A methodological approach for ecosystem-service hotspot identification at the regional scale: Evidence from Basilicata and Campania, Italy.

Evaluating ecosystem services (ESs), the material goods and non-material benefits essential for sustaining human existence and improving quality of life, are a critical component of spatial planning. By regulating modifications in land use, spatial planning can substantially transform the ecological composition and functioning, both in urban areas and in natural or seminatural landscapes. Such transformations influence the availability of ESs and, in turn, affect environmental conditions and societal well-being. In this perspective, this work advances a methodological procedure aimed at delineating ES hotspots, conceived as spatially distinct zones that deliver exceptionally high levels of ES provision, in order to promote more environmentally responsible planning strategies. The methodological approach comprises two main steps, of which the first consists of a biophysical analysis of three essential regulating ESs: habitat quality, which reflects the capacity of ecological systems to maintain diverse biological communities; carbon storage and sequestration, which captures ecosystems’ role in mitigating climate change through the removal of greenhouse gases from the atmosphere; and land surface temperature, which serves as a diagnostic measure of the thermal regulation provided by vegetated landscapes. In the second stage, hotspots of ES supply are identified based on a combination of spatial statistical techniques, which makes the identification method robust and less prone to the inherent sensitivity associated with each specific technique. When applied to the southern Italian regions of Campania and Basilicata, this approach facilitates a comparative assessment of the magnitude, configuration, and distribution of ES hotspots across the two areas. Because the framework can be readily adapted to any location where biophysical ES data are available, it provides planners and policymakers with robust, evidence-based guidance to support more sustainable and context-sensitive planning decisions.