Comparison of Graph Theory and Movements Simulation Approaches in Building Ecological Networks. The Case Study of the Metropolitan Area of Reggio Calabria (Italy)

Ecological network (EN) has proven to be a valuable tool to counter habitat loss and human-induced land fragmentation in a sustainable landscape planning environment. Many scholars have proposed different approaches in the last decades, highlighting their strengths and weaknesses. In this article, we present the first results of a broader research still in progress, comparing the ENs obtained for the same area using two different approaches, underlining how the approach taken may influence the output obtained. On the one and, a graph theory-based approach has been adopted to build a multispecies EN for the metropolitan area of Reggio Calabria (southern Italy). On the other hand, a movements simulation-based approach was performed to obtain a new EN for the same area. The comparison of the obtained ENs showed substantial differences in shape, spatial distribution, and connectivity indices values. Preliminary results show that both graph theory and simulation-based motion models give a similar version in terms of the location and weight of network elements. However, while the former approach proved useful in spatially identifying patches, the latter was more accurate when identifying corridors. The obtained results allowed us to highlight the differences between the outputs of two of the most widely used approaches in constructing an EN, providing valuable information for environmental planning processes.