Natural capital and its role in improving rural land planning and management at different spatial scales.

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The way in which we are managing the rural landscape is changing. Its primary activity in recent decades has been agricultural food production, but current political thinking is around other ecosystem services which the rural landscape can provide, such as flood control, water quality management, biodiversity etc. The UK Governments 25 Year Environment Plan uses the framework of Natural Capital, which is defined as "the elements of nature e.g freshwater, land, soils and air, which directly or indirectly bring value to people" to think about "Payment for Services", whereby farmers and land owners are paid for other services their land provides, rather than subsidies based on land area. This project aims to provide knowledge of how an environmental policy might work in the UK post-Brexit based on these concepts. Key issues which need to be addressed relate to how we value certain services e.g. biodiversity, and how investments and beneficiaries are spatially disconnected. This project could make use of social science survey approaches, Geographical Information System mapping and Environmental Economics to develop novel solutions and tools to this timely, exciting issue.