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Context: This paper explores green volunteering in Denmark from the perspective of nature managers in municipalities and state nature agencies. The aim is to explore and establish, for the first time, an understanding of the nature and extent of volunteering in Danish nature management from a mosaic governance perspective. Objective: The objective was to understand how patterns of volunteerism in Denmark align with the theoretical planning of mosaic governance. Method: The study employed a questionnaire survey, conducted in 2018, covering all Danish municipalities and Nature Agency units designed to investigate topics such as: the extent of volunteering, the types of volunteers, the areas and tasks the volunteers engage in, and the benefits and challenges of the collaboration. Results: Our results show that nature managers collaborate with a variety of volunteers, involved in maintenance, construction and operation activities in both urban and rural areas. Most projects are bottom-up initiatives started by volunteers. The main reason for engaging volunteers is to acknowledge volunteers' enthusiasm and heighten their interest in nature, although the engagement of volunteers can be time-consuming. In most municipalities, engaging volunteers is not formalized through strategies. It is handled as an "add-on" to an already demanding work burden. Conclusions: There is considerable variation in the way municipalities and the Nature Agency units engage volunteers. Some embrace volunteering, while others are skeptical about it. The engagement of volunteers supports nature that is both more accessible and better managed. Further, volunteerism increases the number of outdoor recreation facilities by supplementing the capacity of baseline nature management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Context: Globally, forest landscapes are rapidly transforming, with the role of institutions as mediators in their use and management constantly appearing in the literature. However, global comparative reviews to enhance comprehension of how forest management institutions (FMIs) are conceptualized, and the varying determinants of compliance, are lacking. And so too, is there knowledge fragmentation on the methodological approaches which have and should be prioritized in the new research agenda on FMIs. Objectives: We review the regional variations in the conceptualization of FMIs, analyze the determinants of compliance with FMIs, and assess the methodological gaps applied in the study of FMIs. Methods: A systematic review of 197 empirically conducted studies (491 cases) on FMIs was performed, including a directed content analysis. Results: First, FMIs literature is growing; multi-case and multi-country studies characterize Europe/North America, Africa and Latin America, over Asia. Second, the structure-process conceptualization of FMIs predominates in Asia and Africa. Third, global south regions report high cases of compliance with informal FMIs, while non-compliance was registered for Europe/North America in the formal domain. Finally, mixed-methods approaches have been least employed in the studies so far; while the use of only qualitative methods increased over time, the adoption of only quantitative approaches witnessed a decrease. Conclusion: Future research should empirically ground informality in the institutional set-up of Australia while also valorizing mixed-methods research globally. Crucially, future research should consider multidisciplinary and transdisciplinary approaches to explore the actor and power dimensions of forest management institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Context: Coastal zones are a significant coupling landscape and seascape with large global populations and thus have large concentrations of carbon emissions and potential influences on global environmental changes. However, the impacts of coastal seascape pattern change, on the provision of ecosystem goods and services (e.g. carbon flows) have not been understood fully in the face of rapid human-induced changes. Objectives: We aim to reveal the dynamics of integrated landscape and seascape (land-sea-scape) carbon flows under the natural and anthropogenic changes, inform coastal spatial planning and restoration, and optimize coastal land-sea-scape pattern. Methods: A spatial carbon flow network model of land-sea integration was developed to quantify coastal carbon flows under rapid urbanization. We chose a typical coastal city of Xiamen in China as an example to analyze the dynamics of carbon flows and ecological security pattern during 2000–2015. Results: We found that the total carbon flows between sea and land was 12.78TgCO2 during 2000–2015, and carbon losses due to seascape conversion were 9.76TgCO2. These flows and losses signified the reduction of ecosystem services (carbon sequestration) resilience to further perturbations. Carbon deficit pattern was gradually increased and sprawled out to the forest-farmland landscape and coastal tidal flat seascape, which represent decline of coastal ecosystem security. Conclusions: Our findings indicated total coastal carbon flows were 4 times greater than terrestrial carbon flows, and carbon deficit was mainly distributed along the coastline in Xiamen. These can provide a reference for better governance of sustainable land-sea-scape pattern to enhance seascape ecology and coastal sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Context: Exploring how ecosystem service values (ESV) are likely to change based on government intentions to develop and protect land is essential for sustainable landscape management. Objectives: (1) Simulate land use change under future baseline (BAS), resource consumption (CON), and resource protection (PRO) scenarios, based on forecasted land expropriation prices implemented by the government of Hubei Province. (2) Measure changes in ecosystem services influenced by future land use. (3) Provide sustainable landscape management strategies to control the risk of ecosystem service loss. Methods: This research couples Computable General Equilibrium of Land Use Change and Dynamics of Land System (CGELUC-DLS) models to simulate land use changes and calculated ESV using the equivalent factor method. Results: (1) Predicted areas of cultivated land, forest, and grassland throughout Hubei Province declined under the three scenarios between 2015 and 2025. (2) Compared with 2015, equivalent values per unit area of ecosystem services (ESVe) decreased by 2.27%, 4.01%, and 1.67% in 2025 under BAS, CON, and PRO scenarios, respectively. The future trend in ESVe reduction across western Hubei Province did abate in the PRO scenario. (3) Reasonably adjusting land expropriation prices is a regulatory approach that can serve to strengthen sustainable landscape management in China. Conclusions: ESV will inevitably decline in the future due to continuous land use changes across Hubei Province. The government should implement diversified strategies to control ecosystem services loss, including adjusting land expropriation prices, adopting regional differentiated management strategies, and implementing intensive but sustainable land use policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Context: Green infrastructure (GI) has become an integral part of the process leading toward urban sustainability because it provides multiple ecosystem services that contribute to urban ecosystems and human health. Planners and managers have therefore attempted to understand and improve GI multifunctionality. Objectives: This study has characterized and mapped GI multifunctionality in the Fengtai District of Beijing based on the ecosystem services (ES) perspective and has developed an adaptive model to improve its multifunctionality. The study has aimed to: (1) assess and map GI multifunctional degree, (2) characterize GI multifunctional types, and (3) propose adaptive solutions based on characterization of GI multifunctional types. Methods: Biophysical models and social questionnaires were used to quantify and map ES, ES hotspots, and ES bundles to identify the degree of multifunctionality and characterize GI multifunctional types. An adaptive model was designed to improve GI multifunctionality for local planning and design practice. Results: Three GI multifunctional degrees were mapped, and areas with high multifunctional degree were found to account for only 5.55% of the study area. Seven GI multifunctional types were identified by the distinct heterogeneity of their compositions and function sets. These types of GI also implied different improvement strategies for GI planning and design practice. The adaptive model offers integrated solutions for preserving, restoring, and embedding levels that correspond to the characterization of GI multifunctional types. Conclusions: The ES-based framework proposed in this paper integrates multifunctionality analyses and can be helpful to urban planners and designers in adaptive GI planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Context: Urban densification has been argued to increase the contrast between built up and open green space. This contrast may offer a starting point for assessing the extent and magnitude of the positive influences urban green infrastructure is expected to have on its surroundings. Objectives: Drawing on insights from landscape ecology and urban geography, this exploratory study investigates how the combined properties of green and grey urban infrastructures determine the influence of urban green infrastructure on the overall quality of the urban landscape. Methods: This article uses distance rise-or-decay functions to describe how receptive different land uses are to the influence of neighbouring green spaces, and does this based on integrated information on urban morphology, land surface temperature and habitat use by breeding birds. Results: Our results show how green space has a non-linear and declining cooling influence on adjacent urban land uses, extending up to 300–400 m in densely built up areas and up to 500 m in low density areas. Further, we found a statistically significant declining impact of green space on bird species richness up to 500 m outside its boundaries. Conclusions: Our focus on land use combinations and interrelations paves the way for a number of new joint landscape level assessments of direct and indirect accessibility to different ecosystem services. Our early results reinforce the challenging need to retain more green space in densely built up part of cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Context: The pressure on remaining open spaces of urban green infrastructure (UGI) is high due to increasing urbanization and the multiple requirements of a diverse urban population. Thus, a good quality and high capacity for ecosystem services of UGI is crucial to support a good quality of life. Objectives: This study analyses the influence of tree cover and other green parameters like species richness on ecosystem service use in urban parks and green brownfields. The outcomes contribute to design and management of resilient UGI. Methods: We assessed the diversity of woody and herbaceous flowering species in 36 study sites with low, medium and high tree cover in the city of Leipzig, Germany. UGI users were counted, and randomly selected visitors (n = 1750) were interviewed about their use of ecosystem services. Results: We found tree cover in urban parks negatively influencing physical interactions used by respondents. In parks with high tree cover, more respondents were benefitting from regulating services such as noise mediation or shade provision. Brownfield visitors preferred sites with low to medium tree cover, mainly for walking the dog but also for other ecosystem services. Plant species richness did not show significant influence. Conclusions: Tree cover in parks and brownfields can be a predictor for a range of ecosystem services typically used by visitors, highlighting how vegetation or green structures in UGI can be employed to steer the use. Brownfields provide additional space for complementary ecosystem service use, thus contributing to the avoidance of potential use conflicts in managed UGI like parks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Context: Protecting wetlands in cities is challenging. A cost-effective spatial prioritization approach taking into account stakeholder motivations is needed to identify wetlands of conservation interest.Objectives: This study aims to optimize the efficiency of a systematic conservation planning (SCP) approach to protect nine urban wetland ecosystem services (ES) and biodiversity.Methods: First, we mapped ES supply and demand to capture their spatial variation as they occur at the wetland scale. Secondly, using wetland property value as cost data, we compared the efficiency of SCP to two multicriteria scoring approaches. Thirdly, we compared SCP alternatives by changing the planning unit scale and conservation objectives (i.e. emphasizing ES demand and focusing on the most important ES).Results: The total cost of the scoring approach networks was minimally 13 times higher, when compared to the SCP approaches. Consequently, the scoring approaches were at least five times less efficient than SCP per unit of network area ($/m2). Decreasing the size of planning units resulted in further cost reduction, with networks that were up to 92% less costly. We also highlighted that beneficiary demand fulfillment in networks could be optimized without a loss in efficiency. Finally, SCP secured nine ES for the same expenditure as that required to protect four public safety related ES. However, planning solely for these four important ES failed to represent those of other ES.Conclusions: Our results may provide a tool to better inform land use decision planning in order to mitigate the impacts of urban growth on ES. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Context: Traditionally soils have not received much attention in urban planning. For this, tools are needed that can both be understood both by soil scientists and urban planners.Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to enhance the role of soil knowledge in urban planning practice, through the following objectives: (1) identifying the role soil plays in recent urban plans; (2) analysing the ecosystem services and indicators used in soil science in an urban context; and (3) inferring the main challenges and opportunities to integrate soil into urban planning.Methods: Seven urban plans and reports of world cities that include sustainability goals were analysed using text-mining and qualitative analysis, with a critical view on the inclusion of soil-related concepts. Secondly, the contribution of soil science to urban planning was assessed with an overview of case studies in the past decade that focus on soil-related ecosystem services in urban context.Results: The results show an overall weak attention to soil and soil-related ecosystem services in the implementation and monitoring phases of urban plans. The majority of soil science case studies uses a haphazard approach to measure ecosystem service indicators which may not capture the ecosystem services appropriately and hence lack relevance for urban planning.Conclusions: Even though the most urban plans assessed recognize soil as a key resource, most of them fail to integrate indicators to measure or monitor soil-related functions. There is a need to develop soil-related ecosystem services that can be easily integrated and understood by other fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Context: Urbanisation places increasing stress on ecosystem services; however existing methods and data for testing relationships between service delivery and urban landscapes remain imprecise and uncertain. Unknown impacts of scale are among several factors that complicate research. This study models ecosystem services in the urban area comprising the towns of Milton Keynes, Bedford and Luton which together represent a wide range of the urban forms present in the UK. Objectives: The objectives of this study were to test (1) the sensitivity of ecosystem service model outputs to the spatial resolution of input data, and (2) whether any resultant scale dependency is constant across different ecosystem services and model approaches (e.g. stock- versus flow-based). Methods: Carbon storage, sediment erosion, and pollination were modelled with the InVEST framework using input data representative of common coarse (25 m) and fine (5 m) spatial resolutions. Results: Fine scale analysis generated higher estimates of total carbon storage (9.32 vs. 7.17 kg m) and much lower potential sediment erosion estimates (6.4 vs. 18.1 Mg km year) than analyses conducted at coarser resolutions; however coarse-scale analysis estimated more abundant pollination service provision. Conclusions: Scale sensitivities depend on the type of service being modelled; stock estimates (e.g. carbon storage) are most sensitive to aggregation across scales, dynamic flow models (e.g. sediment erosion) are most sensitive to spatial resolution, and ecological process models involving both stocks and dynamics (e.g. pollination) are sensitive to both. Care must be taken to select model data appropriate to the scale of inquiry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]