Policies at multiple levels pronounce the need to encompass both social and ecological systems in governance and management of natural capital in terms of resources and ecosystems. One approach to knowledge production and learning about landscapes as social–ecological systems is to compare multiple case studies consisting of large spaces and places. We first review the landscape concepts’ biophysical, anthropogenic, and intangible dimensions. Second, we exemplify how the different landscape concepts can be used to derive measurable variables for different sustainability indicators. Third, we review gradients in the three dimensions of the term landscape on the European continent, and propose to use them for the stratification of multiple case studies of social–ecological systems. We stress the benefits of the landscape concepts to measure sustainability, and how this can improve collaborative learning about development toward sustainability in social–ecological systems. Finally, analyses of multiple landscapes improve the understanding of context for governance and management.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s13280-012-0368-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Context Recently, physical geography and landscape ecology have attracted increasing attention, due to the expectation that their theoretical and methodical concepts may improve the assessment of ecosystem services (ES). Examples of promising approaches rooted in various scientific schools, especially of Eastern Europe and Russia. Objective The paper briefly describes these approaches, particularly in terms of ES supply. This is deepened by way of a case study in Russia which shows the crucial role of landscape patterns and landscape units in the assessment of ES with respect to the relationship between forestry and runoff. Methods For the selection of important geosystembased aspects we started from the ES approach and reviewed the Eastern European (particularly Russian and Eastern German) literature to identify aspects that might be suitable for incorporation into the ES concept. Results Among the geosystem-based geographical and landscape-ecological approaches which have been addressed by scientific schools in Russia and Eastern Europe, landscape genesis, landscape units, landscape hierarchy, the role of spatial scales, ecosystem patterns and relationships and natural potentials belong to the most promising ones. These approaches can improve assessments of ES by strengthening their scientific foundation, and elaborating them in a spatial context which might help to better influence land use policy and decision-making. Conclusions Integrated geosystem approaches may provide a number of interesting theoretical and methodological contributions and impulses to the study of ES, especially for the current national TEEB initiatives in many countries. This provides significant perspectives for the application of geosystem-based concepts in ecological planning.
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