Assessing Ecosystem Services in Rural- Urban Linkages: The Role of Mapping for Territorial Planning Purposes

This chapter aims to explore the potential of ESS mapping to exploit rural-urban synergies in the context of spatial planning and sectoral policies. It reviews and re!ects on the opportunities and challenges of mapping ecosystem services to support territorial planning, with the aim of valorising rural-urban synergies. The mapping and assessment of ESS is a promising" way to evaluate the contribution that"rural areas make to urban areas. The chapter discusses criteria for selecting different approaches and methods available for the assessment of ESS and explains the concept of “ESS bundles” as groups of common ESS that co-occur"over time and space. It addresses the “sphere of dependency” between urban and rural areas," when it comes to rural-urban relations and provides key insights from case-studies.