Title: State of the art of ecosystem services research at the global level: a multiscale quantitative review

Authors: Sandro Sacchelli; Sara Fabbrizzi; Iacopo Bernetti; Silvio Menghini

Addresses: Department of Agricultural, Food and Forest Systems Management, University of Florence, P. le delle Cascine 18, Florence, Italy ' Department of Agricultural, Food and Forest Systems Management, University of Florence, P. le delle Cascine 18, Florence, Italy ' Department of Agricultural, Food and Forest Systems Management, University of Florence, P. le delle Cascine 18, Florence, Italy ' Department of Agricultural, Food and Forest Systems Management, University of Florence, P. le delle Cascine 18, Florence, Italy

Abstract: A literature review focused on ecosystem services (ES) research on a worldwide level was performed. The work considered a quantitative analysis based on text mining. Digital information derived from more than 13,000 scientific papers was processed. Temporal trends of ES, the primary research interest, and specificities of different contexts were depicted. Based on a multiscale approach, the above parameters were defined for the global level, regions of the world and countries. The results focused on the relation among ES issues with: 1) techniques for the monetary quantification of ES; 2) the investigation of payments for ecosystem services at a regional scale; 3) the analysis of sustainability pillars. The applied methodology was an updatable and flexible approach useful for the quantitative literature review of specific ES branches, as well as for gap analysis. The final remarks concentrated on future improvements to facilitate the widespread and user-friendly diffusion of the method.

Keywords: ecosystem services; quantitative literature review; text mining; economic evaluation; geographic analysis; multiscale approach; sustainability pillars; payments for ecosystem services; PES; decision support system; socio-economic improvement of developing countries.

DOI: 10.1504/IJESD.2017.087259

International Journal of Environment and Sustainable Development, 2017 Vol.16 No.4, pp.359 - 378

Received: 03 Nov 2016
Accepted: 03 Mar 2017

Published online: 11 Oct 2017 *

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