ECOLOGIES OF COHESION. An ecological perspective on territorial cohesion through the lens of landscapes as social ecological systems.

Urbanization together with growing human activities is leading to increasing marginalization and regional inequalities. While cities are mostly associated with economic success and power, the inland areas – defined as territories remote from the delivering of services such as health, education, and mobility – are undergoing a process of socio-economic decline. Nevertheless, inland areas are crucial in the delivery of goods and services to society. The multiple ways society benefits from ecosystems is captured by the definition of “Ecosystem Services” (ES), and its integration into regional planning can help researchers and policy-makers to identify trade-offs between ecological and socioeconomic aspects. On that account, this dissertation investigates regional interdependencies through the lens of ES, proposing an ecological perspective on territorial cohesion. The analysis builds on the concept of landscapes – conceived as the result of the interplay between human and nature through the perception of people – framed in this work as social-ecological systems. The spatial relations within systems are assessed through the concept of ES bundles and developing it in the direction of the supply-demand perspective. Yet, as benefits from nature do not occur independently but often require significant human contributions, the role of social systems is further analyzed though ES co-production. Within this theoretical framework, the thesis develops three main investigations: i) the critical examination of the applications of the ES framework in planning through a literature review; ii) the characterization of landscapes as social-ecological systems through ES bundles, offering insights for landscape planning and territorial cohesion; iii) the development of a framework to assess the role of social actors within landscapes though the analysis of ES co-production. The empirical work is applied to a regional and a local case study within the Mediterranean region of Le Marche, Italy. The results of this dissertation prove “ES in planning” to be a promising research area, both for its conceptual and methodological applications. The spatial analysis developed a functional landscape characterization in terms of bundles of ES demand and supply, further characterized though social- economic assets. This allowed the interpretation of the regional landscapes systems along a coastal-mountain gradient drawn by the raising of altitude and decreasing of population density. The analysis of interdependencies highlighted a strong dependency of urban poles on inland systems, concerning nearly the total 12 ES taken into consideration. Results from social analysis showed that rural actors associate great cultural values to local landscapes. The ES were co- produced both physically by actions on the state of ecosystems, and cognitively through users' values. In relation to the global pressures faced by inland ecosystems, the thesis offers a set of recommendations for sustainable landscape planning, concerning the preservation of the identity of inland systems through the enhancement of local ecosystems management. While incorporating the central role of people in landscape assessment, governance should foster collaboration and social learning, integrating innovative tools for ensuring participation. Overall, the thesis produces a new environmental-based argument toward territorial cohesion where place-based policies should build on local territorial assets, recognizing the central role of inland areas in the provision of ES.