This paper explores a case study of a Swedish tool steel company undergoing a transition from traditional environmental management practices to an enterprise identifying its place as part of a social-ecological system. The Corporate Ecosystem Services Review (ESR) was utilized by the company to begin this process by focusing on ecosystem services to determine how an ESR approach contributes to environmental management in practice. What resulted moved beyond the ESR to a tailored methodology, the internalization of a systems perspective, and a proposed new environmental management system. The results of the study provide a concrete, effective method for internalizing a systems perspective through a focus on ecosystems and presents a case for further analysis into what made it successful. It also provides an example of translating theory into practice, illustrating how a company can engage in sustainable development by valuing and managing the resilience of social-ecological systems through identifying their place in that system. The value of the results can be high for the case study company as well as for business in general.

The aim of this study was to generate knowledge about how teachers embark on new subject content and how their understandings of ecosystem services evolve and change in teaching practice, and also what it means to be able to discuss the relationship between the ecological and social in terms of ecosystem services in a teaching practice in middle school. The teachers used the learning study model and variation theory to explore the object of learning, by trying to design an instruction that offers fifth grade students the possibility to develop their knowledge of ecosystem services. The learning study model is an interventionist approach, where the focus is on an object of learning. A group of teachers worked together and tested students, planned lessons and implemented, evaluated and refined the lessons in an iterative process. The theoretical framework, variation theory, is a theory of learning that focuses on how discernment of aspects affects the way we perceive our world and how variation can be used to promote learning. However, since the study aims at contributing to enhancing our knowledge of how teachers can develop their skills and their meanings of a new content in practice, the empirical data from learning study was then analyzed with the help of activity theory, and the cycle of expansive learning. The result of the study shows that it can be complicated to introduce a new educational content. However, the learning study model proved to be aneffective tool for developing teachers' knowledge of ecosystem services and how to teach this. Ecosystem services were developed as teachers worked systematically with the content in their practice. For example, when the students did not respond to the exercises and to the reasoning of the ecosystem services that the teachers had planned, contradictions were created and changed the learning object's meaning for the teachers. The recordings from the lessons made the contradictions that arose during the lesson visible. Ecosystem services were developed from being primarily a tool to describe the human needs of the non-human nature to a tool to be able to discuss sustainability issues and the relationship between ecological, economic and social dimensions.

O funcionamento dos ecossistemas é o fluxo de matéria e de energia ao longo dos seus componentes bióticos e abióticos. A manutenção de tal funcionamento é crucial para promover os serviços ecossistêmicos dos quais a humanidade depende. Atividades antrópicas, como a agricultura e a urbanização podem alterá-los significativamente e, por isso, o entendimento dos impactos positivos e negativos de tais alterações bem como o desenvolvimento de ferramentas de avaliação da biodiversidade são importantes para a conservação. A diversidade funcional é um componente da diversidade biológica que leva em conta o papel que cada espécie desempenha no ecossistema e, portanto, deve refletir o funcionamento do ecossistema de forma mais acurada. Esta tese teve por objetivos relacionar o funcionamento do ecossistema e os seus serviços a ações antrópicas, bem como propor a abordagem funcional como indicadora da biodiversidade de áreas naturais. No primeiro capítulo, avalio padrões espaciais e temporais da exposição dos tipos de vegetação que ocorrem no Brasil à luz artificial, um dos principais símbolos da urbanização e da vida moderna. Os resultados mostram que a maioria deles apresenta alguma porcentagem de sua área expostos à luz artificial. Em alguns deles, porém, ainda é possível encontrar o brilho natural do céu noturno, o que nos permite sugerir a elaboração de políticas de desenvolvimento de distribuição de luz com foco no mínimo impacto, ao contrário das políticas de mitigação adotadas por países onde a iluminação é excessivamente difundida. No segundo capítulo mapeio padrões espaciais e temporais da provisão de dois serviços ecossistêmicos (polinização e estoque de carbono) e um serviço ambiental (espaço para viver) e avalio os impactos da agricultura sobre estes serviços, na área coberta pelo cerrado, na região central do Brasil. Os serviços ecossistêmicos avaliados descaíram significativamente ao longo do tempo e a região conhecida como MATOPIBA (entre os estados do Maranhão, Tocantins, Piauí e Bahia) foi identificada como um importante remanescente. Por isso, recomendo a criação de unidades de conservação de proteção integral na área. Identifiquei também sobreposição da disponibilidade destes serviços com áreas indígenas, o que ressalta a importância da manutenção destas áreas para a disponibilidade dos serviços. No terceiro capítulo exploro, por meio de revisão bibliográfica, o status da diversidade funcional na literatura científica no campo da Conservação Biológica. Os resultados permitiram visualizar o paradigma da transferência de conhecimento e identificar o potencial desta abordagem para elaboração de indicadores da biodiversidade. Por fim, no quarto capítulo, estabeleço uma lista de espécies de plantas que podem ser indicadoras da diversidade funcional em áreas cobertas por cerradão no estado de São Paulo. Tais indicadores devem ser usados em conjunto para monitoramento e diagnóstico da biodiversidade quando o objetivo é manter o funcionamento do ecossistema. As conclusões do estudo contribuem para elucidar a interferência das atividades antrópicas nos ecossistemas naturais, para levantar formas de minimizá-los e para aprimorar as formas de avaliação da biodiversidade. / Ecosystem functioning is the flow of energy and matter through the biotic and abiotic ecosystems components. The maintenance of this functioning is essential to the ecosystem services provisioning upon which humans depend. Anthropogenic activities such as agriculture and urbanisation may change it. Thus, conservation strategies rely on the understanding of the positives and negatives impacts from this changes and on the development of measurements of biodiversity. Functional diversity is a biodiversity component which considers the role of each species in the ecosystem, and, as a consequence, may reflect the ecosystem functioning more accurately. This thesis aims the establishment of the relationships between ecosystem functioning, ecosystem services and anthrogenic activities as well as purpose functional approach as biodiversity indicator of natural areas. In the first chapter, I assessed spatial and temporal patterns of exposition of the Brazilian vegetation types to the artificial light which is one of the urbanisation symbols. The results show that most of them are affected by artificial light. However, in some of them it is still possible to find a natural sky background, which allow suggesting the formulation of light distribution policies focused on minimal impact instead of mitigation, as adopted by countries where light is excessively widespread. In the second chapter, I mapped spatial and temporal patterns of two ecosystem services provisioning (pollination and carbon stocks) and one environmental service (living space) and assessed the impacts of agriculture in these services in Cerrado area, in the central region of Brazil. The ecosystem services I assessed declined significatively over time and the MATOPIBA region (around Maranhão, Tocantins, Piaui, and Bahia States) was identified as an important remint. Thus I recommended the creation of strictly protected areas in that region. I also identify overlap of these services with indigenous land, highlighting its importance for the ecosystem services provisioning. In the third chapter I explored through literature survey, the status of functional diversity in the scientific literature related to the Biological Conservation field. The results allow visualise the paradigm of knowledge transfer and identify the potential use of this approach for developing indicators of biodiversity. Finally, in the fourth chapter, we established a list of plant species that are functional diversity indicators in cerradão areas in São Paulo State. These indicators should be use as a set for the monitoring and diagnosis of biodiversity when the goal is to maintaining ecosystem functioning. The conclusions of the study contribute to clarify some lack of knowledge concerned to the impacts of human activities on ecosystem functioning, to raise means to minimise them, and to improve means of ecological integrity assessment.

Questões ambientais e sócio-econômicas nem sempre coexistem de forma conciliada, o que pode opor a conservação da biodiversidade, a regulação climática, a produção e qua¬li¬da¬de da água, com outros fatores como a produção de energia, alimentos e fibras, e a geração de empregos. No Brasil, o código florestal prescreve as Áreas de Preservação Permanente como forma de garantir a manutenção dos Serviços Ambientais (SA), e os projetos de Pagamento de Serviços Ambientais (PSA) estão surgindo como forma de recompensar os provedores de SA, como o Projeto Conservador das Águas, a primeira experiência municipal brasileira, em andamento no Município de Extrema, MG. Apesar dos esforços, ainda são escassos os estudos que quantifiquem os benefícios econômicos dos serviços ambientais, fundamental para que estes sejam incluídos nas tomadas de decisões. O objetivo do trabalho foi quantificar e valorar os Serviços Ambientais hidrológicos da recuperação da vegetação, na sub-bacia do Ribeirão das Posses, em Extrema, através da modelagem ambiental. Utilizando o modelo InVEST (Integrated Valuation of Environmental Services and Tradeoffs) foram simuladas a vazão e o fluxo de sedimentos em um cenário anterior e posterior ao Projeto Conservador das Águas, um cenário sem práticas de conservação (Antropizado), e em cenários que priorizassem o reflorestamento ao longo das margens dos rios (reflorestamento ripário) ou nas encostas (reflorestamento das áreas íngremes). Os Serviços Ambientais foram estimados a partir do custo evitado da redução do tratamento de água e dragagem (custos off-site) e na erosão (custos on-site), em função da diferença entre os cenários, e foram comparados com o Pagamento por Serviços Ambientais e o custo de oportunidade, equivalente aos rendimentos da pecuária extensiva. Verificou-se que as estradas geraram 29% da perda de solos na sub-bacia, e as barraginhas, uma das práticas conservacionistas adotadas pelo projeto, diminuíram em 4% os sedimentos na foz da sub-bacia, e o reflorestamento de espécies nativas em 5%. Juntas, as duas práticas contribuíram para 9% de redução. A redução do fluxo de sedimentos do Pós-Projeto em relação ao cenário Antropizado foi de 40%. O reflorestamento ripário foi mais eficiente na redução de fluxo de sedimentos do que o reflorestamento das áreas íngremes e gerou maior redução nos custos de tratamento de água e de dragagem. Enquanto um reflorestamento ripário de apenas 5 m reduziu em 23% o fluxo de sedimentos, um reflorestamento nas áreas íngremes com a mesma área de floresta (áreas com declividade acima de 60%) reduziu o fluxo de sedimentos em 2%. Para um reflorestamento ripário de 30 m, o mesmo foi reduzido em 50%. Por outro lado, o reflorestamento das áreas íngremes foi mais eficiente na redução da perda de solos, e portanto, obteve maior redução dos custos on-site, pela redução dos prejuízos causados pela erosão. Os resultados mostram a importância de projetos como o Conservador das Águas, não só na melhoria das condições ambientais, mas principalmente na conservação de florestas nativas. Os pequenos agricultores são uns dos principais beneficiários devido à melhoria das condições sociais e ambientais, embora não sejam os únicos, uma vez que os benefícios vão além dos limites da sub-bacia, e acreditamos que os esforços para a preservação devem ser com¬par¬ti¬lha-dos pelos beneficiários indiretos, que no caso da sub-bacia do Ribeirão das Posses, seriam os usuários da água do Sistema Cantareira. A nossa sugestão para esta contribuição é de pelo menos 28% do Pagamento por Serviços Ambientais por área preservada. / Environmental and socioeconomic issues not always coexist in a reconciled manner, which may oppose biodiversity conservation, climate regulation, water quality and production, to other factors such as energy production, food and fiber, and job creation. In Brazil, the Forest Code prescribes the Permanent Preservation Areas in order to guarantee the maintenance of Environmental Services (ES), and the Payment for Environmental Services project (PES) are emerging as a way to reward the providers of ES, as Conservador das Águas project, the first Brazilian municipal initiative, underway in Extrema Municipality. Despite the efforts, there are few studies that quantify the economic benefits of ecosystem services essential for them to be part of decision-making process. The objective of this work was to quantify and assess the hydrological Environmental Services in the recovery of vegetation in Posses subbasin in Extrema, through environmental modeling. Using InVEST model (Integrated Valuation of Environmental Services and Tradeoffs) we simulated sediment and streamflow in a scenario before Conservador das Águas project (Pre-Project), after (Post-Project), another with no soil conservation practices (Anthropized), and others which prioritize reforestation of riparian areas (riparian reforestation) or in slopes (reforestation of steep areas). The Environmental Services were estimated based on the avoided cost of reducing water treatment and dredging (off-site costs) and erosion (on-site costs), as functions of the difference between scenarios, and they were compared to the Payment for Environmental Services and the opportunity cost, equivalent to the extensive livestock income. It was found that the roads contributed to 29% of the total soil loss in the subbasin, and barraginhas, one of the conservation practices adopted by the project, decreased sediment flow in the river mouth by 4%, and reforestation of native species by 5%. Together, the two practices contributed to a reduction in 9%. The reduction of sediments flow in Post-Project scenario in relation to Anthropized was of 40%. Riparian reforestation was more efficient in the reduction of sediment flow than the reforestation of steep areas, what caused greater reduction in the costs of water treatment and dredging. While a 5 m riparian reforestation reduced sediment flow by 23%, reforestation in steep areas with the same area of forest (areas with slope above 60%) reduced sediment flow by 2%. For a 30 m of riparian strip of reforestation, it was reduced by 50%. On the other hand, reforestation of steep areas was more efficient in reducing soil loss, and so it presented greater reduction in on-site costs by reducing the losses caused by erosion. Results showed the importance of projects such as the Conservador das Águas, not only in the improvement of environmental conditions, but mainly in the conservation of native forests. The main beneficiaries of these projects are small farmers by improving social and environmental conditions, but the benefits go beyond the subbasin boundaries, and we believe that efforts to preserve must be shared by indirect beneficiaries, which in the case of Posses subbasin are the users of water from the Cantareira System. Our suggestion for this contribution is at least 28% of Payment for Environmental Services by preserved area.

Samtidigt som fokuset på hållbarhetsarbete inom organisationer har ökat, har det även resulterat i frågor om hur företag skapar ett hållbart värde. Hållbarhet har definierats utifrån tre grundpelare: miljömässig-, ekonomisk- och socialhållbarhet. Inom tjänsteteori har intresset för hållbarhetsteorier ökat, men relationen mellan dessa områden är relativt outforskade. Detta är förvånansvärt då många organisationer är beroende av hållbart värdeskapande. Således är syftet med studien att alstra förståelse för hur aktörer skapar värden inom ett hållbart tjänsteekosystem. Studien utgår från ett makroperspektiv eftersom viktiga implikationer för värdeskapande kan upptäckas då hållbarhet genererar värde för flera aktörer. Det teoretiska ramverket omfattar tre delar; teori om tjänsteekosystem, hållbarhet och en sammanföring mellan dessa områden. Eftersom värdeskapande inom hållbara tjänsteekosystem är relativt outforskat valdes en kvalitativ och explorativ ansats för att undersöka hur hållbart arbete inom ett tjänsteekosystem bidrar till att skapa värde.  Analysen förankras i nio semistrukturerade intervjuer som genomfördes med respondenter från olika organisationer som tillhörde företagsklustret Paper Province. Intervjuerna kombineras med teori för att skapa en koppling mellan ett empiriskt fall och teori. Deltagande respondenter hade hög befattning inom respektive organisation, vilket var viktigt för att förstå organisationens struktur. Studien visar att hållbarhet inte bara ligger till grund för organisationers värdeskapande logik utan även skapar en grund för arbetsstrukturer. Genom att utgå från tjänstedominant logik ger analysen ett nytt sätt att se på hållbara aktörers värdeskapande. Inom det hållbara tjänsteekosystemet skapar aktörer förutsättningar för ett högre samhällsvärde till följd av hållbar resursintegration. / At the same time as the focus on sustainability work within organizations has increased, it has also resulted in questions about how companies create sustainable value. Sustainability has been defined based on three pillars: environmental, economic, and social sustainability. In service theory, interest in sustainability theories has increased, but the relationship between these areas is relatively unexplored. This is surprising as many organizations are dependent on sustainable value creation. Thus, the study aims to generate an understanding of how actors create value within a sustainable service ecosystem. The study is based on a macro perspective because important implications for value creation can be discovered as sustainability generates value for several actors. The theoretical framework comprises three parts; theory of service ecosystems, sustainability, and a merger between these areas. Since value creation in sustainable service ecosystems is relatively unexplored, a qualitative and exploratory approach was chosen to investigate how sustainable work in a service ecosystem contributes to creating value.  The analysis is anchored in nine semi-structured interviews conducted with respondents from various organizations that belonged to the Paper Province cluster. The interviews are combined with theory to create a connection between an empirical case and theory. Participating respondents held senior positions within each organization, which was important for understanding the organization's structure. The study shows that sustainability forms the basis for organizations' value-creating logic and creates a basis for work structures. Based on service-dominant logic, the analysis provides a new way of looking at sustainable players' value creation. Within the sustainable service ecosystem, actors create conditions for a higher societal value because of sustainable resource integration.

The presented dissertation entitled „Development and Validation of a Landscape Metrics Based Approach for Standardized Landscape Assessment Considering Spatial Patterns” addresses three main questions: I. Which ecosystem services depend on landscape structure? II. How can landscape metrics be used to achieve a standardized routine for assessing the impact of landscape structure on the hereon dependent ecosystem services? III. How can regional planning benefit from the consideration of landscape structural effects on the provision of ecosystem services? The PhD study was carried out in the context of the Climate Change adaptation project REGKLAM (funding code 01 LR 0802). The work package “Land Use” was conducted at the Institute of Soil Science and Site Ecology of the TU Dresden under the direction of Prof. Dr. Makeschin. The PhD study took place in the framework of a sub-work package of it, which was called “Integrated Land Use Assessment”. The aim of this sub-work package was the evaluation of Climate Change adaptation strategies at the landscape scale in a cross-sectoral manner. The ecosystem services concept was chosen as methodological framework for this purpose. Particular motivation of this PhD study was that landscape structural aspects are often not sufficiently considered in commonly used ecosystem services assessment approaches. A standardized assessment procedure regarding the impact of the composition and configuration of land use/ land cover types is not yet existent in contemporary planning approaches, neither in strategic environmental assessment. In my thesis, I developed in the period from 2010 to 2014 a methodological basis which addresses this challenge. My thesis was realized as cumulative dissertation, which consists of three articles. These articles are published in peer-reviewed, ISI-listed international journals, whereas the third article still is in press. The short introduction in chapter one gives information on the motivation and the structure of the thesis. In chapter two, the research hypothesis is formulated and scope and objectives are explained. Chapter three gives an overview of the history of landscape metrics, the state-of-the-art, and current research in topic. In chapter four, the model region, focus areas, and the methodological basis are described. The fifth chapter summarizes results of the three articles (Frank et al. 2012, 2013, in press). Discussions in chapter six critically reflect the methodology and identify limitations, strengths, and its contribution to regional planning and to decision-making. Furthermore, some suggestions for extending the approach to other ecosystem services, especially regulating services, are made and perspectives towards different research questions are shown. Chapter seven summarizes the main outcomes of the PhD study. The central output of the dissertation is a module of GISCAME, a land use change impact assessment platform for supporting regional planning. The landscape metrics based ecosystem services assessment approach facilitates calculation, combination, and interpretation of a choice of landscape metrics and, hence, the evaluation of the impact of composition and configuration of land use patterns on ecosystem services. I selected eleven focus areas in the planning region “Upper Elbe Valley/Eastern Ore Mountains” to demonstrate the application and validation of the landscape metrics based approach that I propose in my dissertation. With these use cases, I show that the landscape structure significantly influences the provision of the ecosystem services ecological integrity and landscape aesthetics. Within the first use case I could demonstrate that the afforestation planning can be enhanced by including landscape metrics in the planning process. Actual priority areas for afforestation do not contribute to ecological integrity at the regional scale. Landscape fragmentation, habitat connectivity, and landscape diversity must be taken into account in order to identify most efficient priority areas for afforestation in terms of enhancing ecological integrity. The second use case focused on the question, how landscape structure influences scenic beauty. By means of a survey, I performed a comparison between the landscape metrics based approach and landscape perception of 153 respondents. This test underpinned my assumption that a landscape metrics based routine allows conclusions on the value of landscape aesthetics. The third use case gives practical advice in the current planning challenge about how to enhance water erosion protection planning in the context of Climate Change. Here, I demonstrated that not only land use change in preferential water erosion paths, but especially the change of management strategies combined with an improvement of landscape structure have the capacity to reduce water erosion potential by 92 %. The results show that it is of great importance to consider landscape structural aspects in current and future regional planning questions because additional, relevant planning information becomes tangible. The comparison of the presented method with other landscape metrics based approaches for ecosystem services assessment shows that the interpretation of the landscape metric values in the GISCAME platform module goes one step further towards usability for planning support: its transparency, spatial transferability, and flexibility are the main strengths of the approach. However, there is a clear need to involve the impact of landscape structure aspects also regarding other ecosystem services.:Contents Contents I List of Figures III List of Tables IV Summary V 1. Introduction 1 1.1. Motivation 1 1.2. Structure and strategy 1 2. Scope and objectives 3 3. Background and context 5 4. Methods 8 4.1. Model region and focus areas 8 4.2. Assessment framework: GISCAME 9 4.3. Challenge of standardization 10 4.4. Approach for assessing biotope connectivity 13 5. Results 15 5.1. Assessment of ecological integrity: Frank, S., Fürst, C., Koschke, L., and Makeschin, F. 2012. A contribution towards a transfer of the ecosystem service concept to landscape planning using landscape metrics. Ecological Indicators 21: 30-38. 15 5.2. Relationship of structure and ecosystem service: Frank, S., Fürst, C., Koschke, L., Witt, A., and Makeschin, F. 2013. Assessment of landscape aesthetics-Validation of a landscape metrics-based assessment by visual estimation of the scenic beauty. Ecological Indicators 32: 222-231 17 5.3. Extended scope of application in current planning questions: Frank, S., Fürst, C., Witt, A., Koschke, L., and Makeschin, F. in press. Making use of the ecosystem services concept in regional planning - trade-offs from reducing water erosion. Landscape Ecology. DOI: 10.1007/s10980-014-9992-3. 18 6. Discussion 20 6.1. Critical reflection of the methods 20 6.2. Challenge of validation 21 6.3. Supporting decision-making and planning 22 6.4. Outlook 23 6.4.1. Extension of the LM set and assessment criteria 23 6.4.2. Extension by consideration of further ecosystem services and different research fields 23 6.5. Proposal for enhancement of practice relevancy of LMs 24 7. Concluding remark 26 References 27 Appendices 33 / Die vorgelegte Dissertation mit dem Titel „Entwicklung und Validierung eines auf Landschaftsstrukturmaßen basierten Ansatzes zur standardisierten Landschaftsbewertung unter Berücksichtigung räumlicher Muster“ behandelt die drei Hauptfragen I. Welche Ökosystemdienstleistungen hängen von der Landschaftsstruktur ab? II. Wie können Landschaftsstrukturmaße genutzt werden, um ein standardisiertes Bewertungsverfahren dieser abhängigen Ökosystemdienstleistungen zu ermöglichen? III. Wie kann die Regionalplanung von der Berücksichtigung der Effekte von Landschaftsstruktur auf die Bereitstellung von Ökosystemdienstleistungen profitieren? Die Promotions-Studie wurde im Rahmen des Klimawandel-Anpassungs-Projektes REGKLAM (Förderkennzeichen 01 LR 0802) durchgeführt. Das Arbeitspaket „Landnutzung“ wurde am Institut für Bodenkunde und Standortslehre der TU Dresden unter Leitung von Prof. Dr. Makeschin bearbeitet. Die Promotions-Studie erfolgte im Rahmen des Teil-Arbeitstaktes „Integrierte Landnutzungsbewertung“. Ziel dieses Teil-Arbeitspaketes war die Bewertung von Klimawandel-Anpassungs-Strategien auf Landschaftsebene in Sektor-übergreifender Weise. Zu diesem Zweck wurde das Ökosystemdienstleistungskonzept als methodischer Rahmen gewählt. Der spezielle Anlass dieser Promotion-Studie war, dass landschaftsstrukturelle Aspekte in gebräuchlichen Ökosystemdienstleistungs-Bewertungsansätzen oft ungenügend berücksichtigt sind. Ein standardisiertes Bewertungsverfahren des Einflusses von Zusammensetzung und Anordnung von Landnutzungs-/Landbedeckungstypen existiert weder in aktuellen Planungsansätzen noch in Umweltverträglichkeitsprüfungen. In meiner Dissertation entwickelte ich im Zeitraum von 2010 bis 2014 eine methodische Grundlage, welche diese Herausforderung angeht. Meine Promotion wurde als kumulative Dissertation, welche aus drei Artikeln besteht, umgesetzt. Diese Artikel wurden in begutachteten, ISI-gelisteten, internationalen Journalen veröffentlicht, wobei sich das dritte aktuell im Druck befindet. Die kurze Einleitung im ersten Kapitel informiert über die Beweggründe und die Struktur der Dissertation. Im zweiten Kapitel ist die Forschungshypothese formuliert sowie Geltungsbereich und Zeile erläutert. Kapitel drei gibt einen Überblick über die Geschichte der Landschaftsstrukturmaße, den aktuellen Forschungsstand und aktuelle Forschungsfelder. Im vierten Kapitel sind die Modellregion, die Fallstudien-Gebiete, sowie methodische Grundlagen beschrieben. Das fünfte Kapitel fasst die Ergebnisse der drei Artikel (Frank et al. 2012, 2013, im Druck) zusammen. Diskussionen in Kapitel sechs reflektieren die Methodik kritisch und identifizieren ihre Grenzen und Stärken sowie den Beitrag der Ergebnisse zu Regionalplanung und Entscheidungsfindung. Darüber hinaus werden einige Empfehlungen zur Erweiterung des Ansatzes für weitere Ökosystemdienstleistungen, insbesondere regulierende Leistungen, getroffen und Perspektiven zur Anwendung für andere Forschungsfragen werden aufgezeigt. Kapitel sieben fasst schließlich die wichtigsten Ergebnisse der Promotions-Studie zusammen. Das zentrale Ergebnis der Dissertation ist eine Erweiterung des Entscheidungsunterstützungs-Werkzeuges GISCAME. Der auf Landschaftsstrukturmaßen basierende Ökosystemdienstleistungs-Bewertungsansatz ermöglicht die Berechnung, Kombination und Interpretation einer Auswahl von Landschaftsstrukturmaßen und somit die Bewertung des Einflusses von Zusammensetzung und Anordnung von Landnutzungsmustern auf Ökosystemdienstleistungen. Ich wählte elf Fokusgebiete in der Planungsregion „Oberes Elbtal/Osterzgebirge“ aus um die Anwendung und Validierung des auf Landschaftsstrukturmaßen basierenden Ansatzes, den ich in der Dissertation vorschlage, zu demonstrieren. Mittels dieser Anwendungsfälle zeige ich, dass die Landschaftsstruktur die Bereitstellung der Ökosystemdienstleistungen ökologische Integrität und Landschaftsästhetik erheblich beeinflusst. Im ersten Anwendungsfall konnte ich zeigen, dass die Aufforstungsplanung durch die Einbeziehung von Landschaftsstrukturmaßen in den Planungsprozess verbessert werden kann. Vorranggebiete für Waldmehrung in ihrer derzeitigen Form tragen nicht zur ökologischen Integrität auf der regionalen Ebene bei. Landschaftszerschneidung, Biotopverbund und Landschaftsdiversität müssen vermehrt beachtet werden, um Vorranggebiete für Waldmehrung für eine Verbesserung der ökologischen Intaktheit effizienter anzuordnen. Der zweite Anwendungsfall richtete sich auf die Frage, wie Landschaftsstruktur die Landschaftsästhetik beeinflusst. Mithilfe einer Befragung verglich ich den auf Landschaftsstrukurmaßen basierenden Ansatz mit der Landschaftswahrnehmung von 153 Befragten. Dieser Test untermauerte meine Annahme, dass das auf Landschaftsstrukurmaßen basierende Vorgehen Rückschlüsse auf den ästhetischen Wert einer Landschaft zulässt. Der dritte Anwendungsfall gibt praktische Hinweise bezüglich der aktuellen Planungs-Herausforderung, wie Erosionsschutzplanung im Kontext des Klimawandels verbesset werden kann. In diesem Fall konnte ich zeigen, dass nicht nur Landnutzungsänderungen in präferenziellen Abflussbahnen, sondern insbesondere eine Änderung der Bodenbearbeitungsstrategie in Kombination mit verbesserter Landschaftsstruktur das Potential hat, die potentielle Wassererosion um 92 % zu reduzieren. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass es von großer Bedeutung ist, landschaftsstrukturelle Aspekte in aktuellen und zukünftigen Planungsfragen zu berücksichtigen, da somit zusätzliche, maßgebliche Informationen greifbar werden. Der Vergleich der vorliegenden Methodik mit anderen Ansätzen, die Landschaftsstrukturmaße nutzen um Ökosystemdienstleistungen zu bewerten, zeigt, dass die automatisierte Interpretation der Landschaftsstrukturmaße mittels des neuen Moduls in GISCAME einen Schritt in Richtung Nützlichkeit für Planungsunterstützung geht: Transparenz, räumliche Übertragbarkeit und Flexibilität sind weitere Stärken des Ansatzes. Jedoch gibt es eindeutig den Bedarf den Einfluss von Landschaftsstruktur auf weitere Ökosystemdienstleistungen einzubeziehen.:Contents Contents I List of Figures III List of Tables IV Summary V 1. Introduction 1 1.1. Motivation 1 1.2. Structure and strategy 1 2. Scope and objectives 3 3. Background and context 5 4. Methods 8 4.1. Model region and focus areas 8 4.2. Assessment framework: GISCAME 9 4.3. Challenge of standardization 10 4.4. Approach for assessing biotope connectivity 13 5. Results 15 5.1. Assessment of ecological integrity: Frank, S., Fürst, C., Koschke, L., and Makeschin, F. 2012. A contribution towards a transfer of the ecosystem service concept to landscape planning using landscape metrics. Ecological Indicators 21: 30-38. 15 5.2. Relationship of structure and ecosystem service: Frank, S., Fürst, C., Koschke, L., Witt, A., and Makeschin, F. 2013. Assessment of landscape aesthetics-Validation of a landscape metrics-based assessment by visual estimation of the scenic beauty. Ecological Indicators 32: 222-231 17 5.3. Extended scope of application in current planning questions: Frank, S., Fürst, C., Witt, A., Koschke, L., and Makeschin, F. in press. Making use of the ecosystem services concept in regional planning - trade-offs from reducing water erosion. Landscape Ecology. DOI: 10.1007/s10980-014-9992-3. 18 6. Discussion 20 6.1. Critical reflection of the methods 20 6.2. Challenge of validation 21 6.3. Supporting decision-making and planning 22 6.4. Outlook 23 6.4.1. Extension of the LM set and assessment criteria 23 6.4.2. Extension by consideration of further ecosystem services and different research fields 23 6.5. Proposal for enhancement of practice relevancy of LMs 24 7. Concluding remark 26 References 27 Appendices 33

This extended summary introduces the TEEB Russia projects and sketches the main outlines of the comprehensive reports TEEB Russia Vols. 1 and 2. Commissioned by the German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN), the TEEB Russia projects were funded by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU). They were supported by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment of the Russian Federation (MNR) with the active participation of experts from the Biodiversity Conservation Center (Moscow), Leibniz Institute of Ecological Urban and Regional Development (Dresden), Russian Academy of Sciences (A. N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution, the Institute of Geography, Center for Forest Ecology and Productivity, and the Institute for Systems Analysis), Lomonosov Moscow State University (the faculties of Biology, Geography, Economics and Zoological Museum), the Russian State Agrarian University - Moscow Timiryazev Agricultural Academy, and limited liability company «NextGIS».:1 The story of TEEB Russia 2 Ecosystem services of Russia: Why are they important? 3 Key findings of TEEB Russia 1 4 Objectives and key findings of TEEB Russia 2 4.1 Indicators of ecosystem assets 4.2 Refined estimate of ecosystem services for European Russia 5 Basic structure of ecosystem accounting in Russia 6 Main products of TEEB Russia (2013-2020) 7 Outlook – next steps

Climate change has created potential major threats to global biodiversity. The multiple components of climate change are projected to affect all pillars of biodiversity, from genes over species to biome level. Of particular concerns are "tipping points" where the exceedance of ecosystem thresholds will possibly lead to irreversible shifts of ecosystems and their functioning. As biodiversity underlies all goods and services provided by ecosystems that are crucial for human survival and wellbeing, this paper presents potential effects of climate change on biodiversity, its plausible impacts on human society as well as the setting in addressing a global crisis. Species affected by climate change may respond in three ways: change, move or die. Local species extinctions or a rapidly affected ecosystem as a whole respectively might move toward its particular "tipping point", thereby probably depriving its services to human society and ending up in a global crisis. Urgent and appropriate actions within various scenarios of climate change impacts on biodiversity, especially in tropical regions, are needed to be considered. Foremost a multisectoral approach on biodiversity issues with broader policies, stringent strategies and programs at international, national and local levels is essential to meet the challenges of climate change impacts on biodiversity.

Abstract Contactless mobile payments are a payment method done with a mobile phone and a contactless technology. Instead of paying with cash, a payment card or a cheque, a user can tap its mobile phone onto a terminal to pay. Across the globe, several markets have been embracing the need for new payment methods. In Asia, contactless mobile payments have been used since 2004. In some of the African countries, due to an insufficient banking industry, mobile payments have been the only electronic payment method. However, in Europe contactless mobile payments are still in their initial phase. The benefits of contactless mobile payments are that they are easier to use, faster and more secure. However, there are some implications. Firstly, the lack of standardisations regarding how the technology will work has led to an undefined ecosystem consisting of many stakeholders with different motives. Secondly, in order for contactless mobile payments to break significant ground the users need to change their existing payment methods and habits. This is a time consuming process, which will require consistency and patience. The research purpose of this thesis has been to define the contactless mobile payment ecosystem with its future potential on the European market. The research paradigm has been of an interpretive nature where the researchers’ interpretations on the information have been in focus. In order to answer the research purpose, an action research has been conducted, including an analysis the of Porter’s Five Forces model applied on the current contactless mobile payment ecosystem with its various stakeholders, the attendance at the annual NFC Congress in Austria as well as an experimental case study on Google. 3The findings of the action research have resulted in new definition of the current contactless mobile payment stakeholder ecosystem. In this new definition of the ecosystem, the user has been defined as the strongest force, hence has been placed in the centre encircled by mobile network operators, banks, merchants and transit authorities. In the ecosystem handset manufactures, operating system providers, technology vendors, cash handling organisations, card networks, POS terminal manufactures and governmental bodies have also been represented. The vision of the case study on Google has been to present a market entry strategy for how Google could enter the European market of contactless mobile payments. The research resulted in a proposition that Google would enter the market in the following order; the UK, France, Turkey, Russia, Germany, Spain and Italy. The conclusions of the research have been that contactless mobile payments will cut across an entire ecosystem, but that the ecosystem at the moment is not fully defined. To achieve a competitive position, a stakeholder has to deliver an outstanding user experience that is interoperable within the whole European market. Key­words: Contactless mobile payments, near field communication (NFC), mobile payment ecosystem, payment ecosystem, Google, Android

Thesis (LLD.) -- University of Limpopo, 2021 / This thesis, “Regulation, control and prevention of marine pollution in South Africa: A Comparative analysis between national and international legal framework” focuses on the existing laws, conventions, treaties and policies on the control and prevention of marine pollution. Various laws have been enacted in South Africa to prevent and control marine pollution. However, marine pollution continues to increase at a rapid rate. This study aims to establish a basic approach that is aimed at combating marine pollution through examining the regulation, prevention and control of marine pollution in South Africa, with a specific focus on the comparative analysis of national and international framework. To this end, a comparison is made between South Africa and other jurisdictions in Africa, Europe, Asia and Latin America. The reason for employing a comparative approach is to learn best practices and finding solutions to the problem of marine pollution. Thus, the international legal framework, regional framework and operations of intergovernmental bodies and non-governmental bodies on the effort of combatting marine pollution were analysed. The objectives of this study were to examine how marine pollution is prevented through the existing legal framework; to identify the reason for the increasing rate of marine pollution despite the existing legal framework promulgated to curb marine pollution; to determine the effectiveness of the newly created IMOrg, juxtaposing it with similar organisations in other jurisdictions and to propose amendments to legislation that prevent and control marine pollution to ensure effective protection of the marine environment. This study was guided by questions such as the following: Do the existing legal frameworks adequately protect and control marine pollution? What is the reason for the increase in marine pollution despite the existing legal framework regulating marine pollution? How effective is the IMOrg in ensuring that South Africa address marine pollution? Is there a need to promulgate more effective legislation preventing and controlling marine pollution? x The study adopted a non-empirical qualitative research design that does not include data collection, questionnaire, systematic data analysis, observations and/or interviews. The study relied on the library materials that include but are not limited to textbooks, reports, legislations, regulations, charters, policies, amendments to the legislation, journals or academic journals, government gazette, constitution, national and international journals. From the materials consulted, the study revealed the existence of a relationship between the national and international legal framework. However, such an existing relationship is not good enough to effectively prevent the marine environment from harm. This is because a plethora of national legislations that regulate the marine environment comprise less stringent measures to deter future contravention. The study recommends amendments to legislations that regulate marine pollution to impose penalties that have a deterrent value on parties. The study advises against the repealing of these legislations.