SimulSoil: Ecosystem Service Modelling for Sustainability-Oriented Planning in the Metropolitan City of Turin

Abstract

Mountain territories provide essential ecosystem services (ES) to metropolitan areas, yet their contributions are often overlooked in spatial planning. This paper presents an updated application of the open-source SimulSoil plugin to model two key ES—Carbon Storage and Habitat Quality—in the Metropolitan City of Turin, a complex mountain-metropolitan system in northern Italy.

Using the high-resolution 2023 Land Cover Piemonte dataset, the models were applied across 11 Homogeneous Zones to map ES distribution and ecological asymmetries. Results show that mountain areas act as “ecological donors”, offering critical services to densely populated urban zones.

This study demonstrates how spatially explicit ES analyses can support rebalancing-oriented governance. The updated models provide actionable knowledge for integrating ecological functions into territorial planning and reveal the need to address spatial imbalances and territorial justice.