Assessing ecosystem services across scales: Potential, supply and demand of provisioning and cultural services

Earth’s ecosystems deliver a wide range of benefits, known as ecosystem services, that are essential for maintaining human welfare and well-being, including the provision of raw materials or opportunities for recreation. These services arise from complex interactions between ecological, social, and economic systems, and depend on both the ecosystems’ ability to supply them and society’s demand for them. Often, the places where services are produced are different from where they are used, creating spatial mismatches that can lead to overuse. Their production and consumption patterns also change in time. Assessing ecosystem services across multiple spatial and temporal scales is therefore crucial for understanding the interactions between their supply and demand and for identifying where services are generated, where they are used and what influences their use patterns.

In her doctoral thesis, Anita Poturalska applied the ecosystem service framework to analyze spatial and temporal patterns of ecosystem service potential, supply, and demand. She studied the provisioning service of wood across Europe and cultural ecosystem services provided by urban green spaces in Finnish cities.

With regard to wood production, the potential, supply and demand of wood ecosystem services were first evaluated across Europe in a spatio-temporal context. Then, using the spatial accessibility methodology, the balance of the supply–demand relationship of European wood resources at different transportation distances was examined. The results show that wood potential, supply, and demand have all increased across Europe, with supply consistently exceeding demand. While Europeans generally enjoy good spatial access to wood resources, rising levels of wood exploitation may compromise forests’ capacity to deliver other ecosystem services. The findings related to cultural ecosystem services in Finnish urban areas reveal that subjective spatial characteristics of green spaces, particularly perceived accessibility, play a more significant role in encouraging frequent interactions with nature than ecological attributes or the actual consumption of cultural services. This suggests that urban residents primarily demand better access to green spaces in order to recognize, enjoy, and benefit from their capacity to provide high-quality cultural ecosystem services close to their homes.

Overall, Poturalska’s thesis demonstrates the value of mapping ecosystem service potential, supply, and demand to monitor European forests, support development strategies, and inform more sustainable resource management. In urban contexts, the insights into green space use highlight the importance of human perceptions in fostering regular engagement with nature. This information enables city planners to improve access to green spaces, which provide vital cultural benefits to urban residents.