Zepp H., Mizgajski A., Mess C., Zwierzchowska I., 2016 - A Preliminary Assessment of Urban Ecosystem Services in Central European Urban areas. A Methodological Outline with Examples from Bochum (Germany) and Poznań (Poland). Berichte. Geographie und Landeskunde, 90, 1: 67-84

Abstract

We propose a methodology for the rapid assessment of provisioning and regulating urban ecosystem services (UES) in Central European urban areas on a medium scale. The methodology is based on the Urban Atlas database that is free of charge for all major urbanized areas of the European Union. The proposed preliminary assessment of ecosystem services in urban areas contributes to detecting UES that are related to biologically active surfaces. Compared to other studies, our selection of UES including recreational service is still rather readily comprehensible since only a selection can reasonably be applied in practice from the extended catalogues of ES. Our approach supports identification of areas for enhancing ecosystem services. In the final analysis, urban planners and environmental agencies will decide which UES should be addressed elaborating more sophisticated methods. In the context of applying the methodology to two selected central European metropolitan areas, Bochum (Germany) and Poznań (Poland), we discuss the potentials and restrictions of linking UES to the various categories of the database. Despite the overall larger area of open space and areas providing UES as well as for the provision of these areas per capita in Poznań, green urban areas are present in comparable distance from the residential areas in both cities. Green urban areas are more widely interspersed in Bochum than in Poznań. Connectivity of areas providing UES is higher in inner-city Poznań than in Bochum.

Full text

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Berichte  Leipzig
Harald , Bochum
Andrzej 
Carola , Bochum
Iwona 
A Preliminary Assessment of Urban Ecosystem Services in
Central European Urban areas. A Methodological Outline with
Examples from Bochum (Germany) and Poznań (Poland)
Eine Methode zur Ersteinschätzung potentieller Ökosystem-
leistungen in mitteleuropäischen Metropolräumen, dargestellt
am Beispiel von Bochum (Deutschland) and Posen (Poznań;
Polen)
Summary
We propose a methodology for the rapid assessment of provisioning and regulating
urban ecosystem services (UES) in Central European urban areas on a medium
scale. The methodology is based on the Urban Atlas database that is free of charge
for all major urbanized areas of the European Union. The proposed preliminary
assessment of ecosystem services in urban areas contributes to detecting UES that
are related to biologically active surfaces. Compared to other studies, our selection
of UES including recreational service is still rather readily comprehensible since
only a selection can reasonably be applied in practice from the extended catalogues
          
          
decide which UES should be addressed elaborating more sophisticated methods.
In the context of applying the methodology to two selected central European
         
potentials and restrictions of linking UES to the various categories of the database.
Despite the overall larger area of open space and areas providing UES as well as

in comparable distance from the residential areas in both cities. Green urban areas
           

Keywords: urban ecosystem services, assessment, Central Europe, Bochum,



Harald Zepp, Andrzej Mizgajski, Carola Mess und Iwona Zwierzchowska
1 Standardized methods are needed for regional comparisons of ur-
ban ecosystem services

scientists and is starting to be incorporated more and more into urban policymak-
ing. According to  and  and 
           
a perspective particularly useful for managing cities toward a sustainable devel-
opment”. Within the framework of urban restructuring on the metropolis and city
scale, rapid assessment of UES is necessary in order to localize areas that call for
intervention measures. Urban planners, decision makers, and the civil society need
to know and to be able to decide where to protect areas with favorable green and
blue infrastructure, where to mitigate adverse urban patterns posing stress or even
causing ecological disservices ( 2010,  and  2009), and
where to ameliorate areas with deteriorated environmental quality that might bear
potentials providing enhanced ES.
th MAES (Mapping and Assessment of Ecosystems and their Ser-

of 10 European cities (Maes 2016). It was elaborated in the framework of target
2 action 5 of the EU Biodiversity Strategy to 2020. Besides reporting on common
discussions among international scientists, this report was largely based on the
-
ly for comparisons on regional, national and international scales, methodologies to
assess ecosystem services are preferable that are not only based on standardized
databases, but also on comparable assessment tools.
In this article, we propose a methodology for the rapid assessment of UES in
Central European urban areas. The methodology is based on the Urban Atlas data-
base that is freely available for all major urbanized areas of the European Union.
Theoretical considerations justify our choice of the UES being addressed. In the
context of applying the methodology to two selected central European metropoli-

restrictions of linking UES to the various categories of the database.
2 Scope, classication and selection of ecosystem services for urban
landscapes
-
erated by the functioning of the ecosystems or come from the natural capital. Thus,
ecosystem services are situated at the intersection of the realm of nature and the

impose pressure on ecosystems that may reduce or eliminate ecosystem functions.

realized, it is unconscious; if it is not acknowledged or people are not aware of it,
then it is a potential service (cf.  et al. 2012). An investor who takes the vi-



69
Assessment of Urban Ecosystem Services
   et al.

           
quality of life (cf.  et al. 1997;  et al. 2002)”. If these ecosys-

them as urban ecosystem services (UES; according to  and 
1999;  et al. 2013). For practical reasons, in the following sections of this
paper, we treat urban ecosystem services as those generally perceived by the public

or individual actors.
-
spectives (Fig. 2); for instance from a biological or engineering science perspective
-

from these disciplines into urban design and political decision makers decide on the
implementations of measures and the realization of projects that may have positive
     
investors and many-voiced ideas expressed by members of the civil society.
In the literature, biological, social and economic perspectives are not often
clearly distinguished and are more or less mixed. Integrative valuing of ES has
been controversially discussed ( et al. 2010,    
et al. 2010). Furthermore, the services chosen, analytical models, and indicators to
quantify ecosystem services vary enormously in terms of perspective and spatial
scale. This can clearly be seen when comparing  (2012) and  (2016).
TEEB (2010) listed 22 types of ecosystem services, irrespective of the character
  
(CICES;  and  2010) is a proposal to structure such services.
Fig. 1: Ecosystem services at the intersection of nature and people

70
Harald Zepp, Andrzej Mizgajski, Carola Mess und Iwona Zwierzchowska
It was designed by EEA (European Environmental Agency) for EU member states,
but urban ecosystems have only recently been in the focus of this European ini-
tiative. Widely cited are  and , (1999) who also related the
concept of ES to urban areas. For Stockholm (Sweden), the authors distinguished
     
climate regulation, noise reduction, rainwater drainage, sewage treatment, and rec-
reational and cultural values. On a local scale,  (2009) investigated

-
ered recreation, climate regulation, and biodiversity.
 et al. (2012) included an urban example to illustrate their concept of
ecosystem properties, potentials and services (EPPS), namely climate regulation,
carbon sequestration and recreation.    -
ticular importance for urban ecosystems: (1) local climate regulation, (2) recreation
potential, (3) biodiversity potential, (4) food supply and (5) above-ground carbon
storage.  and  -
tem services in urban areas and underlying ecosystem functions and components.
 et al. (2013) explicitly investigated UES for recreation, climate regula-
tion, and biodiversity.
These examples only indicate the broad spectrum of UES studies. Recently
      -
search-based analyses with special focus on the urban heat island and the capac-
ity of vegetated areas to reduce surface and air temperatures ( et al. 2011) to
complex biophysical models and GIS-based abbreviated valuation schemes. In this
paper, we focus on Urban Ecology and set up a hierarchy of ES that is applicable
Fig. 2: Perspectives on ecosystem management in urban areas

71
Assessment of Urban Ecosystem Services
in urban landscapes. There are other services connected to ecosystems that can
    
and economy ( and  2003,  &  2015,  2012). Among
them, the recreational value of green urban spaces as well as open spaces is promi-
nent. Therefore, we consider it in our analysis. Hence, we exclude aspects of green
governance (e. g.,  and    et al. 2010), politics, and
environmental planning in favor of a natural science approach.
3 Mapping urban ecosystem services

and the respective scale level (the spatial extent and resolution), it is likely that
      et al. 2010,
-

results are presented following the results from our study areas:
a. Purpose and design
b. Scope of problemscape and concept
c. Analysis, assessment
d. Recommendation and results
e. Monitoring
3.1 Purpose and design
In terms of purpose,  et al. (2012) suggested mapping landscapes’ ca-
pacities to supply ecosystem services, a rather sophisticated theoretically sound
approach that is preferably applicable in rural areas. For urban areas in which the
processes are predominantly governed by human interventions, adaptations are not
yet available. -
 
  -
cially in preparatory planning processes, when several ecosystem services have
to be determined at the same and for the same area, it is not feasible to model the
underlying ecosystem functions in great detail (cf.  et al. 2010). Therefore,
abbreviated and preliminary assessment methods are needed.
3.2 Scope of problemscape and concept
In general, regarding an urban landscape from an ecological perspective means
either treating a city as one ecosystem or as a pattern of scattered natural, semi-nat-
ural or technical ecosystems (cf.  and  1999).
  
  -
 and  1977); the latter is restricted to green spaces and water
bodies hosting biocoenoses.  and 
nature into street trees, lawns, parks, urban forests, cultivated land, wetlands, lakes,
sea, and streams and thus exclude other spatial units that make up an urban area.

72
Harald Zepp, Andrzej Mizgajski, Carola Mess und Iwona Zwierzchowska
In this paper, we adopt an intermediary understanding of urban areas as being com-
posed of spatial units that show a gradient from semi-natural to technical systems.

-
anthropic species, which are associated with urban habitats. This class includes
urban, industrial, commercial, and transport areas, urban green areas, mines, dump-
ing and construction sites.” With -
bic state according to the degree of disturbance of the vegetation from undisturbed
natural (ahemerobic) to metahemerobic areas where vascular plants are absent. If
we understand ecosystem functions in a broader sense as biophysical processes that
take place in a quasi-natural manner, i. e., according to the laws of natural sciences,
we have to look for ecosystem functions in all types of ecosystems. Only then we
are able to fully make use of the concept of ES.
        & 
2010). In applying it, we focused on ES that are highly related to urban landscapes.
           
(Tab. 1). Services exclusively connected to isolated natural elements that are not
part of ecosystems, such as animal breeding in stables and religious connotations
to ecosystems were not evaluated. We considered surface water for drinking since
in some of Europe’s urban areas, surface water is used to provide that service after
    



material and food supply from urban ecosystems in provisioning urban populations.
Tab. 1: Classes of Provisioning and Regulating Services (according to CICES-
 &  2010) selected for a preliminary
assessment in urban landscapes
Provisioning services Regulating services
Cultivated crops, Reared animals and their
outputs
Filtration/sequestration/storage/ accumula-
tion by ecosystems
Wild plants, algae and their outputs -
tenance
Wild animals and their outputs Pollination and seed dispersal
Surface water for drinking Ventilation and transpiration
Fibers and other materials from plants,
algae and animals for direct use or process-
ing
Global climate regulation by reduction of
greenhouse gas concentrations
Materials from plants, algae and animals
for agricultural use Micro and regional climate regulation
Surface water for non-drinking purposes
Plant-based resources

73
Assessment of Urban Ecosystem Services
 -
tutes can become very expensive and allotments can make non negligible contri-
butions to meet basic nutritional requirements” is the argument of -
 &  (2013) referring to  et al. (2013). If not on a local
scale, at least on a regional scale, this service should be included in assessment
and evaluation. Mediation of smell/noise/visual impacts can be services of green


not covered in our scheme. The same is true for other services included in CICES,
            
lakes and sea is excluded. We assigned recreational value to urban green areas and
open spaces that are close to presumably populated urban areas as the only cultural
service we took into account.
3.3 Assessment method
Selecting the indicators is a crucial step. The indicators must be adapted to the
type of ecosystem, the prescription at hand to classify the UES. Assessing UES is
always an interpretative procedure. UES can only be mapped indirectly through
land cover, land use and other interpretation of landscape elements. Depending
on the scale, mapping base data can be more or less detailed ( & 
 & 
          
mentioned valuation methods, but did not address the mapping procedure. Here,
not only the scale matters, but also the problem of spatial heterogeneity (
et al. 2001) has to be taken into account.  et al. (2012) based indicators on
the land use type and assigned values such as indexed surface emissivity to express
the local climate regulation, or indexed habitat potential for bird species, and food
supply. They used look-up tables and regression models to rate the degree of ES
performance. We regard the proportion of sealed and unsealed surfaces, the type
of vegetation coverage as well as of surface water bodies as crucial indicators.

 -
drological cycle, and as an absorbing medium for harmful substances. In major
     
complex geometries. These geometries are attached to the land use, and this is the
reason why land use is taken as the basis to identify urban ecological units in most
studies. To be precise, land cover type is more appropriate than land use as land

of an area ( et al. 2013), e. g., a shopping mall, a workshop, or an admin-
istration building. Nonetheless, land use often substitutes for land cover due to the
non-availability of the latter.
Urban ecosystems services are connected to phenomena of various spatial
   
(cf.  2009). And indeed, urban landscapes exhibit intricate patterns of



Harald Zepp, Andrzej Mizgajski, Carola Mess und Iwona Zwierzchowska
Ecosystem services
selected from CICES v.4.3
→
↓
Land use classes after Urban Atlas
Provisioning services
Regulating services Overall ecosystem
services
Cultivated crops, Reared animals
and their outputs
Wild plants, algae and their
outputs
Wild animals and their outputs
Surface water for drinking
Fibres and other materials from
plants, algae and animals for
direct use or processing
Materials from plants, algae and
animals for agricultural use
Surface water for non-drinking
purposes
Plant-based resources
Sum of signicant provisioning
services
Sum of priority provisioning
services
Filtration/sequestration/storage/
accumulation by ecosystems
Hydrological cycle and water

Pollination and seed dispersal
Ventilation and transpiration
Global climate regulation by
reduction of greenhouse gas
concentrations
Micro and regional climate
regulation
Sum of signicant regulating
services
Sum of priority regulating
services
Sum of signicant services
Sum if priority services
Overall weighted prominence
of provisioning and regulation
services; Sum (Weight for sig-
nicant services: 0,5; weight of
priority services: 1,0)
 N N N N N N N
N0 0 N N I N N N 0 0 0 0 0
 I N N N N N N
N0 0 I I I I N N 0 0 0 0 0
 I N N N I N N
I0 0 I S I I I S 2 0 2 0 1
 I N N N I I N
I0 0 I S I S I S 3 0 3 0 1,5
 S N N N I I N
I1 0 S P I S I P 2 2 3 2 3,0
Isolated Structures N N N N N N N
N0 0 N N N N N N 0 0 0 0 0
Industrial, commercial, public, military and private units N N N N I I N
N0 0 I N I N N N 0 0 0 0 0
Construction sites N N N N N N N
N0 0 N I N I N N 0 0 0 0 0
Fast transit roads and associated land N N N N N N N
N0 0 N N N N N N 0 0 0 0 0
Other roads and associated land N N N N N N N
N0 0 N N N N N N 0 0 0 0 0
Railways and associated land N N N N N N N
N0 0 I N I N N N 0 0 0 0 0
Airports N N N N N N N
N0 0 I S N S N N 2 0 2 0 1
Land without current use N N N N N N N
N0 0 I I S S I N 2 0 2 2 3
Sports and leisure facilities N N N N N N N
N0 0 S S S S I I 4 0 4 4 6
Green urban areas N N N N N N N
I0 0 P P S P S S 3 3 3 3 4,5
Agricultural + Semi-natural areas + Wetlands P S P N P P N
P1 5 P P P S S S 3 3 4 8 10
Forests N P P N P N N
P0 4 P P P P P P 0 6 0 10 10
Water bodies N I P P S N P
N1 3 P P N P S P 1 4 2 7 8
Mineral extraction and dump sites N N N N N N N
N0 0 N S N N N I 1 0 0 0 0
 
Tab. 2: Linking land use classes with provisioning and regulating ecosystem services in urban areas

75
Assessment of Urban Ecosystem Services
Ecosystem services
selected from CICES v.4.3
→
↓
Land use classes after Urban Atlas
Provisioning services
Regulating services Overall ecosystem
services
Cultivated crops, Reared animals
and their outputs
Wild plants, algae and their
outputs
Wild animals and their outputs
Surface water for drinking
Fibres and other materials from
plants, algae and animals for
direct use or processing
Materials from plants, algae and
animals for agricultural use
Surface water for non-drinking
purposes
Plant-based resources
Sum of signicant provisioning
services
Sum of priority provisioning
services
Filtration/sequestration/storage/
accumulation by ecosystems
Hydrological cycle and water

Pollination and seed dispersal
Ventilation and transpiration
Global climate regulation by
reduction of greenhouse gas
concentrations
Micro and regional climate
regulation
Sum of signicant regulating
services
Sum of priority regulating
services
Sum of signicant services
Sum if priority services
Overall weighted prominence
of provisioning and regulation
services; Sum (Weight for sig-
nicant services: 0,5; weight of
priority services: 1,0)
 N N N N N N N
N0 0 N N I N N N 0 0 0 0 0
 I N N N N N N
N0 0 I I I I N N 0 0 0 0 0
 I N N N I N N
I0 0 I S I I I S 2 0 2 0 1
 I N N N I I N
I0 0 I S I S I S 3 0 3 0 1,5
 S N N N I I N
I1 0 S P I S I P 2 2 3 2 3,0
Isolated Structures N N N N N N N
N0 0 N N N N N N 0 0 0 0 0
Industrial, commercial, public, military and private units N N N N I I N
N0 0 I N I N N N 0 0 0 0 0
Construction sites N N N N N N N
N0 0 N I N I N N 0 0 0 0 0
Fast transit roads and associated land N N N N N N N
N0 0 N N N N N N 0 0 0 0 0
Other roads and associated land N N N N N N N
N0 0 N N N N N N 0 0 0 0 0
Railways and associated land N N N N N N N
N0 0 I N I N N N 0 0 0 0 0
Airports N N N N N N N
N0 0 I S N S N N 2 0 2 0 1
Land without current use N N N N N N N
N0 0 I I S S I N 2 0 2 2 3
Sports and leisure facilities N N N N N N N
N0 0 S S S S I I 4 0 4 4 6
Green urban areas N N N N N N N
I0 0 P P S P S S 3 3 3 3 4,5
Agricultural + Semi-natural areas + Wetlands P S P N P P N
P1 5 P P P S S S 3 3 4 8 10
Forests N P P N P N N
P0 4 P P P P P P 0 6 0 10 10
Water bodies N I P P S N P
N1 3 P P N P S P 1 4 2 7 8
Mineral extraction and dump sites N N N N N N N
N0 0 N S N N N I 1 0 0 0 0
 
Tab. 2: Linking land use classes with provisioning and regulating ecosystem services in urban areas

76
Harald Zepp, Andrzej Mizgajski, Carola Mess und Iwona Zwierzchowska
use types, -
ferent percentages of sealed surfaces into account (cf.  &  2011).
This refers to earlier approaches ( et al. 2001) to categorize the complexity
of the urban fabric by mapping Urban Structural Types. The resulting spatial units
provide a basis for assessment and evaluation of UES: They are characterized by
comparable eco-environmental properties (features) and are dened according to
the actual land use and are further dierentiated by attributes that describe the
environmental conditions. Thus, Urban Structural Types enable subdividing hybrid
urban landscape mosaics into physiognomically homogeneous units. Mostly, they
have an internal characteristic conguration, specic pattern of built-up areas and
open space. Each Structural Type exhibits a characteristic percentage of sealed
surface and vegetation structure
to -
   
terms of ecosystem services.
-
an-wide comparable land use data for urban areas with more than 100,000 inhabit-
ants. Land use data contain useful descriptions of land cover. Data sets are down-
   
Earth Observation data backed by other reference data, such as COTS navigation
-
responding mapping guide requires that interpreted areas should have a minimum
extension of 100 m to ensure accuracy and continuity of polygons. The minimum
mapping unit for Class 1 polygons is generally 0.25 ha; for agricultural land, for-
ests and water bodies it is 1.0 ha. Hence, the spatial scope required for applying
our scheme is for homogeneous spatial units exceeding 50 m x 50 m, equivalent to
0.25 ha, equivalent to the spatial resolution of Landsat TM, corresponding to 5 mm

            
selected UES (Tab. 1). UES, scale and spatial resolution match and allow for a
preliminary assessment. We tentatively valued the level of UES potential in four
 
rating has to be seen as the authors’ expert estimation. We then counted the number
             
provisioning and for regulating services. Lastly, we cumulated all priority and sig-
 


UES Signicance =
  
weight of priority services

77
Assessment of Urban Ecosystem Services
 
UES Signicance
1st class UES > 7.5
2nd class UES 
3rd class UES 
no signicance 
In order to assess the provision of recreational services, urban green areas and open
spaces (> 2 ha) were considered. No distinction was made for land use classes be-

and discontinuous dense urban fabric within 300 m and 1000 m of green urban
areas and within 300 m and 1000 m of open spaces was determined separately. Dis-
tance to green spaces is one of the most frequently used indicators to map physical
usage of green space for recreational purposes (Coles and Bussey 2000). A distance
 
visits in green spaces decreases (Grahn & Stigsdotter 2003; Nielsen & Hansen
2007). Open space was understood in a broad sense comprising the land use classes
agricultural, semi-natural areas, wetlands, forests, green urban areas, discontinuous

4 Study areas Bochum (Germany) and Poznań (Poland)
    


from south to north, from the Ruhr valley to the Emscher valley. Whereas the Ruhr
valley was incised by about 100 m into the Variscan Mountains during the entire
Pleistocene, the undulating relief and sediments north of the divide are a result of
glacial and periglacial processes during the two youngest glacial periods. Perigla-
cial cover beds in the south and loess deposits in most of the city’s surface together
with a temperate and humid climate throughout the year are the reason for favora-
ble agricultural conditions that were especially important in the pre-industrial peri-
od. The development of coal and steel industries during the 19th and 20th century
caused land use changes from rural to an urbanized landscape with areas for man-
ufacturing, coal mines, steel industries and residential areas. The structural change



  
the Greater Poland Lowland along the Warta River that crosses the city on an S-N
          

morainic deposits from the last glacial period as soil parent material. A vast land
surface within city’s administrative borders is dedicated to agriculture with mosaic


Harald Zepp, Andrzej Mizgajski, Carola Mess und Iwona Zwierzchowska


      

5 The spatial patterns of ecosystem services in Bochum and Poznań
   
           
    
             

grained patterns in which a core-periphery-gradient is less distinct. The former set-
tlement cores of today’s administrative area of Bochum can only be detected with
-
chum’s administrative area was subject to continued urban sprawl in the 19th and
20th century amalgamating clusters of coal mines, industrial and residential areas.
-
es, which split up the urban fabric. The southern and northern wedges are formed
by the Warta Valley, which is linked with the western and eastern green wedges as
tracks of ancient subglacial channels. The historical city itself is surrounded by a
more or less contiguous ring of urban green. The so-called regional green belt of
the Ruhr area forms the backbone of the green infrastructure extending north to
south at the western and eastern margins and two additional ones in the left and
right half of the map. In the south, along the Ruhr River and Lake Kemnade another
fairly extensive band is an area with varied UES. The size of the individual patches
with considerable value for the provision of UES as well as the proportion of the
-




in Bochum, the linear distance between Lake Kemnade and the inner city is about
7 km and access via streets is even farther (10 km).
-
scape patterns surrounding the administrative areas of both cities. Bochum is part

by mostly rural areas. However, perhaps most important for nature-based recrea-
tion is the vicinity to urban green and open space within walking distance to the

the overall larger area of open space and areas providing UES as well as for the
-



79
Assessment of Urban Ecosystem Services
Fig. 3: Preliminary assessment of overall provisioning and regulating ecosystem



Harald Zepp, Andrzej Mizgajski, Carola Mess und Iwona Zwierzchowska
     -

into a green ring at the turn of the 19th and 20th century. The Warta River and its


(S.L. sealed surface)
 Bochum  Bochum  Bochum

of total
area

of total
area
area/
capita
providing
UES [ha]
area/
capita
provid-
ing UES
[ha]
mean
patch
size
[ha]
(count)
mean
patch
size [ha]
(count)
Open space
• Agricultural +
Semi-natural areas +
Wetlands;
• Forests;
• Green urban areas;
• Discontinuous Very
Low Density Urban

• Water bodies
53.0   135.9 11.9
(1165)
6.0

1st class UES
• Agricultural +
Semi-natural areas +
Wetlands;
• Forests;
• Water bodies
 26.9 216.7 107.2 16.3
(725)
7.6
(515)
2nd class UES
• Discontinuous Very
Low Density Urban

• Green urban areas;
• Sports and leisure
facilities
12.3 12.0 59.0   5.1

3.0
(576)
3rd class UES
• Discontinuous
Medium Density
Urban Fabric (S.L.:

• Land without current
use;
• Airports
5.3 7.5 25.6 29.7  
(317)
2.1
(526*)
Sum of areas
providing UES
(1strd class)
    


(1617)
*without airport


Assessment of Urban Ecosystem Services
6 Discussion. Potentials and limitations of the preliminary assess-
ment method
-
-
lined that improving ES in urban areas should not be limited to open green spaces
or water bodies. On the other hand, caring for green urban infrastructure refers to
more than ornamental greening of houses and streets. We propose rethinking po-
tential ecosystem services for the total urban area.
One could argue that green urban spaces according to the Urban Atlas database

urban space. Unfortunately the Urban Atlas does not distinguish between agricul-
-
system service assessment and evaluation. However, it can be overcome by using
additional sources of land use or land cover information based on which wetlands
and semi-natural areas can be extracted for ES analysis.
The illustrated method complements the analogue matrix suggested by Burkhard
et al. (2012) that was designed for a regional scale. The special land use types and in-


between UES and urban structural units that are available for all European metropol-
itan areas at the same level of detection. Thus, comparisons and preliminary evalu-
ations of the UES performances are facilitated. This is clearly shown when compar-
   
that provide UES than Bochum, whereas Bochum is equal in terms of the provision
of green urban spaces. Bochum’s inner-city green infrastructure lacks connectivity

          -
ban fabric in reach of green urban areas and of open spaces within 300 or



Harald Zepp, Andrzej Mizgajski, Carola Mess und Iwona Zwierzchowska

urban planning. Bochum’s comparable level of green urban area provisioning is on
the one hand due to left-over areas from the industrial era and on the other hand is
due to the successful restoration of former coal mines and industrial sites.
Considering urban structural units on city scales allows for an overview. Neither
single trees nor plant containers and linear elements such as tree rows, alleys and
front yards are taken into account. Thus, detailed elements undoubtedly providing
ES are neglected. In densely sealed urban areas, further potential ES may come
from green walls that were not discussed in this paper. The approach has several
 
or mountainous areas, the assessment scheme is not applicable for regulating ser-

(bedrock, sediments, and soils) and groundwater are not considered. Water cycle



subject to further studies. Pollination and seed dispersal in parks and on arable land
varies with species composition and management. Decomposition of contaminants

the surfaces materials that remain unknown.
Compared to other studies, our selection of UES including recreational service
is still rather readily comprehensible since only a selection can reasonably be ap-
   
planners and environmental agencies will decide which ES should be addressed in
    
-
-
posed preliminary assessment of provisioning and regulating ecosystem services in
urban areas on a medium scale contributes to detecting UES that are related to bio-
logically active surfaces. It helps to raise awareness for policy makers who decide
which ecosystem services should be selected for detailed analyses in which areas.
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
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