Using Ecosystem Services in Community-Based Landscape Planning: Science is Not Ready to Deliver - Landscape Ecology for Sustainable Environment and Culture - page 79

Fig. 5.1 The structure-function-value chain linking green infrastructure size and shape to
human value (modified after Termorshuizen and Opdam 2009 ). Value includes benefit, the value
a service has to specific users. In assessments, the chain is applied from left to right (starting with:
how has the pattern changed?), in landscape design it is applied in the reversed order (starting
with: which are the preferred values?)
connectivity functions to link protected habitat areas (Davies and Pullin 2007 ), and
perception of beauty and cultural history by tourists (Ode et al. 2009 ). Also, it
supports a relatively large part of the landscape's biodiversity (Duelli and Obrist
2003 ). Biodiversity, the species of plants and animals occurring naturally in the
landscape, may be valued for its presence as such and can then be considered as a
social service. On the other hand, biodiversity may also provide production and
regulating services that are valued from an economic perspective, for example a
pest regulation service in agricultural crops (Steingröver et al. 2010 ). Many
landscape services depend on the spatial pattern of green infrastructure, because
the underlying biodiversity depends on it. Examples of such natural processes are
flows of surface water (including organic matter) depending on the dimensions and
connectivity of water bodies, and flows of individuals of wild species depending
on distances and connectivity between forest patches. Because these pattern-pro-
cess relations determine benefits to human users, they form the knowledge base of
sustainable landscape change. Or to frame it from a planning perspective: ecology-
inclusive spatial planning should aim for the management and spatial adaptation of
green infrastructure networks. Opdam et al. (unpublished mscr.) have shown that
in community-based landscape planning green infrastructure and the connected
landscape services connected individual interests to common interests. In agri-
cultural landscapes, the remaining part of the landscape is used for food or biomass
production, and therefore focusses on a single landscape service which is not
directly depending on the spatial structure of the landscape mosaic, and is of
individual interest to the farmer. In urban landscapes, the remaining landscape is
infrastructure and built structures, where economy and technology rules. Buildings
only provide landscape services if roofs are green (which connects them to green
infrastructure).
5.4 Defining Sustainable Change of Landscapes
In this section I discuss principles related to sustainability that have been suggested
in the literature on land use or landscape planning. Reed et al. ( 2006 ) distinguished
two approaches of sustainability indicators, which I will call the physical system
approach and the social system approach. The physical system approach is typical