Least-cost path model integration: a multidisciplinary approach to tackling urban nature deficit – evidence from Otavalo, an Andean city in Ecuador

The necessity to develop greener, more efficient and context-adaptable methods to address global cities problems is more urgent than never as urbanisation rises and so do environmental, social and economic related problematics. This study proposed an innovative multidisciplinary Least-Cost Path method (LCP) application for modelling Green Infrastructure (GI) networks in urban areas. The model simultaneously considered different character variables including ground-level CO2 distribution. Performance of three LCP variants were compared, traditional (LCP), LCP plus a Principal Component Analysis (LCP+PCA) and LCP plus an Analytic Hierarchy Process (LCP+AHP). Final accuracy scores demonstrated that LCP+AHP model was the most effective for predicting GI routes in an urban context with 83.56% of precision. Findings suggested the proposed method application is a robust planning tool capable of effectively addressing modern challenges faced by cities worldwide. It can be incorporated at various scales into land use planning processes and other related initiatives.