Research article - Peer-reviewed, 2021
Urban ecosystem services in strategic planning in Swedish municipalities
Sang, Asa Ode; Hagemann, Frederik Aagaard; Ekelund, Nils; Svannel, JessicaAbstract
Research to date on urban ecosystem services has mainly been conducted in large cities, particularly in China, the USA and some European countries. This study examined the provision of urban ecosystem services in a Swedish municipality context, based on interviews with municipal stakeholders in strategic management and planning from six municipalities and a review of existing publications readily available to practitioners. The analysis focused on (1) the ecosystem services explicitly covered, (2) whether multifunctionality was covered and specific synergies and trade-offs identified and, (3) the spatial scale and context used for ecosystem services (valuation/mapping, planning, design or maintenance) in practical application. The results showed that regulatory services are very much the focus in municipal operations as well as in publications available to practitioners. This is reflected in the implementation of the concept through problem solving often related to regulatory services, using multifunctionality and win-win situations in ecosystem service supply. These findings contribute to the growing body of work exploring how the concept of ecosystem services is adapted and utilised in practice.Keywords
Urban ecosystem service; Practical implementation; Strategic planning and management; MunicipalityPublished in
Urban Ecosystems2021, volume: 24, number: 6, pages: 1343-1357
Publisher: SPRINGER
Authors' information
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Department of Landscape Architecture, Planning and Management
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Department of Landscape Architecture, Planning and Management
Ekelund, Nils
Malmo University
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Department of Landscape Architecture, Planning and Management
Sustainable Development Goals
SDG11 Sustainable cities and communities
UKÄ Subject classification
Landscape Architecture
Publication Identifiers
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11252-021-01113-7
URI (permanent link to this page)
https://res.slu.se/id/publ/112049