A methodological framework for assessing pollinator suitability in urban areas

Interest in the suitability of urban areas for pollinators is steadily increasing, as pollinator decline and biodiversity lossare closely linked to human activities, particularly urbanization and land-use change. Although recent studies have begunexploring urban pollinator habitats, these areas are often considered inhospitable when assessed with coarse-scale assess-ment tools, which risk overlooking mosaics of green patches that provide essential foraging and nesting resources. Theconfiguration and density of these green spaces vary widely, strongly influencing their potential to support pollinators.However, standardized methods for evaluating pollinator-friendly urban areas remain limited. This study presents a meth-odological tool for urban planning, the Green Patch Suitability Assessment, which enables comparative evaluation ofurban patches at fine spatial resolution. The framework combines (i) a classification system of urban green areas (patches);(ii) a multidimensional index of patch-level pollinator suitability, and (iii) a high-resolution topographic database integrat-ing patch from multiple commonly used urban and landscape planning datasets. Applied in a municipality in NorthernItaly, the tool demonstrates the capacity to identify small green patches often overlooked in coarser datasets and to evalu-ate the potential effects of a newly approved municipal plan aimed at enhancing green areas and biodiversity. Scenarioanalysis confirmed that the framework is sufficiently sensitive to detect the effects of the nature-based solutions proposedin the city plan, thus providing a practical and operational tool for urban planning capable of assessing the contributionof small green patches that would otherwise remain unrecognized using coarser-resolution databases.