Assaf Shwartz

Technion – Israel Institute of Technology | technion · Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning

The urban lifestyle has a profound effect on mental health, contributing significantly to the challenges faced by people who reside in urban areas. Growing empirical evidence underscores the potential of nature to alleviate these mental health burdens. However, we still lack understanding of which specific natural elements provide these benefits. U...

Human behavior is a key driver of the biodiversity crisis, and addressing it requires changing individual choices and actions. Yet, the same processes that imperil biodiversity (e.g., urbanization) also alienate people from the experience of nature, eroding care for the natural world. Although averting this extinction of experience is increasingly...

Covid-19 lockdowns provided ecologists with a rare opportunity to examine how animals behave when humans are absent. Indeed many studies reported various effects of lockdowns on animal activity, especially in urban areas and other human-dominated habitats. We explored how Covid-19 lockdowns in Israel have influenced bird activity in an urban enviro...

Most unprotected biodiversity is found outside state-owned protected areas, so developing effective conservation initiatives on privately and communally-owned land is critical. Conservationists have a long history of working with these landowners and their actions can be divided into two broad categories. The first is where they agree to take over...

Covid-19 lockdowns provided ecologists with a rare opportunity to examine how animals behave when humans are absent. Indeed many, sometimes contradicting , studies reported various effects of lockdowns on animal activity, especially in urban areas and other human-dominated habitats. We explored how Covid-19 lockdowns in Israel have influenced bird...

This perspective paper explores the concept of multispecies design in architecture, focusing on the building scale. Historically, architects prioritized human needs, neglecting nature's integration in urban settings, leading to environmental and social challenges. To address these issues, a new multispecies approach, that promotes the integration o...

Covid-19 lockdowns provided ecologists with a rare opportunity to examine how animals behave when humans are absent. Indeed many, sometimes contradicting, studies reported various effects of lockdowns on animal activity, especially in urban areas and other human-dominated habitats. We explored how Covid-19 lockdowns in Israel have influenced bird a...

Covid-19 lockdowns provided ecologists with a rare opportunity to examine how animals behave when humans are absent. Indeed many, sometimes contradicting, studies reported various effects of lockdowns on animal activity, especially in urban areas and other human-dominated habitats. We explored how Covid-19 lockdowns in Israel have influenced bird a...

Wildlife mortality due to collisions with vehicles (roadkill) is one of the predominant negative effects exerted by roads on many wildlife species. Reducing roadkill is therefore a major component of wildlife conservation. Roadkill is affected by various factors, including road attributes and traffic volume. It is theorized that the effect of traff...

Cities can host significant biological diversity. Yet, urbanisation leads to the loss of habitats, species, and functional groups. Understanding how multiple taxa respond to urbanisation globally is essential to promote and conserve biodiversity in cities. Using a dataset encompassing six terrestrial faunal taxa (amphibians, bats, bees, birds, cara...

Nature provides a myriad of intangible and non-material services to people. However, urbanites are increasingly disconnected from the natural world. The consequences of this progressive disconnection from nature remain difficult to measure as this process is slow and long-term monitoring or large-scale manipulation on nature experiences are scarce....

Enhancing urban biodiversity is increasingly advanced as a nature-based solution that can help align public health and biodiversity conservation agendas. Yet, research on the relationship between biodiversity and psychological well-being provides inconsistent results. The goal of this interdisciplinary research was to understand how components of p...

Covid-19 lockdowns provided ecologists with a rare opportunity to examine how animals behave when humans are absent. Indeed many, sometimes contradicting, studies reported various effects of lockdowns on animal activity, especially in urban areas and other human-dominated habitats. We explored how Covid-19 lockdowns in Israel have influenced bird a...

Increasing urbanization leads to greater loss of interaction with nature over time in a process described as the extinction of experience. Urban green spaces are some of the most prominent sites where individuals can access and interact with nature in urban areas. There is currently a gap in research around how different types of urban green spaces...

Research is revealing an increasing number of positive effects of nature for humans. At the same time, biodiversity in cities, where most humans live, is often low or in decline. Tangible solutions are needed to increase urban biodiversity. Architecture is a key discipline that has considerable influence on the built‐up area of cities, thereby infl...

Understanding volunteers’ motivations to participate in Citizen Science (CS) projects is essential for these projects’ effective management and success. Many studies have investigated citizen scientists’ motivations, but only a few have used a theory-based approach to provide a standardized methodology to measure CS motivations. The current researc...

Nature provides a myriad of intangible and non-material services to people. However, urbanites are increasingly disconnected from the natural world. The consequences of this progressive disconnection from nature remain difficult to measure as this process is slow and long-term monitoring or large-scale manipulation on nature experiences are scarce....

Providing for growing food demand while minimizing environmental degradation is a major contemporary environmental challenge. Agri-environmental schemes (AESs) are often promoted to meet this challenge by providing subsidies to farmers who adopt agri-environmental practices (AEPs). The success of these schemes depends on the ability to engage farme...

The framework of land sparing versus land sharing provides a useful analytical tool to address the crop‐production/biodiversity trade‐off. Despite multiple case studies testing the sparing–sharing trade‐off, this framework still lacks the ability to identify the conditions in which sparing, or sharing, would be the preferred strategy for pareto‐opt...

This chapter presents the results of our transdisciplinary work since 2001 on 100 wastelands in the greater Paris area, using ecological, geographical, and artistic approaches. This research subject, which we addressed with a diversity of methodologies and sensibilities, had hitherto been little studied: wastelands were unmapped and often disregard...

Urbanization and urban lifestyles increasingly disconnect people from nature in a process that was termed the ‘extinction of experience’. This loss of human–nature interactions can undermine both cognitive (ecological knowledge) and affective (emotional connection to nature) relations to nature, further impacting capabilities to experience, care fo...

Technology is transforming societies worldwide. A major innovation is the emergence of robotics and autonomous systems (RAS), which have the potential to revolutionize cities for both people and nature. Nonetheless, the opportunities and challenges associated with RAS for urban ecosystems have yet to be considered systematically. Here, we report th...

Wildlife crossing structures (WCS) are widely used to allow for safe animal movement across roads, promoting both human safety and wildlife conservation. These structures are expensive to build and maintain, and therefore cost-effective design is essential. Although there has been much research to date on the factors affecting the usage of WCS by w...

Protected areas (PAs) are key conservation areas designed to limit the impacts of human activities on biodiversity. PAs also provide great opportunities for individuals to experience nature complexity, through recreational activities, and can contribute to restore the non-material and intangible services nature provides to people (i.e., cultural ec...

Technology is transforming societies worldwide. A major innovation is the emergence of robotics and autonomous systems (RAS), which have the potential to revolutionize cities for both people and nature. Nonetheless, the opportunities and challenges associated with RAS for urban ecosystems have yet to be considered systematically. Here, we report th...

The increasing alienation of people from nature is profoundly concerning because people's interactions with nature affect well‐being, affinity for nature, and support of biodiversity conservation. Efforts to restore or enhance people's interactions with nature are, therefore, important to ensure sustainable human and wildlife communities, but littl...

Urbanization and urban lifestyle are progressively diminishing individuals' opportunity (e.g., nature exposure) to experience and orientation (affinity) towards nature, ultimately reducing people's experiences of nature. This process has been described as the 'extinction of experience' (EoE), and it was suggested that it can alter the way people be...

Intensifying agricultural production in sustainable ways is pivotal to increasing food production while reducing environmental impacts. Ecological intensification is based on managing organisms that provide services underlying crop production to simultaneously intensify agricultural production and increase biodiversity. However, few studies address...

Solutions for conserving biodiversity lie in changing people's behavior. Ambitious international and national conservation policies frequently fail to effectively mitigate biodiversity loss because they rarely apply behavior‐change theories. We conducted a gap analysis of conservation behavior‐change interventions advocated in national conservation...

Species are declining worldwide, but while some are becoming threatened, few others thrive under novel environmental conditions. Land use changes and biological invasion are the main drivers of this ‘biotic homogenization’ (BH) that increasingly occurs in human-dominated landscapes. Among birds, several groups of species have been identified as ‘wi...

Careful consideration of the cost-effectiveness of wildlife-friendly practices is key to promote fit-for-purpose agro-ecological policies, but quantitative evaluations of economic costs and ecological benefits compared to other land management alternatives are scarce. We compared the cost-effectiveness of uncultivated field-margins, a widespread wi...

The numbers and impacts of non-native species (NNS) continue to grow. Multiple ranking protocols have been developed to identify and manage the most damaging species. However, existing protocols differ considerably in the type of impact they consider, the way evidence of impacts is included and scored, and in the way the precautionary principle is...

Careful consideration of the cost-effectiveness of wildlife-friendly practices is key to promote fit-for-purpose agro-ecological policies, but quantitative evaluations of economic costs and ecological benefits compared to other land management alternatives are scarce. We compared the cost-effectiveness of uncultivated field-margins, a widespread wi...

Urbanization deletes and degrades natural ecosystems, threatens biodiversity, and alienates people from the experience of nature. Nature-based solutions (NbS) that are inspired and supported by nature have the potential to deliver multifunctional environmental and social benefits to address these challenges in urban areas under context-specific con...

1. Intensifying agricultural production in sustainable ways is pivotal to increasing food production while reducing environmental impacts. Ecological intensification is based on managing organisms that provide services underlying crop production to intensify both agricultural production and biodiversity. However, few studies address the interaction...

Globally, the number of invasive alien species (IAS) continues to increase and management and policy responses typically need to be adopted before conclusive empirical evidence on their environmental and socioeconomic impacts are available. Consequently, numerous protocols exist for assessing IAS impacts and differ considerably in which evidence th...

Urbanization threatens biodiversity and people’s opportunities to interact with nature. This progressive dis-connection from the natural world is profoundly concerning as it affects human health, wellbeing, attitudes and behaviors towards nature. Increasing the quantity of experiences of nature (EoN) can enhance health and wellbeing benefits, but i...

The perceptions of the general public regarding invasive alien species (IAS) are important in the prevention of future invasions and the success of management programmes. Here we use a novel visual method to investigate the perception of a charismatic IAS, the rose-ringed parakeet, across different stakeholders in Seville, Spain. Respondents were a...

The perceptions of the general public regarding invasive alien species (IAS) are important in the prevention of future invasions and the success of management programmes. Here we use a novel visual method to investigate the perception of a charismatic IAS, the rose-ringed parakeet, across different stakeholders in Seville, Spain. Respondents were a...

A peer-reviewed open-access journal NeoBiota Rachel L. White et al. / NeoBiota 48: 45-69 (2019) 46 Abstract Globally, the number of invasive alien species (IAS) continues to increase and management and policy responses typically need to be adopted before conclusive empirical evidence on their environmental and socioeconomic impacts are available. C...

Opportunities for people to interact with nature have declined over the past century, as many now live in urban areas and spend much of their time indoors. Conservation attitudes and behaviors largely depend on experiences with nature, and this "extinction of experience" (EOE) is a threat to biodiversity conservation. In this paper, we propose that...

Risk assessment tools for listing invasive alien species need to incorporate all available evidence and expertise. Beyond the wealth of protocols developed to date, we argue that the current way of performing risk analysis has several shortcomings. In particular, lack of data on ecological impacts, transparency and repeatability of assessments as w...

Protected areas (PAs) are vital for conserving biodiversity, but many PA networks consist of fragmented habitat patches that poorly represent species and ecosystems. One possible solution is to create conservation landscapes that surround and link these PAs. This often involves working with a range of landowners and agencies to develop large-scale...

Climate similarity favors biological invasion, but a match between seasonality in the novel range and the timing of life cycle events of the invader also influences the outcome of species introduction. Yet, phenology effects on invasion success have generally been neglected. Here we study whether a phenological mismatch limits the non-native range...

Background: Monk parakeets, Myiopsitta monachus Boddaert are native to South America, but have established populations in North America, Europe, Africa and Asia. They are claimed to act as agricultural pests in their native range, and their communal stick nests may damage human infrastructure. Although several monk parakeet populations are present...

The extent of farmland at risk in buffer areas 1 km and 2 km from the nests is shown by red and orange shading, respectively.

The success of conservation efforts largely depends on broad-based public support. However, the growing separation between people and elements of nature, due to global processes such as urbanization, may decrease individual connection with nature and public support for conservation. Encouraging interactions between people and nature becomes, theref...

Aim Effective policy and management responses to the multiple threats posed by invasive alien species ( IAS ) rely on the ability to assess their impacts before conclusive empirical evidence is available. A plethora of different IAS risk and/or impact assessment protocols have been proposed, but it remains unclear whether, how and why the outcomes...

Global phenomena, including urbanization, agricultural intensification, and biotic homogenization, have led to extensive ecosystem degradation, species extinctions, and, consequently, a reduction in biodiversity. However, although it is now widely asserted in the research, policy, and practice arenas that interacting with nature is fundamental to h...

The European Union’s (EU) new legislation concerning Invasive Alien Species (IAS) is a ground-breaking and commendable attempt to set a common standard for combating IAS across political jurisdictions at a multinational scale. However, the regulation, underpinned by a list of IAS of Union concern, affords Member States a degree of operational flexi...

The Monk parakeet, Myiopsitta monachus, is a very common cage bird native to South America, which has been exported in big numbers all around the world becoming invasive in Europe, America and Asia. Crop losses of up to 45% and 28% have been registered in its native and invasive ranges respectively. In Europe, several self-sustained populations hav...

Le projet SESEEP est fondé sur une double démarche évaluative et prospective. Il s’agit, dans un premier temps, de spécifier et de quantifier, dans la mesure du possible, les services cibles rendus par grands écosystèmes en fonction de l’état de la biodiversité et des besoins humains associés au territoire étudié. La caractérisation et la mesure de...

In December 2013, the European Union (EU) enacted the reformed Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) for 2014–2020, allocating almost 40% of the EU's budget and influencing management of half of its terrestrial area. Many EU politicians are announcing the new CAP as “greener,” but the new environmental prescriptions are so diluted that they are unlikely...

Urban ecology is emerging as an integrative science that explores the interactions of people and biodiversity in cities. Interdisciplinary research requires the creation of new tools that allow the investigation of relations between people and biodiversity. It has been established that access to green spaces or nature benefits city dwellers, but th...

Litsted authors contributed to the EU Target 2 - Maintaining and enhancing ecosystems and their services. The complete list of contributors is provided in the paper.

As the pace of urbanization accelerates, the conservation of urban biodiversity emerges as a rising concern. Urban ecological research has revealed that some green areas in cities can harbor a rich diversity of species that can be enhanced by certain landscape- and local-scale structural planning variables. However, while most studies have been con...

Urban conservation education programs aim to increase knowledge and awareness towards biodiversity and to change attitudes and behaviour towards the environment. However, to date, few urban conservation education studies have evaluated to what extent these programs have managed to achieve their goals. In this study, we experimentally explored the i...

The questionnaire identifying social and pro-environmental profiles and garden-related information was presented to adult participants during the activity days. (DOCX)

The interview guidelines followed (set of themes and questions used to frame the interview). Face-to-face interviews were conducted, three and a half months after the activity days. (DOCX)

Methods for the general survey in the gardens that was done independently from the activity days and allows comparing participants to general visitors. (DOC)

Description of the social and pro-environmental profiles of the participants interviewed a few months after the activity days. (XLSX)

Reply to Kumschick and Nentwig (2010, 2011): Promoting a robust cost-benefit approach for conducting impact risk assess-ments of invasive species Recently, we reviewed the impact risk scoring of five invasive birds considered as the worst avian invaders in Europe by Kumschick and Nentwig (2010, K&N). We raised several concerns (Strubbe et al., 2011...

Invasive species can be a major threat to biodiversity and economy. Given the large number of introduced invasive species and the limited resources available, a rigorous assessment of the potential impact of these species is of vital importance for prioritizing management programs. Often, general scoring systems in which certain criteria are used t...