Human-built public ways on land, are meant to connect cities and places within them. There are different variations, and they can prioritize or exclusively connect people through a single mobility idea. Highways and streets prioritize cars. Tracks and railways exclusively accommodate trains or subway systems.
After the Second Industrial revolution, these connections became commonly car-centric. Paved strips in the land create barriers and separation, thus becoming an issue for wildlife and their habitat.
A way to minimize the side effects it has on wildlife and their habitats; people have been building wildlife crossing structures. In the most northern climates, the structures in the form of overpasses — above highways — or underpasses are the most common. These connections between wildlife habitats have created safer highways for humans and increased the amount of wildlife in the near habitats (Parks Canada, 2007).
E.O. Wilson wrote in The Diversity of Life about the importance of biodiversity, he then argued that the worst contributor to current species extinction is habitat destruction. (1992). A way to offset this problem is by reconnecting the wildlife habitats which will promote and increase biodiversity.
The biodiversity theory is backed up by experiments such as the island bird data and Wilson’s and MacArthur’s theory of the island biogeography, which usually is used to explain the number of different species — or patterns of species richness — on islands (1960).
As Triantis and Matthews explain, there are two main patterns. One is that species richness increases if a greater area is sampled. The other pattern is that species richness decreases the more isolated the island is — the farther away from a potential source of species, such as the closest mainland. (2020).
Striving for symbiosis and balance in order to coexist with nature, connecting greenspaces not only achieves exchange and communication within communities of species, but also actively creates public space throughout the cities implemented.
Human settlements like cities can be thought as human habitats, built by and for themselves. Inside the cities people need to connect and travel, thus creating different transport connections usually made from pavement and concrete alienating other forms of life. The preservation of these other life forms is very important for the survival of human being, thus creating pockets within the cities referred as greenspaces.
The health benefits of greenspaces are vast, but they are also required for social connectivity. (Holland, 2020).
The greenspace connections project not only would create access for virtually any point in the city to a greenspace and other public spaces, but also an efficient and secure way for pedestrians to travel more quickly, making spaces for communities to engage and socialize.
A greenspace connection system such as these ones, thought as a lives first connectivity system, will also facilitate successful connections for the communities of wildlife and other species, which biodiversity relies on.
Just like the wildlife counterparts in Banff National Park, other types of living beings would have a larger space to satisfy their needs. The biodiversity of the urban landscape and its surrounding could grow exponentially.