Ecosystem properties, potentials and services – The EPPS conceptual framework and an urban application example

The concept of ecosystem services is an approach widely discussed to clarify and to assess the dependence of human society on ecosystems and landscapes. In order to better differentiate between the potential performance of ecosystems and landscapes and the quality needed or demanded by society, in this paper we suggest returning to the landscape potential concept developed by landscape ecologists in the 1970s. Emerging from both concepts is the hereinafter discussed EPPS framework – ecosystem (or landscape) properties, potentials and services – which is a way to better link both potentials and services to current planning and management practice and governance schemes. The empirical part of the paper shows applications of the EPPS framework in an urban region.