Identifiering och värdering av kulturella ekosystemtjänster i urban miljö

Sammanfattning: The aim of this paper is to discuss and explore how cultural ecosystem services are identified and valued within a Swedish municipal urban planning context, which services are specifically of interest and how the identification and valuation are used. The paper will analyze identification tools provided by public organizations and consultants. For this purpose, literature and research within the subject, together with interviews from officials working with cultural ecosystem services, have been used as empirical data to answer the research questions. As a theoretic framework, environmental psychology and sustainable urban planning theory, including the themes democracy, resilience and densification, has been used to examine the research questions. The findings show that ecosystem services play an important role in communicating the connection between human welfare and nature. When planning sustainable cities, knowledge of the intuitive, inestimable character of the services, is needed in decision making. The tools that have been evaluated have different purposes and can together be used for a more nuanced analysis. No single cultural ecosystem service has been found to be more crucial, instead different human needs must be identified. Finally, the ecosystem services framework is an important part of planning socially and ecologically sustainable and resilient cities.