The evaluation of landscape services: A new paradigm for sustainable development and city planning

The paper provides a methodological framework in order to investigate, map and evaluate the landscape, understood as multi-dimensional complex system. A possible landscape knowledge-related approach seeks to recognize the landscape services spatial distribution on the territory. The management of multi-dimensional geospatial data, indeed, allows to face contemporary environmental matters regarding continuous biodiversity loss, ecological fragmentation and acceleration of climate change. The GIS provides helpful tools for systematization, management and analysis of spatial indicators, which describe and quantify the type of ecosystem and anthropic services. The paper proposes the development of a Spatial Decision-Making Support System (SDSS), in sync with GIS data-set and multi-criteria method AHP. The SDSS is useful to develop a landscape services thickness map and to define possible territorial transformation scenarios. The recognition of the landscape services can support the decision-making process referred to a sustainable management and planning, which are still an open investigation field.