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

我们管理乡村景观的方式正在发生变化。近几十年来，它的主要活动是农业粮食生产，但目前的政治思想是围绕农村景观可以提供的其他生态系统服务，如防洪、水质管理、生物多样性等。英国政府的25年环境计划使用自然资本的框架，将自然资本定义为“直接或间接为人类带来价值的自然要素，如淡水、土地、土壤和空气”，来考虑“服务付费”，即农民和土地所有者根据土地提供的其他服务付费，而不是根据土地面积进行补贴。该项目旨在提供基于这些概念的环境政策如何在英国脱欧后发挥作用的知识。需要解决的关键问题涉及我们如何评估某些服务，如生物多样性，以及投资和受益者如何在空间上脱节。这个项目可以利用社会科学调查方法、地理信息系统制图和环境经济学来开发新的解决方案和工具来解决这个及时而令人兴奋的问题。

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.