Assessing the impact of land-cover changes on ecosystem services: A first step toward integrative planning in Bordeaux, France

- We use free tools and open data to study changes in ecosystem services (ES).
- We describe a strategy to include stakeholders in ES assessment.
- We provide relevant ES information for integrative urban planning.
- Land change decisions that ignore policy measures for ES tend to provide lower ES.

The quantification and integration of ecosystem services (ES) into urban planning decisions is becoming increasingly important. However, studies that quantify and analyze the impacts in terms of ES changes are still scarce. We analyzed multiple ES provided by the landscape of the Urban Community of Bordeaux (CUB), in France, between 1990 and 2006 as a result of land use and cover change (LUCC) with Corine Land Cover and other open data. These ES were selected with the help of local stakeholders and were calculated using a spatially explicit modeling approach with InVEST and own-produced models. It was found that all ES, except erosion regulation, have decreased as a consequence of LUCC. Results also suggest that LUCC change decisions which do not consider policy measures for ES protection tend to generate land use patterns providing lower levels of ES. This spatial explicit approach to ES modeling enables an informed discussion with stakeholders and may be used to effectively implement, monitor, and communicate future planning policies.