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Respondents: (tbc)

Mapping of Ecosystem Benefits

Urban ecosystems are still an open frontier in ecosystem services research. Urban ES are often compromised in urban designs resulting in diminished air, water, and soil quality as well as intensified vulnerability to flooding and heatwaves, because there is still a gap in ES assessment methods for landscape architecture. Thus, a method for mapping ecosystems services and functions for design, complying with the demand for a more comprehensive qualitative background data for urban planning measures, was needed. Key ideas from landscape ecology that are relevant to green urban infrastructure for sustainable cities include: a multi-scale approach with an explicit recognition of ES relationships and an emphasis on physical and functional diversity. With an understanding of ecological processes, the ES dynamic and the importance of functionality is the point of integration. Connectivity is an emergent property of landscapes that results from the interaction of landscape structure and function, which is beneficial to people and environment by combining socio-economic, development with eco-environmental conservation. To ensure that the mapping method was applicable on a regional scale, and yet still included detail, the assessment of ES was combined with GI typologies. It aims to open up a new line of thinking for new ecosystem services mapping development in landscape architecture.