Making landscape services tangible

Landscapes provide the physical foundation for life and simultaneously give us space for living, working, recreation, culture, and commerce. The added quality of landscapes for humans can only be fostered when landscape benefits are identified and made explicit. At present, this occurs far too rarely in spatially relevant projects. The participatory approach of ‘landscape services’ can be used to identify the functions of landscapes that contribute direct economic, social, and/or ecological benefits to individuals and wider society. In this way, landscape services provide an important basis for dialogue in the design of landscapes. The present factsheet supports implementation of the Swiss Landscape Concept adopted in 2020, in addition to other political-societal initiatives.