Ecosystem services and ecological networks. A case study from Flanders

Despite ecosystem services are vital for humans, the ability of ecosystems to provide their services is threatened by urban development, industries, agriculture, and grey infrastructures. Europe is a highly anthropized continent, and the consequence of loss and degradation of natural spaces negatively affects ecosystems as well as the biodiversity. Currently, a structured framework of ecosystem services-based approaches is still lacking to improve planning policies. The aim of this paper is to investigate relations between ecosystem services and ecological networks, in order to defi ne best practices in spatial planning, by discussing how spatial associations between ecosystem services and ecological networks could affect intrinsic peculiarities of the territory. Firstly, we address the concept of ecosystem services and ecological networks on the basis of a literature review; then, we focus on crucial relationships between ecosystem services and ecological networks. In particular, we study the case of the Flemish region, the most urbanized and populated area in Belgium. In this context, we analyze the presence of areas with potential value for the ecosystem service of water purification into the ecological network of Flanders, in order to understand in which way planning approaches based on ecosystem services provided by the ecological network could be implemented into an ecological and sustainable view of development. We propose an approach that could represent the basis for a new research agenda able to recognize spatial associations of ecosystem services and the role of ecological networks as baseline for evolutionary ecosystem-based approaches in spatial planning.