Urban Ecosystem Services and Landscape-Based Approaches for a Sustainable Built Environment. Sustainability

The concepts of ecosystem services (ES), landscape services (LS), and urban ecosystem services (UES) have gained wide recognition within the international scientific community and are increasingly employed in urban and landscape planning and design, particularly in relation to green infrastructure and nature-based solutions. Nevertheless, their application in urban contexts often reveals theoretical and operational shortcomings, especially when ecological frameworks are transferred to cities without adequate consideration of their spatial, cultural, and design-specific characteristics. This paper examines the use of ecosystem services in urbanized environments and reflects on the contribution of urban planning theory to this evolving debate. While many operational approaches to UES have been developed within environmental and ecological disciplines, the complexity of urban contexts is still not fully captured, often resulting in interpretations that only partially address their multidimensional nature. This suggests an opportunity for stronger integration between ecological frameworks and urban planning perspectives. The article identifies key critical issues in the relationship between ecosystem services and urban environments, arguing for the need to reframe UES through a landscape-based approach. By introducing landscape services as a mediating concept between ecological processes and the built environment, the paper highlights the relevance of spatial structure, design intentionality, and landscape configuration in shaping environmental performance and urban sustainability. The proposed perspective aims to support the development of more context-sensitive and design-informed interpretations of urban ecosystem services, contributing to the advancement of sustainable built environment strategies.