Habitat distinctiveness

The SGBA operationalises habitat distinctiveness on several levels. Four criteria comprising qualitative and quantitative characteristics to define the distinctiveness of a particular habitat: species richness denominated by the number of species, habitat rarity by either proportion of area coverage or occurrence, species uniqueness by number of species and irreplaceability by habitat subtype. Assessment criteria were formulated based on secondary datasets (queries: chloe@camphora.com.sg) used to design habitat distinctiveness assessment rubrics, lending it further credibility as a more objective means of evaluation 1 (AECOM & Camphora, 2024). 

Each habitat has been pre-assessed based on the four aforestated criteria above, with each criterion comprising a four-level scale ranging from ‘high’ to ‘zero’, (corresponding to ‘3’ to ‘0’ points, respectively), representing a gradation of assessment levels (see table below). 

Table. SGBA Distinctiveness Criteria Scoring.

To access the above, click on the relevant SGBA sheet(s) as shown below (see Resources to access the SGBA metric):

The resulting scores from the preceding criterion-based scoring are subsequently binned into six ordinal (ranked) categories forming a final habitat distinctiveness composite score ranging from ‘Extremely low’ to ‘Very high’, corresponding to ‘0.5’ and ‘8’, respectively (see table below). 

As habitat distinctiveness has been pre-determined by prior assessment, a distinctiveness score is automatically assigned in the SGBA once selected (see table below). When on-site, by identifying the habitat type, the aforementioned final habitat distinctiveness composite score per habitat type automatically appears in the SGBA. The following shows how habitat distinctiveness may be recorded in the SGBA once baseline habitat area has been determined (see table below):

Table: SGBA sample record of habitat type, baseline area and distinctiveness. 

To access the above, click on the relevant SGBA sheet(s) as shown below (see Resources to access the SGBA metric):