Planning and design considerations for birds and butterflies diversity of small urban parks: A case of Petaling Jaya, Malaysia

While most previous research has been conducted in large urban parks, the potential of small parks as urban habitats remains largely unexplored, particularly in tropical regions. The purpose of this paper is to provide landscape architects, planners, park managers and municipalities with recommendations for planning, design and management with the aim to enhance small urban parks’ biodiversity. Physical characteristics, vegetation and human factors are the important features that were highlighted using empirical data from nine small urban parks in Petaling Jaya, Malaysia sized between 0.5-3.5 hectares. Birds and butterflies are used as ecological indicators because they are relatively easy to identify and show clear responses to environmental change. Pearson’s correlations and multiple regressions, followed by an analysis of the Akaike’s Information Criterion were conducted to study the relationships between the measured variables, and to identify which of the variables have a significant effect on bird and butterfly species richness and abundance. The results demonstrate that the percentage of canopy cover, park size and native vegetation are the best predictors of bird species richness and abundance. Meanwhile, the butterfly species richness and abundance can be best predicted by the percentage of canopy cover, shrub species and native vegetation. Based on these results and the identification of key features for bird and butterfly richness and abundance, nine recommendations are provided to improve biodiversity of small urban parks: (1) set minimum areas for a small urban park; 2) inclusion of water elements to support a wider range of species; (3) the application of internal patch-corridor-matrix features; (4) attention to the aspect of cleanliness and appearance of small parks; (5) the proportion of open and shaded areas; (6) the planting composition of trees, palms and shrubs should be designed not only with aesthetic functions, but also for biodiversity; (7) the vertical and horizontal layers of vegetation structures; (8) providing natural buffers for wildlife protection; and (9) creating unmanaged patches in sunny areas by using wildflowers