Ecosystem and urban services for landscape liveability: A model for quantification of stakeholders’ perceived importance

Abstract

According to the anthropocentric perspective, ecosystem services (ES) can fulfil important societal needs in a similar way as urban systems, which deliver more traditional urban services (US). In this view, ES and US shape landscape liveability in a similar manner. Liveability assessments based on both ES and US importance quantification can allow for the more effective and coherent inclusion of both service typologies in landscape planning and policymaking. As liveability is strongly dependent on both environmental and human factors, stakeholder involvement is essential for its assessment. Widely applicable and reliable methodologies of liveability assessment based on the perceived importance of ES and US, according to stakeholders, still need to be developed. Using this framework, we design a hierarchical classification based on The Common International Classification of Ecosystem Services (CICES) for measuring both ES and US. This classification is used to structure a model based on Saaty’s Analytical Hierarchical Process (AHP) for the quantification of stakeholder views of the importance of liveability services. The model, known as the LIAM (LIveability Assessment Model), is applied to a group of stakeholders selected among local experts and landscape planners in an Umbrian study area (Italy). The results show that the LIAM approach can support landscape planning and policy making through superior ES and US integration and through more effective assessments of their perceived relevance.