scholarly journals Ecosystem Services, Green Infrastructure and Spatial Planning

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (11) ◽  
pp. 4396 ◽  
Author(s):  
Corrado Zoppi
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Green Infrastructure ◽  
Pollution Abatement ◽  
Ecological Networks ◽  
Green Jobs ◽  
Natural Protected Areas ◽  
Long Run ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Private Spending ◽  
National Governments

Ecosystem services and green infrastructure do not appear to inform spatial policies and plans. National governments hardly identify their ecological networks or make an effort to integrate them into their spatial policies and plans. Under this perspective, an important scientific and technical issue is to focus on preserving corridors for enabling species mobility and on achieving connectivity between natural protected areas. In this respect, this Special Issue takes a step forward insofar as it aims at proposing a theoretical and methodological discussion on the definition and implementation of ecological networks that, besides guaranteeing wildlife movements, also provide a wide range of ecosystem services. The social and economic profile of this question is also relevant since in the long run, savings in public spending (e.g., due to the reduced need for grey infrastructures aiming at contrasting soil erosion or at managing flood risk), savings in private spending (e.g., on water treatment costs) and the potential creation of green jobs are foreseeable. Moreover, indirect and less easily quantifiable social and health benefits (e.g., due to improved natural pollution abatement) are likely to occur as well.

scholarly journals Performance of Multicriteria Evaluation and Heuristic Methods in the Delineation of Green Infrastructure in Areas with Fragmented Landscapes

2021 ◽  
Vol 1203 (2) ◽  
pp. 022059
Author(s):  
Rocío Losada ◽  
Marcos Boullón ◽  
Andrés M. García ◽  
David Miranda
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Simulated Annealing ◽  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Green Infrastructure ◽  
Landscape Scale ◽  
Fragmented Landscape ◽  
Heuristic Methods ◽  
Fragmented Landscapes ◽  
Multicriteria Evaluation ◽  
Wide Range

Abstract The EU Commission has established Green infrastructure as one of the tools to preserve biodiversity and grant the provision of ecosystem services that reduce impacts on natural values like those produced by climate change. Therefore, a European green infrastructure strategy has been created that commit member states to incorporate green infrastructure to their territorial planning. Yet, methodologies to delimit green infrastructure so as to facilitate its inclusion in territorial plans are still scarce. The available methods are mainly based in multicriteria evaluation and focus on zoning general green infrastructure areas taking into account the provision potential of just a few ecosystem services. Considering the provision of a wide range of ecosystem services to delimit green infrastructure elements is key to grant their multifunctionality and increase their efficiency mitigating climate change impacts in natural values and human population. However, the lack of data or the high cost to accurately map ecosystem services provision potential, leads most of the time to infer it from land cover data. This creates problems when using these maps to delimit green infrastructure in areas with fragmented landscapes; since identified green infrastructure areas may be irregular and scattered. There are heuristic methods like simulated annealing that have been used to identify ecosystem services hot spots which consider the regularity and size of the identified patches. These methods can be used to delimit green infrastructure in fragmented landscapes finding a balance between the regularity of the areas and their potential to provide multiple ecosystem services. In the current work, a comparison has been made between the performance of simulated annealing and current multicriteria evaluation methods to delimit green infrastructure multifunctional buffer zones in an area of north-western Spain with a very fragmented landscape. Results have shown that simulated annealing delimits more regular multifunctional buffer areas but with a less average potential for providing multiple ecosystem services. The conclusions of the paper indicate that simulated annealing is good produces more regular multifunctional areas but with a lower ESs provision potential. It was observed that in the case of ESs that were mapped considering factors at landscape scale, their provision potential did not vary too much between the multifunctional buffer areas delimited with each of the methods. This indicates that delineation methods may produce more regular GI elements if ESs provision potential is mapped considering the influence of biophysical factors at a wider landscape scale.

scholarly journals ASSESSMENT OF ECOSYSTEM SERVICES FOR PLANNING OF GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE AT THE REGIONAL LEVEL

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 315
Author(s):  
Maija Ušča ◽  
Ivo Vinogradovs ◽  
Agnese Reķe ◽  
Dāvis Valters Immurs ◽  
Anita Zariņa
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Distribution ◽  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Green Infrastructure ◽  
Hot Spots ◽  
Natural Capital ◽  
Regional Scale ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Supply Potential

Ecosystem services (ES) are defined as the benefits that human beings derive from ecosystem functions. Assessment and mapping of these benefits are crucial for sustainable environmental planning and future natural capital. Green infrastructure (GI) is natural or semi-natural territories that provide wide range of ES. Human affected ecosystems tend to fail to provide certain sets of ES due to the trade-offs among those services, which could be mitigated through implementation of GI. Mapping of ES, as well as assessing the interactions among various ES and analysing their supply potential’s cold/hot spots considerably enhances and substantiates the planning process of GI, particularly at the regional scale and for the territories with diverse landscape potential. The aim of this paper is to discuss the assessment of ES supply potential and analyse its spatial distribution to reveal cold/hot spots of ecosystem capacity to provide wide range services and functions for GI. The study presents GIS based assessment of ES in a case study of Zemgale Planning Region. ES supply potential was assessed for 27 Corine land use classes (CLC2018) together with 10 regulatory, 12 provisioning and 6 cultural ES. An expert-based ranking approach using a two-dimensional ES matrix and a geospatial analysis was applied to determine total ES supply potential, spatial patterns and relations among multiple ES. Additional statistical analysis (Getis-Ord Gi*) was performed on spatial distribution of regulatory ES to disclose statistically significant capacity of ecosystems to function as GI in given surroundings. Preliminary results show uneven distribution of ES, trade-offs between regulatory and provisioning ES and landscape dependent spatial clustering of these trade-offs supported by result of Getis-Ord Gi* analysis, thus laying a foundation for further planning of GI at the regional scale.

scholarly journals ‘Greening’ Green Infrastructure. Good Italian Practices for Enhancing Green Infrastructure through the Common Agricultural Policy

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 2301 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefano Magaudda ◽  
Romina D’Ascanio ◽  
Serena Muccitelli ◽  
Anna Laura Palazzo
Keyword(s):  
Agricultural Policy ◽  
Green Infrastructure ◽  
Common Agricultural Policy ◽  
Arable Land ◽  
National Level ◽  
Ecological Networks ◽  
Italian Regions ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Common ◽  
Programming Period

The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) was established by the European Community in the 1950s to provide financial support to farmers in member states, increase agricultural productivity by promoting technical progress, and ensure a fair standard of living for farmers. Over time; awareness about the externalities of intensive farming would prompt environmentally friendly practices. These include, in the current programming period 2014–2020, the so-called “greening”, which consists of: (i) crop diversification; (ii) the maintenance of permanent grassland surfaces; and (iii) the availability of 5% of arable land for ecological focus areas devoted to agricultural practices beneficial for the climate and the environment. These provisions, spurred by a decades-long debate that also stresses the importance of creating/restoring ecological connectivity on different scales to counter land fragmentation, are in tune with spatial planning initiatives throughout Europe. Here the point is how to combine these directions with either “ecological networks” (EN), designed as physical corridors to be preserved and enhanced for plants and animals’ mobility needs; or “green infrastructure” (GI), defined on the European level as a “strategically planned network of natural and semi-natural areas with other environmental features designed and managed to deliver a wide range of ecosystem services” (European Commission; 2013). While in several European countries environmental measures targeting farmers and ecological networks directed at specific areas have been merged in a place-based approach, Italy is lagging behind. In general, no guidelines have been provided on the national level to support regional paths, while regions and municipalities lack the resources to implement GI. Conversely, while greening policies in the framework of the CAP are properly funded, they lack directions to be efficiently allocated. Against the backdrop of such concerns, this paper frames and reflects upon ongoing practices in three pilot areas in different Italian regions, selected based on desk analysis, in-depth interviews, and direct knowledge. Here, despite or thanks to the legislative framework, experimental approaches have been adopted to harness performance issues in targeted areas through broad participation by public and private stakeholders and multilevel governance schemes, opening possible pathways in view of the forthcoming programming period.

scholarly journals Mapping green infrastructure based on ecosystem services and ecological networks: A Pan-European case study

2015 ◽  
Vol 54 ◽  
pp. 268-280 ◽  
Author(s):  
Camino Liquete ◽  
Stefan Kleeschulte ◽  
Gorm Dige ◽  
Joachim Maes ◽  
Bruna Grizzetti ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Green Infrastructure ◽  
Ecological Networks

scholarly journals Green Infrastructures and the Consideration of Their Soil-Related Ecosystem Services in Urban Areas—A Systematic Literature Review

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 3322
Author(s):  
Pia Minixhofer ◽  
Rosemarie Stangl
Keyword(s):  
Content Analysis ◽  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Literature Review ◽  
Systematic Literature Review ◽  
Green Infrastructure ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Soil Functions ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Sustainability Issue ◽  
Detailed Assessment

Although urban soils are strongly influenced by human activities, they provide a wide range of Ecosystem Services (ES) as long as they are not sealed off. This is a major sustainability issue as the loss of soil functions directly impacts ES and further on the possibility to adapt to the effects of the climate crisis. Green Infrastructure (GI) measures can be utilized to restore previously covered soil surfaces and compensate for lost soil functions. We conducted a systematic literature review to investigate the extent of peer-reviewed publications on GI measures in (peri-) urban areas covering soil-related ES. After identifying the relevant publications (n = 284), we generated an overview of the annual, spatial, and thematic distribution of the publications. Then, we employed an extended content analysis of the published focus topics to assess the representation of soil-related ES provided by GI. The content analysis revealed that the representation of soil-related ES in GI measures focused heavily on the contribution of soil to stormwater management. Detailed assessment of the interconnection of GI measures with key soil-related ES were missing. So far, the assessment of the loss of soil-related ES is not covered extensively in GI research publications.

scholarly journals Can green infrastructure help to conserve biodiversity?

2016 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 265-288 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Salomaa ◽  
Riikka Paloniemi ◽  
Janne S Kotiaho ◽  
Marianne Kettunen ◽  
Evangelia Apostolopoulou ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
European Commission ◽  
Green Infrastructure ◽  
Policy Instruments ◽  
Conservation Policy ◽  
Policy Framework ◽  
Ecological Processes ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Eu

The gradually decreasing connectivity of habitats threatens biodiversity and ecological processes valuable to humans. Green infrastructure is promoted by the European Commission as a key instrument for the conservation of ecosystems in the EU biodiversity strategy to 2020. Green infrastructure has been defined as a network of natural and semi-natural areas, designed and managed to deliver a wide range of ecosystem services. We surveyed Finnish experts' perceptions on the development of green infrastructure within the existing policy framework. Our results show that improving the implementation of existing conservation policy instruments needs to be an integral part of developing green infrastructure. Despite the potential of green infrastructure to benefit biodiversity, existing conceptual ambiguity of green infrastructure with rather complex role of ecosystem services – and the possible interpretation of this in practice – raises concerns regarding its ability to contribute to biodiversity conservation.

scholarly journals A Framework for Multifunctional Green Infrastructure Investment in Camden, NJ

2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 56-73 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kate Zidar ◽  
Maryse Belliveau-Nance ◽  
Anthony Cucchi ◽  
Danielle Denk ◽  
Andrew Kricun ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Urban Communities ◽  
Stress Reduction ◽  
Green Infrastructure ◽  
Life Cycle Cost ◽  
Urban Ecosystem ◽  
Green Jobs ◽  
Regulatory Requirement ◽  
Decision Support Framework ◽  
Demonstration Site

This study demonstrates a decision-support framework for planning Green Infrastructure (GI) systems that maximize urban ecosystem services in Camden, NJ. Seven key ecosystem services are evaluated (urban agriculture expansion, combined sewer overflow reduction, heat island reduction, flooding reduction, capacity building/green jobs expansion, fitness expansion, and stress reduction), to produce a normalized value for each service for each drainage sub-basin within the city. Gaps in ecosystem services are then mapped and utilized to geographically prioritize different kinds of multifunctional GI. Conceptual designs are developed for four site typologies: parks, schools, vacant lots, and brownfield sites. For one demonstration site, additional analysis is presented on urban engagement, life cycle cost reduction, and new sources of funding. What results is an integrated, long-term vision where multifunctional GI systems can be readily customized to meet multiple needs within urban communities. This study provides a portable and replicable framework for leveraging the regulatory requirement to manage stormwater to meet broader urban revitalization goals, all through a decentralized network of green infrastructure assets.

The Problem of Identifying and Modeling the Relationship between Monetary Factor and Inflation in the Russian Economy

2008 ◽  
pp. 61-76
Author(s):  
A. Porshakov ◽  
A. Ponomarenko
Keyword(s):  
Money Supply ◽  
Money Demand ◽  
Russian Economy ◽  
Long Run ◽  
Complex Approach ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Long Time ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Supply Side Factors

The role of monetary factor in generating inflationary processes in Russia has stimulated various debates in social and scientific circles for a relatively long time. The authors show that identification of the specificity of relationship between money and inflation requires a complex approach based on statistical modeling and involving a wide range of indicators relevant for the price changes in the economy. As a result a model of inflation for Russia implying the decomposition of inflation dynamics into demand-side and supply-side factors is suggested. The main conclusion drawn is that during the recent years the volume of inflationary pressures in the Russian economy has been determined by the deviation of money supply from money demand, rather than by money supply alone. At the same time, monetary factor has a long-run spread over time impact on inflation.

scholarly journals Integration of Ecosystem Services in Strategic Environmental Assessment of a Peri-Urban Development Plan

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 122
Author(s):  
Teodoro Semeraro ◽  
Benedetta Radicchio ◽  
Pietro Medagli ◽  
Stefano Arzeni ◽  
Alessio Turco ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Urban Development ◽  
Environmental Assessment ◽  
Green Infrastructure ◽  
Strategic Environmental Assessment ◽  
Development Plan ◽  
Mitigation Measures ◽  
The Sustainable Development ◽  
South Italy ◽  
Urban Plan

Strategic environmental assessment (SEA) can support decision-makers in constructing more sustainable plans, programs, and policies (PPPs). To be more coherent with new frontiers of sustainable cities, PPPs need to include conservation objectives and to increase ecosystem service (ES) strategies. The ES concept is not intrinsic to the SEA process; therefore, it is necessary to develop an approach and methodology to include it. In this paper, we propose a methodology to integrate the concept of ecosystem services in all phases of the SEA process for a sub-urban plan, including the design of mitigation measures. The case study is represented by a peri-urban development plan in the municipality of Gallipoli in South Italy, characterized by a strong tourism economy and valuable agro-ecosystems. The analysis shows the priority ecosystem services that are selected considering the sustainable development and environmental goals, the context of referment, and the aims of the peri-urban plan. After, we highlight the potential ecosystem services developed considering the design of mitigation actions like green infrastructure, which could be implemented in the peri-urban plan. The capacity to develop green infrastructure in SEA processes can configure the SEA as a tool for ecological urban design that is integrated with urban planning. This requires the ability to transfer ecological and planning theories into practical actions and the capacity of different disciplines to work in a transdisciplinary approach.

scholarly journals Metabolic engineering in woody plants: challenges, advances, and opportunities

aBIOTECH ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shu Yu ◽  
Cody S. Bekkering ◽  
Li Tian
Keyword(s):  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Metabolic Engineering ◽  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Plant Transformation ◽  
Woody Plants ◽  
Woody Plant ◽  
High Biomass ◽  
Generation Times ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Biochemical Diversity

AbstractWoody plant species represent an invaluable reserve of biochemical diversity to which metabolic engineering can be applied to satisfy the need for commodity and specialty chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and renewable energy. Woody plants are particularly promising for this application due to their low input needs, high biomass, and immeasurable ecosystem services. However, existing challenges have hindered their widespread adoption in metabolic engineering efforts, such as long generation times, large and highly heterozygous genomes, and difficulties in transformation and regeneration. Recent advances in omics approaches, systems biology modeling, and plant transformation and regeneration methods provide effective approaches in overcoming these outstanding challenges. Promises brought by developments in this space are steadily opening the door to widespread metabolic engineering of woody plants to meet the global need for a wide range of sustainably sourced chemicals and materials.

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