SAFETY CULTURE OF ECOSYSTEM SERVICES

Abstract

In this article, an attempt is made to indicate the role and importance of ecosystem services as advantages that are provided to us by the environment. The authors demonstrate selected concepts of ecosystem services and their classification, but only to introduce the reader to pilot studies of the urban ecosystem. The present article aims to define the factors that influence the culture of utilizing ecosystem services in urbanized areas. In this article, a fragment of an urban ecosystem, specifically the Old Town of Gdańsk (which features anthropogenic elements and whose functioning is dependent on ecological and natural systems), is observed through a researcher’s eye. This area is predominantly focused on using international experiences in interdisciplinary research, a dynamically developing new science discipline called “city ecology.” The key research problem of this study is as follows: how can the safety culture be efficiently developed and integrated with the management of ecosystem services to ensure their persistence and resistance to environmental and anthropogenic risks?