Urbanization, Biodiversity, and Ecosystem Services in Norway: Challenges and Strategies for Sustainable Land Use

Abstract

Urban areas are complex systems where urbanization affects vegetation and land use, leading to biodiversity loss and fragmented green-blue spaces. Understanding urban biodiversity is essential for maintaining ecosystem services (ES), but assessing land-use changes remains difficult. There’s growing interest in restoring and integrating nature into cities to support climate regulation, food production, recreation, health, and more. In Norway, “Area neutrality” (Arealnøytralitet) promotes a municipal land-use management system that prioritizes nature protection in urban development and extends the net-zero philosophy to nature loss. This article explores how urbanization in Norway impacts biodiversity and ES, and which planning tools can help bridge science and policy to address land-use and climate challenges. It emphasizes the need for local knowledge, citizen science, and policies to better integrate ES into urban planning.