Integrating the Ecosystem Approach into Urban and Landscape Planning: Enhancing Ecosystem Services for Sustainable Development

The ecosystem approach can potentially increase political-administrative interest in environmental issues. Pending further exploration (through identification tools and specific indicators) of the value of Ecosystem Services (ESs), urban-territorial and landscape planning tools undertake a path to identify and evaluate ESs. Reevaluating and reconsidering the role of ecological functions of environmental components in terms of anthropogenic benefits (ESs), can allow urban planning tools to give useful indications to reduce the damage caused to ecosystems and natural resources of reference, through the development of strategic choices aimed at reducing or qualifying sustainably the interventions of soil artificialization. From this point of view, the ecosystem approach adopted by land-use and landscape planning tools could allow for focusing attention on the increasing dependence between the stability of landscapes and the balance of ESs. The maintenance and enhancement of ESs in a given landscape area maximizes, in fact, their level of sustainability. At the same time, the ability of a landscape scope to provide ESs allows ecosystem components to be maintained in a given state of balance.