Through a series of seminars, fieldwork activities and laboratory sessions, this course will introduce students into the concepts of ecosystem services (ES), with a particular focus on their relevance for land use management. The course aims to foster the ability of students to assume an interdisciplinary research perspective by considering agro-ecosystems as social-ecological systems and by applying an integrative approach that combines multiple spatial scales (farm-scale, landscape-scale and regional-scale) and integrates biophysical, socio-cultural and economic approaches. The module is structured in two main blocks:

1-      Introductory block:

In this section of the students will learn the main concepts around ecosystem services and their relevance for agroecosystems. After an introductory session on ES, each of the following sessions will focus on a different approach for mapping, assessing and valuing ES (biophysical, socio-cultural and economic).

 2-      Practical block

This block consists on a series of fieldwork activities in which the students will learn and apply a combination of biophysical, socio-cultural and economic techniques for mapping and assessing ES at farm and landscape scales. The collected data will be processed and analyzed in laboratory sessions using geospatial analysis, analysis of quantitative data and analysis of qualitative data.