greens to 91 for the biodiversity-priority configuration. Integrated corridors achieve stronger co-benefits because continuous canopy, heterogeneous vegetation, accessible water, habitat stepping stones, and hydrological connections simultaneously improve shading, evapotranspiration, habitat permeability, and ecological functioning. The results also demonstrate that maximizing cooling alone does not necessarily maximize biodiversity because intensive landscaping, simplified vegetation, isolated water features, and inappropriate management may weaken habitat value. Similarly, corridors designed exclusively around conservation objectives may provide uneven thermal benefits when vegetation is spatially disconnected from heat-exposed neighborhoods. The study concludes that blue-green corridor planning should prioritize multifunctional connectivity, climate-sensitive vegetation structure, habitat diversity, water-sensitive design, and long-term ecological management rather than maximizing a single performance indicator. The proposed framework provides a transparent basis for evaluating urban corridor alternatives before location-specific field measurement, ecological surveys, or microclimate modeling.
Keywords	blue-green infrastructure, ecological corridors, urban heat island, urban biodiversity, green infrastructure, climate adaptation, habitat connectivity, nature-based solutions.
Field	Engineering
Published In	Volume 6, Issue 6, November-December 2025
Published On	2025-11-20

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American Journal of Advanced Multidisciplinary Innovation and Research

A Widely Indexed Open Access Peer Reviewed Multidisciplinary Bi-monthly Scholarly International Journal

Blue-Green Corridors for Heat and Biodiversity Co-Benefits

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