Mapping trade-offs and synergies among peri-urban ecosystem services to address spatial policy

Abstract

In peri-urban areas ecosystem services (ES), such as food and biomass production, water regulation and nutrient cycling, are influenced by various increasing demands for food, recreation and housing. Spatial development policies address these demands by increasing housing and commercial site areas on the expense of agricultural lands. In the fragmented peri-urban landscapes the analysis of ES trade-off and synergies supports planners and decision makers to account for the provision of ES and the interrelations between them. Therefore, the objective of this work is to examine how ES trade-off analysis can support applying peri-urban spatial policy. The aim is to analyse the spatial distribution of ES and their level of provision and identify ES synergies and trade-offs in relation to a spatial (development) plan. Because peri-urban ES provided by agricultural lands are linked to soils, soils are included in a spatial analysis of ES trade-offs as location factor. Peri-urban municipalities of Wroclaw in Poland are taken as a case study to analyse interactions between the following ES: food provision, biomass production, water regulation, nutrient cycling, physical recreation, aesthetic features of agricultural landscapes. The correlation analysis results show that the biggest trade-off occurs between the aesthetic features and the food provision, while the biggest synergies exist between biomass and food provision, as well as between recreational potential and nutrient cycling. The hotspot and principal component analysis results reveal a trade-off relation between built-up areas and Natura 2000 sites, generating hotspots of ES provision. We conclude that ES interactions need to be carefully managed, following the integration of different policy fields at regional and local levels, to sustain ES provision at peri-urban areas.