Ecosystem services potentials in the urban-rural gradient of the macrometropolis of São Paulo: a multidimensional theoretical-methodological approach

Abstract

The approach of ecosystem services has gained relevance in discussions on sustainability and environmental management, both in the sense of assessing their importance for human well-being, and the insertion of the theme in public policies. In the case of the Macrometropolis of São Paulo (MMP), this discussion highlights the need to think about the spatial dimension of these services, since the functioning of the system depends on the contribution of several resources present outside the large urban centers, where various transformations occur. urban and rural areas, whose understanding is fundamental for the development of modeling and scenarios of ecosystem services in face of climate variability. However, the theoretical approaches that underlie the vast majority of research relating these issues are based on dichotomous views between urban and rural, which undermine the construction of a broad interdisciplinary debate. Thus, the present research project seeks to structure an interdisciplinary and multidimensional theoretical-methodological framework for evaluating the potential of ecosystem services delivery from the territorial approach, which goes beyond the dichotomous views between rural and urban and contemplates the complexity of the urban-rural gradient in the Macrometropolis of São Paulo. It is hypothesized here that this approach, based on the concept of multiterritoriality and the relationships between social actors and the biophysical environment in the configuration of the territory, land use and natural resources, can greatly contribute to the debate on ecosystem services in sustainability and environmental governance at MMP. (AU)