Integrating the concept of ecosystem services and values in Land use planning

Abstract

Many high-profile efforts conducted recently have proposed integrating ecosystem service values in the decisions made about land usage; however, there are not many evidences of using such approach in practice. The objective of the present study is to give an overview of the obstacles in the way of using ecosystem service assessment and valuation in managing the environment. In addition, a few solutions to achieve a comprehensive and practical framework are proposed. When it comes to land planning, the results should be comprehensive to facilitate comparison with other alternatives. One approach to this end is to aggregate the results to a manageable set through weighting methods. Here, the way of utilizing weighting method in making decisions about land usage is examined and potential areas of development are proposed. Moreover, the differences in the available patterns of use are examined, the cause and consequences of the differences are discussed, and necessity of the found differences is investigated.