How does Strategic Environmental Assessment help bridging spatial planning and preservation of ecosystem services? Empirical findings from Sardinia, Italy

Human-induced land-use changes have shaped landscapes and modeled structures and functions of ecosystems, to the extent that they are regarded as the main driver of alteration of ecosystem services (ES), that is those services provided by nature which contribute to human well-being. Resulting in one or more services being favored over the others, land-use changes usually entail a trade-off between ES. Hence spatial planning, with its ex-ante spatial allocation of land uses, can play a key role in preserving healthy ecosystems and ensuring a balanced trade-off between ES. By building upon Mascarenhas et al. (2015), this article will examine the extent to which ES are being taken into account in Strategic Environmental Assessment of spatial plans taking Sardinia as a case study.