This document was developed to help environmental planners, designers and managers understand and incorporate ecosystem services into their work. It introduces ecosystem services, natural capital and nature’s benefits and how those can be enhanced and maintained in urban regions. The intended target audience is professionals, as well as interested citizens and decision makers. The use of ecosystem services in environmental planning and design is a new and rapidly evolving field and we have introduced this primer to ecosystem services so that readers may appreciate its merits and use the concepts in their own work. The document contains four interconnecting parts: (1) Foundations of Ecosystem Services is a stand-alone summary of the field, (2) further Examples are found in the resources section and the Case Studies section describes a variety of landscapes and landscape interventions and their impact on ecosystem services, (3) the five Special Topics expand upon the Foundations and provide additional explanation and detailed links to technical resources, and (4) References and Resources lists all sources cites with hotlinks to websites and downloadable documents.
Collaborators: Glenn Brown
Clients: Landscape Architecture Canada Foundation, BC Real Estate Foundation, BC Society of Landscape Architects