The browser you are using is not supported by this website. All versions of Internet Explorer are no longer supported, either by us or Microsoft (read more here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/windows/end-of-ie-support).

Please use a modern browser to fully experience our website, such as the newest versions of Edge, Chrome, Firefox or Safari etc.

Michael Johansson.

Michael Johansson

Researcher

Michael Johansson.

Implementation of the ecosystem services approach in Swedish municipal planning

Author

  • Per Schubert
  • Nils G.A. Ekelund
  • Thomas H. Beery
  • Christine Wamsler
  • K. Ingemar Jönsson
  • Andreas Roth
  • Sanna Stålhammar
  • Torleif Bramryd
  • Michael Johansson
  • Thomas Palo

Summary, in English

While ecosystem-based planning approaches are increasingly promoted through international and national policies, municipalities are still struggling with translating them into practice. Against this background, this paper aims to increase the knowledge of current advances and possible ways to support the implementation of the ecosystem services (ES) approach at the municipal level. More specifically, we analyze how ES have been integrated into comprehensive planning within the municipality of Malmö in Sweden over the last 60 years, a declared forerunner in local environmental governance. Based on a content analysis of comprehensive plans over the period 1956–2014 and interviews with municipal stakeholders, this paper demonstrates how planning has shifted over time toward a more holistic view of ES and their significance for human well-being and urban sustainability. Both explicit and implicit applications of the ES concept were found in the analyzed comprehensive plans and associated programs and projects. Our study shows how these applications reflect international, national, and local policy changes, and indicates how municipalities can gradually integrate the ES approach into comprehensive planning and facilitate the transition from implicit to more explicit knowledge use.

Department/s

  • LUCSUS (Lund University Centre for Sustainability Studies)
  • Department of Service Studies
  • BECC: Biodiversity and Ecosystem services in a Changing Climate

Publishing year

2018-05-04

Language

English

Pages

298-312

Publication/Series

Journal of Environmental Policy and Planning

Volume

20

Issue

3

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Routledge

Topic

  • Public Administration Studies

Keywords

  • Comprehensive planning
  • ecosystem service concept
  • ecosystem services
  • green infrastructure
  • municipal planning
  • nature-based solutions
  • urban planning

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 1523-908X