Planning with Ecosystem Services in the Natura 2000 Network of the Metropolitan City of Cagliari

摘要

Ecosystem Services (ESs) contribute to the human well-being, and, according to the recent classification of the Common International Classification of Ecosystem Services (CICES), they can be categorised into provisioning, regulating and cultural services. This paper investigates functions and benefits of ESs, especially regulating services such as Carbon sequestration and Water purification, which are essential to life. In Carbon sequestration, the atmospheric CO_2, produced by human activities, is removed from the atmosphere through natural processes and stored by terrestrial ecosystems in the soil. In Water purification, nutrients and other pollutants (i.e. metals, oils and sediments), introduced into inland waters and coastal and marine ecosystems, are processed and filtered out through water flow along forests, riparian zones and wetland. Land-use changes can have important effects on both Carbon sequestration and Water purification services. The aim of this paper is to identify benefits of the Natura 2000 Network to ESs in urban context; for this purpose we focus on a case study in the context of the Metropolitan City of Cagliari (Sardinia, Italy). The Natura 2000 Sites involve a thirty percent of the metropolitan land area and the results of the assessments of Carbon sequestration and Water purification show that areas including Natura 2000 Sites are highly potentially suitable to contain both ESs. The knowledge of the potential distribution and the quantity of ESs is crucial and can lead the decision-makers to a new planning approach, which is the key for sustainable urban development.