Ecosystem Service Evaluation for Landscape Planning Policies: Addressing Data Availability Issues

Ecosystem services (ES) are the subject of a constantly growing attention at the international level. Although in the most recent years significant progresses in ES evaluation have been made, important methodological challenges still exist. Among these, data availability is perhaps the most urgent one. High quality, spatially explicit, appropriate to the evaluation scale, and accessible data are needed to pursue an effective and reliable ES evaluation. These criteria drove the selection of data in a research relating to the assessment and valuation of forest ecosystem services (FES) in the Sardinia Region. However, it is not always possible to reach such data-quality targets. Big data could be an important resource to fill information gaps in the field of ES evaluation, though certain big data limitations suggest their careful management. Starting from the current research’s outcomes with regard to the assessment and valuation of FES in the Sardinia Region, the role of big data for supporting ES evaluation is eventually addressed.