Ecosystem services analysis: Mimicking ecosystem services for regenerative urban design

This paper proposes using an understanding of ecosystem services to determine measurable goals for urban regenerative design that are based on site specific ecological reality. This is termed ecosystem services analysis. The usability of the ecosystem services analysis concept is tested through a case study of an existing city. The case study demonstrates how the concept could be used as a tool to evaluate the performance of an existing built environment, and how it could reveal places to intervene in the built environment to create a more robust, adaptable and cohesive system. This is important because more than half of all people live in urban environments, cities have a large negative impact on ecosystems, humans are dependent on ecosystems for survival, and issues such as climate change and biodiversity loss are already impacting on the built environment and people, and continue to become more urgent.