Assessing Ecosystem Services Applying Local Perspectives
A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Social Ecology and Sustainability".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 June 2024 | Viewed by 9229
Special Issue Editor
Interests: ecosystem services; indigenous well-being; developing payments for ecosystem services
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Ecosystem Services (ESs), or nature’s services, play a vital role in supporting human well-being. This role is critical for Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (IPLCs) as a significant part of their well-being is derived from the use and management of natural resources that people have rights and/or access to. Various ES approaches have been applied to assess this role. This Special Issue aims to highlight important innovative approaches that can be used by researchers/policy decision makers/government authorities to understand the role of ES in IPLCs’ well-being.
The main aims of this issue are:
- To highlight the innovative approaches that can be used to understand and evaluate links between IPLCs’ well-being and natural resources;
- To suggest and underpin non-monetary values of natural systems for IPLCs;
- To inform policy decision-making and other relevant agencies about the value of IPLCs’ connections with nature.
The listed keywords suggest just a few of the many possibilities. If you are uncertain about whether your paper fits into the scope of this Special Issue, please feel free to contact the Guest Editor.
Dr. Kamaljit Kaur Sangha
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.
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Keywords
- ecosystem services
- indigenous peoples and local communities (IPLC)
- natural resources
- monetary and non-monetary approaches
- well-being
Planned Papers
The below list represents only planned manuscripts. Some of these manuscripts have not been received by the Editorial Office yet. Papers submitted to MDPI journals are subject to peer-review.
Title: Urban Green Infrastructure and Ecosystem Services Supply: A Study Concerning The Functiona Urban Area of Cagliari, Italy
Authors: Federica Isola; Sabrina Lai; Federica Leone; Corrado Zoppi
Affiliation: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and Architecture – University of Cagliari
Abstract: This study proposes a methodology for defining an urban green infrastructure (UGI) in the spatial contexts of functional urban areas (FUAs) identified by the OECD and the European Commission in 2012. The methodology refers to UGIs as systems that integrate the characteristics of green infrastructures, as spatial networks of natural and semi-natural areas that provide a wide range of ecosystem services, and the properties of urban infrastructures, as devices that respond to the needs and expectations that, in different respects, are expressed by communities settled in cities. UGI is identified, in the context of a FUA, as a succession of green areas, spatially connected to each other, which contribute to the provision of certain ecosystem services. This infrastructure includes the connecting elements that are identified as urban ecological corridors. The method-ology, which supports the spatial taxonomy of the UGI on the classification of the FUA territory proposed by JRC in relation to enhancing the resilience of urban ecosystems through UGIs, is applied to the FUA of Cagliari, located in the regional island context of Sardinia, with reference to the provision of some ecosystem services such as climate regulation, flood risk mitigation, out-door recreation, and biodiversity and habitat quality enhancement. The application of the methodology, which supports the spatial taxonomy of the UGI on the land classification of the FUA proposed by JRC, offers significant results in relation to enhancing the resilience of urban ecosystems through conservation and increasing the availability of ESs structured in the UGI. The study is implemented with reference to the spatial context of the Cagliari FUA, in the regional island setting of Sardinia, of which Cagliari is the regional capital city. The discussion highlights how the outcomes referring to the Cagliari FUA offer relevant urban planning implications for other FUAs, including in terms of future research developments.