Comparative ecological network analysis: an application to Italy

Ecological networks (ENs), i.e. compounds of a set of patches interconnected through a set of corridors, are major strategies for counteracting landscape fragmentation in stressed urban, peri-urban and rural domains. They are adopted in many cases worldwide and their success or difficult rooting can be used as a living indicator of the inclination of human settlements to favour the development of green systems. We aim at constructing a network analysis method and testing it to the comparative study of two ENs to be developed in Sassari and Nuoro, Italy. We will study ENs with the same number of nodes, analyse the size of the patches, and scrutinize the main variables expressing the topological and weighted centrality. This approach allows us to locate the hotspots of the ENs, i.e. the places that need to be protected from external negative drivers. Results demonstrate that the method is useful, as it helps finding similarities and dissimilarities in different ecological systems and confirms that network analysis has very good potential when applied in a comparative modality.