Abstract

Householders can be informed and incentivized to improve native biodiversity in their urban properties through residential property certification schemes, but the certification process necessitates the development of a robust biodiversity evaluation tool. To create a tool to evaluate residential property biodiversity, we used a modified Delphi process and conjoint analysis to identify and rank features associated with biodiversity. We assessed its performance in 89 residential properties on New Zealand’s South Island. The assessed property sizes ranged from 260 m² to 7195 m². Biodiversity scores ranged from 10 to 52 out of a possible 100, indicating the difficulty in achieving a score higher than about 60. The relationship between property size and biodiversity score was positive but variable; however, all properties 500 m² and smaller had scores less than 30, indicating the need for a size-specific rating system for smaller properties.

Keywords: Biodiversity; Urban properties; Landscape