Coastal sand dunes are complex transitional systems hosting high levels of biodiversity and providing important benefits to society. In this paper we aimed to evaluate the multi-service nature of ecosystem services (ES) supply in the dunes of the Italian Adriatic coast within Natura 2000 (N2K) sites. We i) identified ES indicators and assessed the supply capacity (Climate regulation, Protection from wind and aerosol, Erosion regulation, Recreation and Tourism and Existence value of biodiversity) of natural dune ecosystems of European conservation concern; ii) upscaled this data to create an inventory of ES supply for all dune N2K sites in the study area; iii) explored the trade-offs among ES; and iv) summarized and spatially compared the overall multi-service value of the N2K sites. The study provides a method for quantifying the role of N2K sites in supplying benefits for our society. We found that the multi-service capacity of coastal dunes is uneven within sites and within administrative regions. This variability is related to both ecological (e.g. distribution, ecological integrity, extent and conservation status of dune habitats) and administrative (e.g. local implementation of the Habitats Directive) characteristics of the analysed area. ES are not coupled as several sites with high values for one ES show very low values for others. The results suggest that conservation actions should favour restoration of the natural dune zonation, since this underpins multi-service ES supply. The approach can distinguish regions with high ES values and regions where the paucity of protected areas represents a gap in ES supply, fact that offers an incentive to enhance the protection strategy but also suggests an urgent need to improve the N2K network by enlarging existent sites and including new ones.

Biosphere Reserves are considered as means for the people who live and work within them to attain a balanced relationship with the natural and semi-natural environment. Moreover, they contribute to the needs of society by showing a way to a more sustainable future. The Wienerwald Biosphere Reserve partly surrounds the city of Vienna and other minor settlements, representing a well-developed example of Green Infrastructure (GI) of great cultural and natural value. Its heterogeneous landscape offers a variety of landscape services (LS). In this work we quantified and mapped the capacity of LS offered by the open land elements of Wienerwald. Starting from a high-resolution dataset, we selected suitable indicator classes, and scored each ecological and socio-cultural service through an expert-based capacity matrix. The subsequent GIS analyses focused on the intensity and density of LS capacities by developing an index useful for mapping GI functionality. The work provides an effective monitoring tool for the Reserve’s both ecological and socio-cultural sustainability performance. It also allows detecting resilient areas, by considering both the spatial distribution and the abundance of landscape elements.

Coastal areas provide various benefits through regulating, provisioning, and cultural ecosystem services, including carbon sequestration, protection from coastal erosion, recreation, and ecotourism

The collected papers in this Special Issue make significant contributions to educational research by demonstrating the multifaceted benefits of integrating storytelling and narrative techniques into teaching practices across various disciplines