Eco-System Services

With smarter urban planning, we include the nature as optimally as possible in our daily lives. Resilient ecosystems provide important values for our survival, health, prosperity and quality of life. Such ecosystems offer us services and functions that have proven to be superior to equivalent technological solutions, and they often create positive synergies.

Creating value through ecosystem services

Increased land value through eco-system services

We use ecosystem services to develop long-term, vibrant cities where people want to live and work. The attractiveness of living near a park or green space is reflected in property values, and differences in property prices can be used to assess how much people are willing to pay for the surrounding environment.

Access to a park is one of the urban qualities that has the greatest impact on the price of a condominium, according to Boverket, the Swedish National Board of Housing, Building and Planning. In Stockholm, Sweden, the price of a condominium with access to a park within one kilometer increases by up to 2300 SEK/sqm of living space. The more parks in close proximity, the greater the price increase.

Cities for better health and well-being

Being close to and in green spaces encourages physical activity such as exercise, playing and outdoor activities, which prevents a number of physical illnesses. Mental health and stress are also reduced through lower blood pressure, heart rate and the reduction of stress hormones. Greenery purifies air by filtering and capturing pollutants.

Vegetation and unpaved land reduce harmful noise and creates calmer environments with birdsong and other natural sounds, which are good for us. Greenery and nature also contribute to a more even temperature, increased humidity, sun and wind protection, which is particularly important for sensitive groups such as the elderly, people who are ill, and children.

Effective solutions to future water challenges

In Sweden, floods cause around three thousand damages per year, resulting in incalculable costs for Swedish municipalities. To prevent flooding now and in the future, our cities need to be equipped to deal with large amounts of water in a short time. The technical systems are in most cases too costly and difficult to expand to cope with this.

Natural basins, porous, permeable soil and vegetation help to retain, store, filter and purify water from pollutants and prevent both floods and droughts. Preventive nature-based solutions are both simple and cost-effective.

Method for eco-system service analysis

With our own eco-system service analysis method WEST, we can both analyse and assess the eco-systems that exist today and find the best nature-based solutions for maintaining, developing and creating new ones in connection with various projects. Our method consists of four steps: inventory, analysis, design and management, where we gather the necessary expertise on ecology, water and social sustainability issues within the landscape architecture department.

The results are usually presented in a report with maps, diagrams, text and images. The method is suitable for projects of all scales, from general planning to site-specific projects. With WEST, we can easily monitor the behaviour of eco-system services in projects over time.