The use of ecosystem services concepts in Canadian municipal plans

The potential of land-use planning to implement ecosystem services (ES) knowledge is mostly unfulfilled. Examining how ES concepts are currently applied can provide practical and theoretical insights for supporting their further integration. The purpose of our research was to establish the use of ES concepts in Canadian municipal planning policy. We conducted a content analysis of extant Canadian municipal plans to understand the language used to express ES concepts, which ES are addressed, and to what extent ES concepts are included in planning policies. We found that ES concepts are used to support and justify conventional planning approaches, introduced to deal with emerging challenges, and invoked to support urban place-making. We propose a framework for ES in plans anchored by three imperatives for planning: protect ES supply, mimic and rebuild ES, and capitalize on ES. Approaches for implementing ES in planning must incorporate understanding of the interacting, multiple contexts influencing the design and implementation of planning policies.

• Publication year

  2019

• Venue

  Ecosystem Services

• Publication date

  2019-08-01

• Fields of study

  Business, Environmental Science

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1016/J.ECOSER.2019.100950
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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