Content analysis of ecosystem service concepts in comprehensive plans for Malmö municipality in southern Sweden

• Supported by the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency a research project is developed in close collaboration with seven coastal municipalities in the county of Skåne in southern Sweden. Since the municipalities along the coastline face a range of environmental challenges, several case studies are aimed at understanding local municipality planning processes. The overall research objective is to understand the premises of implementing the Ecosystem Service (ES) approach in municipal planning and decision making. This case study examines to what extent ES concepts are accounted for in Malmö municipality comprehensive plans through a content analysis of ES concepts in the 1980, 1990, 2000, and 2012 plans. The ES concepts were categorized according to the 2005 Millennium Ecosystem Assessment into supporting, provisioning, regulating and cultural services. Preliminary results show that the “ecosystem service” concept itself is not used before the 2012 comprehensive plan. Quantitative analysis of the total number of different ES concepts used in the comprehensive plans shows a large increase from 1980 to 1990 and thereafter a gradual decrease to 2000 and 2012, where 2012 is lower than 1980. The introduction of the Swedish natural resources law in 1987 could explain the peaking number in 1990. If latter comprehensive plans build upon former, the concept usage can be interpreted as increasing from 1980 and forward. These results indicate a shift into using the ES approach in municipality planning processes. Qualitative analysis shows that there is a change in the ES concepts used, e.g. “land use” and “green areas” in 1980 and “biological life cycle” and “biodiversity” in 2000 indicates a shift in municipality planning processes towards a more holistic view of the importance of ecosystems for a sustainable society and healthy life. Although somewhat uncertain, these results could indicate an introduction of the ES approach in the Malmö municipality planning processes.

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