title: Measurement, collaborative learning and research for sustainable use of ecosystem services: landscape concepts and Europe as laboratory.
abstract: Policies at multiple levels pronounce the need to encompass both social and ecological systems in governance and management of natural capital in terms of resources and ecosystems. One approach to knowledge production and learning about landscapes as social-ecological systems is to compare multiple case studies consisting of large spaces and places. We first review the landscape concepts' biophysical, anthropogenic, and intangible dimensions. Second, we exemplify how the different landscape concepts can be used to derive measurable variables for different sustainability indicators. Third, we review gradients in the three dimensions of the term landscape on the European continent, and propose to use them for the stratification of multiple case studies of social-ecological systems. We stress the benefits of the landscape concepts to measure sustainability, and how this can improve collaborative learning about development toward sustainability in social-ecological systems. Finally, analyses of multiple landscapes improve the understanding of context for governance and management.
authors.affiliation: School for Forest Management, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Skinnskatteberg, Sweden. per.angelstam@slu.se
authors.forename: Per
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Angelstam
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Grodzynskyi
authors.forename: Kjell
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Andersson
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Axelsson
authors.forename: Marine
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Elbakidze
authors.forename: Alexander
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Khoroshev
authors.forename: Ivan
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Kruhlov
authors.forename: Vladimir
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Naumov
mesh_terms: D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D017753:Ecosystem; D005060:Europe; D005843:Geography; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning