At the beginning of the year, stakeholder workshops for the project “MAFESUR:  Mapping and forecasting ecosystem services in urbanised areas .” The meetings presented the project’s research results and discussed their practical application in the context of Functional Urban Areas (FUAs). The seminars were attended by various stakeholders—scientists, municipal representatives, and members of non-governmental organisations—both in person and remotely.

The ecosystem services mapped in each city—regulating (flood regulation, microclimate regulation, and habitat quality) and provisioning (crop production and groundwater recharge)—which are important for the quality of life of urban residents and environmental sustainability, were presented.

During the project, these services were assessed under three possible land-use scenarios and three climate change scenarios. Three policy scenarios were developed: Baseline (S0-BAU), Urbanisation (S1-URB), and Sustainable Development (S2-SUD). Each policy scenario was aligned with three greenhouse gas (GHG) emission scenarios, RCPs (Representative Concentration Pathways), which are defined and named according to their projected aggregate energy impact by the year 2100.

Discussion revolved around the similar trends observed across all regions: significant urbanisation (in Kaunas: from 8.9% to 13.6%; in Klaipėda and Vilnius: ~6% increase), occurring primarily at the expense of agricultural land. These results reveal a clear transformation of Lithuania’s major urban areas: agricultural land is being converted into urbanised and forested areas.

Project No. S-MIP-23-76     
Project name: „Mapping and Forecasting Ecosystem Services in Urban Areas”
Project duration: from 01.04.2023 to 31.03.2026
Project leader: dr. Paulo Alexandre da Silva Pereira
The project is funded by Research Council of Lithuania (LMTLT).