Ecosystem services in urban ecological infrastructure in Latin America and the Caribbean: how do they contribute to urban planning?

Abstract

We developed a conceptual framework that describes the key role of ecosystem services in urban ecological infrastructure. From this framework we analyze how research on ecosystem services has been addressed in cities of Latin America and the Caribbean, in order to discuss their incorporation into policies of urban planning, in the context of nature-based solutions and sustainable development goals. Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Argentina represent 90% of research in urban ecosystem services, all of them except Colombia had carried out studies considering green, blue and gray-hybrid infrastructures. However, green-hybrid infrastructure clustered most of the studies. Ecosystem service supply component and intermediate beneficiaries are the most studied. Our results show that most studies have not been developed from the perspective of the biophysical, sociocultural or economic assessment of ecosystem services, on the contrary we recognized or deduced them from proxy variables found within the studies. Our findings suggest that the study of urban ecosystem services in Latin America and the Caribbean is in development and has begun to increase in the last decade. However, we found that the incorporation of urban ecosystem services in urban planning is low, but at the same time, it is in a promising development related to the application of innovative actions such as nature-based solutions and in support of the new global urban agenda.