The seven elements of SFEI's Urban Biodiversity Framework (Making Nature's City):
Patch Size — the area of a discrete greenspace in an urban landscape.
Connections — features that facilitate movement of plants and animals between patches.
Matrix Quality — the quality of the area around and between urban patches and corridors.
Habitat Diversity — the type, number, and spatial arrangement of habitats within the urban area.
Native Vegetation — plant species with a long evolutionary history in that particular location.
Special Resources — ecosystem components that provide disproportionate benefits to wildlife (e.g., prominent old trees, wetlands).
Management — interventions or practices by land/facility managers that shape the landscape over time.
The framework's premise is that no single element supports all species — integrating all seven together maximizes the number of species a city can support.
