Uptake of ecosystem service concept in urban blue-green infrastructure planning and decision-making in Russia

Abstract

ABSTRACT In the scientific community, ecosystem services (ESs) are well-recognized as a promising concept to more actively consider and plan for the multitude of benefits provided by the green environment and thus promote sustainable urban development. Yet, to have an impact on decision-making, the concept must spread from academia to practice. To understand to what extent ES have been adopted in practice and decision-making in Russia, we conducted a series of interviews and an online survey with both practitioners and scientists and complemented it by document analysis. Our results showed that ES are not adequately reflected in urban decision-making and planning processes. Moreover, we found no explicit references to ES in strategic urban planning and landscape development projects, although there are few implicit references in several reviewed documents. Among the identified challenges for better uptake of the concept in practice were many disagreements associated with the lack of a unified terminology, typology, and methods. Stakeholders understand the potential of applying ES valuation in practice, which includes a necessity to develop methodological materials and different tools based on real-life cases. Finally, a list of proposals on possible ways to better include ES in urban planning and in decision-making processes was formed by the respondents.