sustainability Article Urbanisation of Protected Areas within the European Union—An Analysis of UNESCO Biospheres and the Need for New Strategies Maryann Harris 1,2,* , Claire Cave 3, Karen Foley 4,5, Thomas Bolger 1,4 and Tamara Hochstrasser 1,4 1 School of Biology and Environmental Science, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland;
[email protected] (T.B.);
[email protected] (T.H.) 2 Parks and Landscape Services, Dublin City Council, Civic Offices, Wood Quay, Dublin 8, Ireland 3 School of Archaeology, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland;
[email protected] 4 Earth Institute, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland;
[email protected] 5 School of Architecture, Planning and Environmental Policy, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland * Correspondence:
[email protected]; Tel.: +353-87-6561676 Received: 2 August 2019; Accepted: 16 October 2019; Published: 24 October 2019 Abstract: The UNESCO Biosphere Reserves (BRs) comprise core conservation areas supported by a buffer and transition zone of sustainable development. This zoning can help manage urbanisation around conservation areas. Although it is UNESCO policy to measure the number of BRs that have interactions with urban areas, there has been no systematic assessment of urban biospheres since 2008. This research addresses this deficit by measuring the extent of urbanisation of all designated BRs within the European Union (EU). Using the Copernicus Urban Atlas, the proximity of BRs to Functional Urban Areas (FUA) was determined. The results show that 46% (76/167) of BRs are situated within FUAs, including 11% (18/167) entirely within an FUA.