Ecosystem Services Guiding Built Environment Design—Understanding the Impacts of Building Practice on Ecosystems and Their Fundamental Contribution to Human Wellbeing

This research presents two novel ecosystem services assessment (ESA) approaches to quantitatively (I) and qualitatively (II) assess the built environment (BE) on ecosystem services (ES) provision. Therefore, this paper offers a unique view at value creation and greater responsibility of BE developments. Societal livelihoods and global economies depend on ES which arise from healthy functioning ecosystems. Yet, the BE lacks the understanding and fails to address this ecological foundation. ESA bridges this deficit and communicates both the losses and contributions to human wellbeing in BE practice. The application to different case studies demonstrates how ESA systematically identifies shortcomings, potentials, trade-offs, and synergies while allowing for the redefinition of urban regulations and optimization of design. (I) The quantitative approach utilizes easily accessible ES data with global coverage for benchmark setting. The results emphasize significant decline in the conversion of natural to urban environments with an economically measurable societal deficit of the ES lost. (II) The qualitative approach enables a detailed understanding of construction impacts on the environment. It exposes ES losses throughout a building’s entire lifecycle, leading to general but also lifecycle-specific requirements for the provision of supporting ES. A subsequent review of common green roofs and facades as nature-based solutions reveals their unfulfilled potential. This highlights the current immaturity of the BE to rebuild a resilient biosphere and inability to safeguard prosperous living conditions for mankind. Therefore, ESA offers the blueprint to transform the BE into the key driver to achieve sustainable development goals within planetary boundaries.