Landscape service capability, landscape service flow and landscape service demand: A new framework for landscape services and its use for landscape sustainability assessment

Creating methods to achieve sustainable development is a global challenge faced by civilization in the 21st century. As an operational element of sustainability science, landscape sustainability science (LSS) plays an important role in the development of methods for sustainable development. Landscape services (LS) is a newly emerging concept associated with ecosystem services (ES) that exhibits great potential for promoting landscape sustainability research despite its nascent stage of development. In this article, the historical development of the LS concept is reviewed, and the special implications and advantages of LS relative to ES for landscape practices are further expanded. Furthermore, a sustainability-oriented LS conceptual framework specifically developed for the integration of LS and landscape sustainability research is proposed. We refer to this framework as the landscape service capability-flow-demand (LSCFD) framework. Finally, the prospects for the application of the new framework in landscape sustainability assessments are explored. By using LSCFD, we suggest that a distinction be made between landscape service capacity (LSC), landscape service flow (LSF), and landscape service demand (LSD). LSC refers to the long-term potential of a landscape for producing various types of materials, energy, information, conditions, and effectiveness that are valued by people. LSF refers to the transmission process for material, energy, information, conditions and effectiveness from a landscape to benefit people that occur either within or across the landscape. LSD is the societal dimension of LS and refers to the types and volume of material, energy, information, conditions, and effectiveness that a landscape’s inhabitants need to satisfy their existence, livelihood, and development. Based on the LSCFD framework, landscape sustainability assessments can be performed by considering the following four areas: LSC sustainability, LSF sustainability, LSD sustainability, and the dynamic equilibrium relationships among the other three areas. Thus, various types of LS capabilities, integrated services capabilities, and the diversity and balance of LS demands should be evaluated. Additionally, analyzing the supplying regions of LS flow, spatial orientation of the population that benefits, transmission media, transmission mechanism, and transmission limiting factors is essential to explore the dynamic equilibrium relationships between LS capability, flow, and demand. The LSCFD concept framework of LS provides a method for implementing LSS into actual practice. In the context of global environmental changes and sustainable development, the LSCFD framework of LS will definitely contribute to future research.