Abstract: Managing worldwide urbanization and housing shortage in cities through a resilient development isan immense issue of today. This study states the risk with urban densification, at the expense ofgreenspace, which is crucial to maintain vital ecosystem services. The nonlinear response todisturbance in ecosystems, need to be emphasized both in planning and practice, to avoiddegradation and collapse. Despite general promotion of densification as a tool to decrease negativeurban impact on surrounding landscape, as to mitigate climate change, current strategies ofcompacting cities are argued to endanger future resilience. In this work, it is stressed that valuationof greenery in urban areas should include the recognition of uncertainty, safeguarding the availabilityof all forms of ecosystem services in a changing future. Applying a framework of social-ecologicalresilience, a case-study of Stockholm regarding valuation of greenery and ecosystem services inplanning and exploitation, as in continuous management, has been carried out. A wide range ofactors within the fields of green management, planning and exploitation have been interviewed.When compared with expressed visions in comprehensive plans and policies, results from interviewsshow severe gaps between planning and practice. Foresight planning in relation to adaptivegovernance, to enhance social-ecologic interactions, is suggested a tool to improve implementationand acknowledgement of ecosystem services in urban development and design. Further, enhancedcross-learning and knowledge exchange in the social-ecological system, should be improved throughinteraction and recognition of the variety of stakeholders and multi-functional green areas tostrengthen social-ecological resilience in the urban context. / Sammanfattning: Dagens intensiva urbanisering och bostadsbrist, betonar behovet av resilient stadsutveckling. Dennastudie understryker faran med förtätning på bekostnad av grönstrukturer, vilka är avgörande förupprätthållandet av livsnödvändiga ekosystemtjänster. Ekosystems icke lineära respons påstörningar, bör uppmärksamma i både planering och praktik, för att undvika utarmning eller kollaps.Tillskillnad från ofta framhållna fördelar med förtätning, som minskad inverkan på kringliggandegrönstrukturer och motverkande av klimatförändringar, vill den här studien framhålla hurförtätningsprocesser riskerar att försämra städers resiliens. För att säkra en framtida motståndskraftoch anpassningsförmåga till förändrade omständigheter, bör värdering av grönstrukturer i stadsmiljötydliggöra framtida osäkerhetsfaktorer i relation till ekosystemens förmåga att tillhandahålla olikatjänster. Utifrån ett social-ekologiskt ramverk har en fallstudie av hur grönstrukturer värderas iplanering- och exploateringsprocesser, samt inom allmänt underhåll, genomförts i Stockholm. Enbredd av aktörer inom planering, exploatering och grönskötsel intervjuades. I jämförelse meduttryckta visioner i olika översiktsplaner och policydokument, visar resultaten från intervjuerna påflera luckor mellan planering och utförande. En långsiktig planering i samband med ett socialekologisktresilient styrelseskick, som syftar på en större förståelse och interaktion mellan socialaoch ekologiska faktorer, föreslås förbättra såväl implementering som uppmärksammande avekosystemtjänster inom stadsutformning och utveckling. Vidare kan ett utökat lärande ochkunskapsutväxling mellan och inom social-ekologiska system, öka förståelsen för- och förstärkastäders social-ekologiska resiliens.

Urbanization is a key driver of habitat loss, ecosystem degradation and has a great impact on biodiversity. Exploitation of buffer zones surrounding conservation areas and green structures in urban environment can affect biodiversity through reduced total area of habitat, increased edge effects and lost connectivity on a landscape level. The previous regional development plans for the Stockholm region, had the purpose of leaving large green structures undeveloped to secure core areas of great biological value by focusing on a dense city core. However, the latest regional development strategy puts stress on the green wedges by shifting the focal areas of the development into suburban regional city centers, in many cases close to the green wedges. The purpose of this study was to map habitat loss and changes in the total area of the Järva green wedge, west of Stockholm, caused by development of housing areas in previously sparsley exploited buffer zones, during the period 2000 – 2015. The study uses theories of landscape ecology, remote sensing and GIS to map and quantify habitat loss between 2000 and 2015. Two different birds were used as surrogate species, one grassland habitat specialist – Corncrake (Crex crex) and one forest habitat generalist – Eurasian jay (Garrulus glandarius). The two different surrogate species were used to identify how loss of two nature types could influence biodiversity and connectivity for a group of species. Documents and development plans on regional and local scale were also used to map and predict further habitat loss and exploitation of the green wedge until 2030. The result of the study shows that grassland habitat lost nearly twice the area than forest habitat due to development of housing areas during the period 2000 to 2015. A total of 1.3 km² of grassland and 0.7 km² forest habitat were replaced by housing areas during the fifteen years covered in the study, and the Järva green wedge will have lost a total of 3.84 km² buffer zones by the year 2030. The Corncrake and other grassland specialist species is likely to get most affected when grassland suffered the greatest habitat loss in the area. Even though the Eurasian jay has a key ecological function for the Oak forest in the Järva green wedge and relies on forest habitat for successful breeding, the loss of forest habitat will probably not affect the habitat generalist species in the same way. On a regional scale, the study suggests that habitat loss and fragmentation may affect grassland specialist species more than forest generalist species. The overall connectivity in the Järva green wedge is likely to get affected by a shrinking total area caused by narrowing of the green wedge until 2030. The function of the Järva green wedge as a dispersal corridor for biodiversity in the Stockholm region will most certainly get affected by further loss of buffer zones caused by exploitation of land for housing areas.