Ecosystem service networks as a concept for integrated regional management

Abstract

The ecosystem service concept is both simple and intuitive at first sight, but more complex when moving to implementation. In particular regional planning and land management must take into account positive and negative relationships between individual ecosystem services, whether these translate direct ecological processes, shared drivers such as land use and management, or synergies and conflicts in demands by different actors. The notion of ecosystem service bundle, which is now becoming familiar to managers and decision makers, emphasises that different ecosystem services cannot be managed independently. The novel concept of ecosystem service network takes this idea one step further by analysing explicitly the dependencies between provisioning and cultural services targeted by management, biodiversity and regulation services underpinning their production (or 'resources'), and regulation and cultural ecosystem services impacted by management. We present a first application of the ecosystem service network concept for the Grenoble urban region (France), where transdisciplinary research compares ecosystem service networks identified through biophysical analyses and relationships perceived by local actors through key management stakes. This analysis highlights the current gap between ecological knowledge and awareness by managers and decision-makers, which projects such as this can help bridging in order to co-design future sustainable landscapes.