Integrating Ecosystem Services into Landscape Planning for Sustainable Development

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue explores the role of ecosystem services (ESs) in landscape planning, aiming to promote sustainable development and enhance environmental resilience. The necessity of integrating ecological, social, and economic approaches in land management decision-making processes is highlighted in this collection.

The primary aim is to develop planning and management models that enhance the adaptive capacity of landscapes to climate change, protect biodiversity, and ensure the sustainable management of resources and collective well-being. From a systemic and collaborative standpoint, this Issue aims to contribute to the scientific and socio-administrative debate on how to make territories more sustainable, equitable, and resilient in the face of contemporary environmental and social challenges.

Authors are invited to submit interdisciplinary contributions that include innovative methodologies, application tools, and relevant case studies with the potential to influence sustainability-oriented strategic choices. Regulation ESs function as a foundational knowledge framework for multilevel governance, with the participation of local communities and the effectiveness of public policy also being significant factors.

This Issue will comprise reviews and practical applications. These will demonstrate how dialogues between institutions, citizens, and territorial actors can result in a more aware and integrated use of natural resources.

From contemporary challenges to strategy and governance approaches, and from tools to applications.

1. The relationship between regulating ecosystem services and other: the hierarchy for sustainability.
2. Biodiversity and ecosystem services: what is the relationship?
3. Protecting biodiversity through the ecosystem services approach: strategies for enhancing and conserving biodiversity in spatial planning.
4. Sustainable land and resource management: systemic approaches integrating ecological, social and economic dimensions.
5. Agroecology and nature-based solutions as transformative pathways towards sustainable agriculture
6. Ecosystem services in agri-food systems in transition: analysing trade-offs and synergies to promote ecological, human, and social health.
7. Integrating ecosystem services into spatial and strategic landscape planning processes: methodologies and approaches for resilience.
8. Governance approaches and multi-level decision-making processes: tools and case studies.
9. Participatory approaches and the involvement of local communities in decision-making processes, including tools and case studies.
10. People-centred planning and ecosystem services integration in nature-based solutions.
11. Climate change adaptation and environmental resilience: planning models to increase the adaptive capacity of landscapes.
12. Innovative tools and indicators for valuing ecosystem services: developments in GIS, modelling, and valuation techniques.
13. Modelling ecosystem services to define a safe operating space in European agricultural landscapes: approaches and case studies.
14. Assessment of ecosystem benefits and services for health and well-being from nature-based solutions in different landscapes.
15. Integrating ecosystem services modelling and monitoring into nature-based solutions for resilient societies and biodiversity goals.
16. Case studies on the application of ecosystem services in urban planning: concrete examples demonstrating the impact and transferability of ecosystem service approaches.

We look forward to receiving your contributions. 

Dr. Riccardo Santolini
Dr. Giovanna Panza
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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• ecosystem services
• landscape planning
• nature-based solutions (NBS)
• sustainable development
• environmental resilience
• climate change adaptation
• biodiversity protection
• resource management
• multilevel governance
• socio-ecological systems