АУТОР / AUTHOR(S): Katarzyna Pukowiec-Kurda 
DOI: 10.46793/CSGE5.55KPK
САЖЕТАК / ABSTRACT:
Urban greenspaces are a place for recreation and leisure and, most importantly, provide ecosystem services to city residents. They are particularly in demand in metropolitan areas with large populations. In proportion to their high populations, these areas should have large acreages of greenspace to meet society’s needs for ecosystem services. The Urban Ecosystem Services (IUES) index allows the abundance of green areas providing various ecosystem services to be assessed and, using a model based on Ossan’s statistical concept, allows cities to be classified according to this abundance. The index is an urban ecosystem services indicator, which quantitatively and qualitatively determines the abundance of greenspaces in ecosystem services.
The study area consists of two agglomerations located about 80 kilometers apart in two different countries. The first is the Silesian Metropolis (GZM) in southern Poland and the second area is the Karviná-Ostrava Region (OKR) in northern Czechia.
The study indicated that the most abundant ecosystem services are forests and wetlands in both quantity and quality. Therefore, they should be protected in cities in terms of their acreage and species composition. The best providers of ecosystem services are natural forests, characterized by high biodiversity and full development of all forest values. The results for dominant greenspace types and the height of the IUES index indicate the dominance of forested areas in both study areas. Thus, one can accept the thesis that forest ecosystems in Central Europe are the main providers of ecosystem services, including in urban areas. They provide every section of ecosystem service, from provisioning through regulatory and maintenance to cultural.
IUES can be used as an indicator of sustainable spatial planning. The entire methodology can be used to assess the abundance of municipalities in ecosystem services to monitor them, and increase their potential. It can be used in urban planning at the city scale and the location of new residential developments, but it should be emphasized that it is intended to indicate the abundance of ecosystem services to serve society intact. Urban planning must, therefore, be carried out sustainably that does not degrade the strength of ecosystem services or eliminate urban greenspaces.
КЉУЧНЕ РЕЧИ / KEYWORDS:
ecosystem services index; urban greenspaces classification; post-industrial cities; Silesian Metropolis; Ostrava-Karvina Region