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Application of the ecosystem services (ES) concept in urban planning has potential for improving environmental and human health outcomes in cities. We aimed to narrow an identified ES implementation gap by identifying the criteria for the practical fit of the ES concept in urban planning. We found that local relevance and adaptability within current planning approaches were core criteria for practical fit. If not met immediately, these criteria may be met over time through policy entrepreneurship. Further research in different locations and planning systems would increase understanding of the enabling factors for applying ES in urban planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental practitioners hiring staff or seeking study opportunities may be curious about how meaningfully Australian environmental and sustainability programs are named. Here, an internet-based audit of the core curricula of relevant Australian offerings, an expert questionnaire, and a novel application of quantitative clustering contribute some understanding. Various types of environmental education are suggested by clustering core curricula, but those types are not consistently indicated by course names, especially in undergraduate-level studies. Although very few programs use the term 'sustainable' or 'sustainability' in their name (especially at the undergraduate level), many do explicitly aim to educate for sustainability according to web marketing. Such programs are closer to approximating an expert-derived 'ideal core curriculum' than the rest, although in aggregate they still lack relevant policy and philosophy content. Keywords: k-means clustering, core curriculum, education for sustainable development, environmental studies, university degree programs

Place-based social-ecological research is often designed to improve local environmental governance, but it can also inform decisions at larger scales or in other places. However, the focus on local perspectives in such research creates challenges for transferring insights to other locations, and for aggregating understanding to larger scales. In this paper, we discuss how ResNet, a new pan-Canadian network of researchers working on place-based social-ecological case studies via ecosystem services, will face (and hopefully overcome) these challenges while taking advantage of the unique benefits of a place-based approach. Drawing on insights from the literature and from the first 10 years of the Programme for Ecosystem Change and Society (PECS), we outline solutions to six key challenges to multi-scale knowledge integration across place-based cases, and explore how ResNet is employing some of these solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scattered trees are declining rapidly on Australian farms, a process that threatens landscape sustainability. Addressing this decline requires, in part, understanding how landholders perceive and manage scattered trees. We explored this via a quantitative survey of landholders in the Lachlan catchment of New South Wales. Although landholders are typically aware that scattered trees are declining more rapidly than other trees on the land they manage, they are less likely to actively encourage their regeneration compared to other trees. Landholders believe scattered trees have many private and public benefits, although they often believe their public benefits are lower than those provided by long strips or large patches of trees. Landholders who undertake mixed grazing and cropping are less likely than those who focus solely on grazing to actively encourage regeneration of scattered trees, and more likely to view them as impacting negatively on their agricultural enterprise. Reversing scattered tree decline requires programs to both increase landholder awareness of their public benefits and to address the specific land management constraints faced by different types of landholders when considering protecting and regenerating scattered trees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]