Assessing Productive Capacities of Agro-Ecosystems

Abstract

The ability of an ecosystem to produce the raw materials and food necessary for human economic activities is termed `productive capacity'. The productive capacity of an ecosystem sets the physical limits for the provision of ecosystem services (ES), in turn defined as the benefits that humans gain from the natural environment. The productive capacity can be evaluated to help landscape planning in the allocation of land use. But ES are under the constant threat to lose their productive capacity. Land degradation processes such as soil erosion, contamination, compaction and the sealing of land can cause a massive decline in production of raw materials. Landscape planning must evaluated these threats with proper tools to develop measures for a sustainable and regional differentiated land use.