Habitat types for built environment and assessing their ecological status

The draft published on March 27, 2025 describes habitat types in the Finnish built environment and provides guidelines for assessing their ecological status. The classification is intended for everyone working with built environment, and the indicators for assessing ecological status are specifically aimed at those conducting nature surveys.

Finland’s habitat types are well established, and the BOOST project has defined indicators for their ecological status. However, these have not included habitat types for the built environment that have been created either as a result of human activity or indirect impacts. Now these were defined in collaboration between the ARVO and BOOST projects.

A broad group of experts participated in five workshops between November 2024 and January 2025. A total of 32 urban nature experts, including biologists, consultants, and researchers from both the public and private sectors, participated in the workshops. The types and status indicators defined by the experts have been compiled by the ARVO and BOOST projects, and a draft based on the workshops was submitted to the experts for comments in March 2025. You can read more about the background, authors, and objectives of the work in the introduction to the publication.

The publication is available in Finnish via the link below (PDF):

Kassi, T., Jalkanen, J., Pursiainen, A., Mahlio, O., Hannula, A., Huttunen, J., Nieminen, E., Halme, P., Tuomisaari, E., Lähde, E. (2025). Habitat types in the built environment and assessment of their ecological status. Draft 27 March 2025. ARVO and BOOST projects.

News 28.3.2025