The Ecosystem Services and Green Infrastructure: A Systematic Review and the Gap of Economic Valuation

Merve Ersoy Mirici

doi:10.3390/su14010517

Abstract

This study was conducted to determine the trends at the intersection of studies made on green infrastructure and ecosystem services, which have frequently become preferred in establishing urban−green space relationships in global research. Green-related concepts have frequently been used from past to present in order to neutralise the increasing pressures on urban dynamics resulting from rapid urbanisation. Green corridor, green belt, green structure, and green finger/hand concepts have been used to provide recreational opportunities, protect nature, and keep urban sprawl under control. For the last decade, however, in addition to the traditional green concepts, green infrastructure (GI) and ecosystem services (ES) have been preferred in contemporary urban planning, as they enable the integration of the ecological concerns of the landscape and the socio-political perspective. The aim of this study is to detect the trends of the green infrastructure and ecosystem services association, and to reveal these trends in the common area with the bibliometric mapping method. The economic concept and its analysing use at the intersection of green infrastructure and ecosystem services were explored with VOSviewer using the Scopus® database. Furthermore, the number of documents, which initially began with around 39,719 studies, was reduced by filtering through systematic reviews, to only three documents that met the economic valuation criteria. In this way, a lack of economic analyses, creating a serious research gap within the framework of green infrastructure and ecosystem services, was quantitatively determined.

Highlights

Economic growth on a global and local scale is an indispensable and irrevocable desire for every nation and society
The approach in this study is based on the systematic determination of (i) quantitative information of publications related to the green infrastructure and ecosystem services separately, (ii) studies conducted under a common title, and (iii) to examine the economic valuation studies made on GI and ES association by using hierarchical filter (VOS mapping)
3, in which only green infrastructure was included in the title, keyword, and abstract, 4,592 studies were found, while in Filter 4, studies that focused on GI and had green structure mentioned in the title were determined in about one third of the studies

Summary

Introduction

Economic growth on a global and local scale is an indispensable and irrevocable desire for every nation and society. Rapid urbanisation is a major area of struggle for sustainable quality of life in cities [3]. Through economic actions and increasing population, urbanisation changes the local environment, and this change leads to environmental stress in urban residents. Long-term trends in many studies have shown that there is a relationship between urban centres and air temperatures, as the intensity of urbanisation increases through movement away from rural areas [4,5,6]. Industrialisation, urbanisation, and transportation are the main driving forces of increasing greenhouse gas emissions caused by the anthropogenic effect [7]. While carbon neutral practices and reducing the impact of global climate change through the European green deal and the circular economy are on the agenda for industrialisation, it is imperative that measures are taken for driving forces such as urbanisation and transportation.

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Conclusion