دانلود رایگان مقاله یکپارچه سازی خدمات اکوسیستم در ارزیابی استراتژیک مقیاس های برنامه ریزی فضایی

ABSTRACT

Spatial planning is a key policy instrument for decision-making which drives future changes to land systems, and subsequently to the quality, quantity and spatial distribution of ecosystem services (ES). Supply and demand of ES vary from local to regional and global scales affecting a wide range of stakeholders. Therefore, a strategic analysis of the potential impacts is highly relevant. Strategic environmental assessment (SEA) is considered a suitable instrument for analyzing these impacts as well as for integrating ES during the planning process given its focus on sustainability and environmental aspects at strategic levels. However, an essential task consists of testing the applicability of the SEA-ES framework in real-world spatial planning. The objective of this research is to explore how ES have been considered in the development of spatial plans at different scales by considering a sample of SEA reports. We focused on a case study in Chile, where we conducted a content analysis of different stages of the SEA process at regional, inter-municipal and municipal planning scales. Our results demonstrate that ES were always present across each SEA stage and planning scale. Additionally, we suggest a relation between specific ES and the scope and focus of the different spatial planning instruments. Although ES are clearly necessary for achieving a number of development objectives and dealing with a range of environmental problems, a critical aspect is the lack of an explicit consideration which might decrease the potential advantages offered by the integrated framework SEA-ES.

5. Conclusions

The integration of the ES concept for supporting real-world decisions is increasingly gaining relevance in science as well as in policy and planning. Our case study has shown that SEA is a suitable instrument for including ES at different scales of spatial planning, even though the consideration is not yet explicit in most of the cases. In this sense, the ES concept was always present across each of the SEA stages and planning scales. Regarding the latter, we suggest a relation between specific ES and the scope and focus of the different spatial planning instruments, where regulation and cultural ES were identified as the most important sections according to the CICES classification. However, although ES are clearly necessary for achieving a number of development objectives and dealing with a range of environmental problems, a lack of an explicit consideration is seen as a great challenge to be addressed when carrying out the spatial planning process. If this critical issue is not considered, the potential advantages offered by the integrated framework SEA-ES could be decreased given a deficient practical implementation. As we stated earlier, the ES concept is increasingly being recognized in decision-making within the Chilean context. Therefore, it is possible that it will be incorporated in some of sectoral laws, and certainly in a range of guidelines from different government departments, e.g. forest, water, indigenous affairs. However, major modifications oriented to include ES in the general legislative body of natural resources, environment or territory, are not expected at least in the short term, which is also in agreement with the findings of Mascarenhas et al. (2015). Thus, we emphasize the importance of having informed stakeholders, able to demand the integration of ES through a bottom-up process of planning and decisionmaking, as well as prepared and conscious decision makers and public officers. We also encourage the formation of interdisciplinary teams within both the consultant and public office in charge of the plan and SEA elaboration. This is recommended in order to promote a substantial discussion and to deal with the task of moving spatial planning from the traditional urbanistic paradigm to one focused on the sustainable development of cities and rural territories.