Biodiversity and ecosystem services dashboards to inform landscape and urban planning: a systematic analysis of current practices

Abstract

Guiding the transformation of cities and regions towards more sustainable pathways requires a deep understanding of the complexities of socio-ecological systems. This entails gaining insights into the status and trends of biodiversity, ecosystems and their services (BES), as well as navigating complex governance and power structures, particularly in contested spaces. Digital dashboards, understood as visual representations of key information, could effectively communicate complex BES information to decision makers and planners in landscape and urban planning, enabling more informed decisions. While dashboards are increasingly being used in spatial-related applications, the lack of scientific understanding regarding the emerging applications of BES information in dashboards underscores the pressing need for research and review in this area. This study aims to identify and analyze contemporary case studies of BES dashboard applications to explore their potential role, which can effectively support decision-making in landscape and urban planning. We develop a conceptual framework of interlinkages between BES dashboards and landscape planning processes and apply this framework to analyze 12 state-of-the-art BES dashboard applications from Asia, Australia, Europe, North and South America. Our results reflect emerging practices of dashboards visualizing BES information, which varied in purposes, content, functionalities, visual design, and output features. The dashboards represented/covered a total of 66 BES indicators, including tree health, forest status and functionality, green and blue spaces connectivity, and specific components of biodiversity. Further research on user demands and real-world impacts is necessary to enhance the effectiveness of BES dashboards in informing landscape and urban planning for people and nature.