Land Consumption, Ecosystem Services and Urban Planning Policies: Preliminary Results of Research Undertaken in the Tuscany Region

Abstract

In the contemporaneity, the issues of land or soil consumption and of the protection of areas that, within the urban areas, provide ecosystem services (ESs) is becoming increasingly important also in relation of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. The concept of "Ecosystem Service" appears, in this respect, a fruitful support to define the land consumption effects on the loss of functionality and of settlement quality. Following this considerations the paper presents the first results of a research developed in Tuscany and commissioned by the Regional Government. The research aims to measure the loss of ESs in connection with land use/land cover transformations, and to verify the contribution of soil consumption to these variations. The research use methodologies for elaborating of the geographical data required for territorial governance, LUCL 2010/2016 and Land Cover Flow (LCF) model, and the theoretical model of the “Capacity matrix” to provide ecosystem services.

Keywords

• Geographic information systems land cover change
• urban development
• ecosystem services
• ecosystem assessment.