Conceptual and methodological challenges of ecosystem services mapping in urban regions

authored by

Claudia Anna Dworczyk

supervised by

Benjamin Felix Burkhard

Abstract

Global population growth and changes in consumer behaviour have led to an increased requirement for energy and natural resources. The rise in urbanisation, economic interdependencies and globalisation exacerbates the situation and further increases the demand. As a result, many unsustainable practices in agriculture, forestry, mining and energy generation have emerged, leading to land-use changes, a general overexploitation of natural resources, inefficient waste management and pollution. The state of our ecosystems and global biodiversity are deteriorating faster than ever and this is having a severe impact upon the ability of ecosystems to provide services. Ecosystem services is a term used to cover all the contributions ecosystems make to human well-being. Ecosystem services can directly or indirectly benefit people, be it economically, materially or in terms of improving their mental and physical health. As the decline of ecosystem services has a negative impact on human well-being, dedicated environmentalists, scientists and intergovernmental organisations are increasingly calling for the protection and restoration of ecosystems and their services. There is a very active research field engaged with the ecosystem services concept, which addresses the social challenges related to climate change, biodiversity loss, pollution, unsustainable land use and environmental justice. Despite the growing number of studies assessing and mapping ecosystem services, the ecosystem services concept has as yet only been able to have a limited impact upon real-world policy and decision-making. Two of the main factors responsible for this are the persistent conceptual challenges and application barriers currently inherent to ES mapping approaches. This thesis emphasises these conceptual and methodological uncertainties and challenges in an urban context and considers the following research questions in more detail: 1. What are the trends in mapping and assessing ecosystem services in urban areas? 2. What are the conceptual challenges in mapping ecosystem service supply and demand in urban regions? 3. What issues do current ecosystem service mapping approaches face and how can these best be overcome?

Organisation(s)

Physical Geography Group
Institute of Physical Geography and Landscape Ecology
Digital Landscape Ecology Group

Type

Doctoral thesis

No. of pages

242

Publication date

2023

Publication status

Published

Sustainable Development Goals

SDG 3 - Good Health and Well-being, SDG 11 - Sustainable Cities and Communities, SDG 12 - Responsible Consumption and Production, SDG 13 - Climate Action, SDG 15 - Life on Land

Electronic version(s)

https://doi.org/10.15488/13555 (Access: Open)