Chapter 1 - Land-use changes and ecosystem services

Abstract

Land abandonment, urbanisation and agricultural intensification are the most important drivers of ecosystem change. Their spatiotemporal evolution is complex and depends on many factors and interact intricately. These changes affect ecosystem capacity to supply the quality and quantity of ecosystem services (ESs). Therefore it is critical to understand the impacts of land abandonment, urbanisation and agricultural intensification on ES supply. This chapter aims to review the impacts of these three drivers of change on regulating, provisioning and cultural ES. Overall, urbanisation and agricultural intensification have high impact on the ecosystems the most detrimental effects on regulating, provisioning and cultural ES supply. Land abandonment and the consequent afforestation improved several ESs, mainly regulating and cultural. Except for water supply, the ES is dependent on agricultural land use and cultural heritage. Land abandonment improves several ESs. However, to maintain multifunctional landscape functionalities, it is also key to preserve the population in rural areas to maintain the functionality of agriculture, grassland ecosystems and the ES supply. Limiting urban expansion and adopting more sustainable farming practices are key to reverse the negative impacts of urbanisation and agricultural intensification on ES.