Katharina Helming - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Katharina Helming

Research paper thumbnail of Sustainable Development of Multifunctional Landscapes

Springer eBooks, 2003

This publication is the first product of the Landscape Tomorrow research cooperation. It deals wi... more This publication is the first product of the Landscape Tomorrow research cooperation. It deals with (i) the analysis of general principles of landscape multifunctionality, (ii) methods for landscape characterisation and sustainabilty assessment of agricultural and forestry land management, and (iii) the identification of strategies of sustainable land management. The book contributes to the scientific basis for future land development strategies and aims at supporting land use decision making on the political, planning and management level. Financial support to this book was provided by the GelIDan federal foundation for the environment (DBU), which is gratefully acknowledged. We thank all authors for their very valuable contributions to this book and the straightforward cooperation. With this, the editing of the book was a pleasant task.

Research paper thumbnail of Scientific Tools in Europe

LIAISE Policy Brief No. 5 on "Scientific tools in Europe: focus and application options&quot... more LIAISE Policy Brief No. 5 on "Scientific tools in Europe: focus and application options" has just been published. Policy Impact Assessment (IA) has been an obligatory procedure in the legislative process within the EU since 2002. It has to identify the likely impacts on sustainable development (specifically the social, environmental and economic impacts) of all major policy strategies and instruments prior to actual implementation. The link between IA and sustainable development is rooted in the 2006 renewed Sustainable Development Strategy. IA also provides the legal basis to feed scientific evidence into the policy process and to base policy-making on scientifically robust tools and results. In line with the recognition of the importance of IA for sound sustainable policies, the EC (DG Research and Innovation) has funded through the Framework Programmes (FP) 6 and 7 research supporting knowledge creation in this field. This policy brief presents an analysis of tools developed in the context of FP6 and FP7 undertaken by the LIAISE project. This assessment focused on the following interests of IA practitioners as tool users: Which policy area(s) do the tools address? Which impact area(s) are covered by the tools? Which jurisdictional level(s) can the tools be applied at? How can the tools be categorized? There exists a wide variety of tools that comprises: Quantitative and qualitative tools, such as models, scenarios, multi-criteria analysis and participatory tools, Tool components, such as indicators, databases and comprehensive analytic methods, Evaluation frameworks, toolboxes and platforms etc. serving as a higher level system for tool selection or tool linkage. These results are based on an analysis of 203 research projects designing tools for IA funded in FP6 and 7. The results shall contribute to addressing the science-policy interface of IA by identifying possible challenges for tool users and tool suppliers with respect to tool development and selection.

Research paper thumbnail of Multifunctional Land Use

Springer eBooks, 2007

The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, etc. in this publication does... more The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.

Research paper thumbnail of Policy relevance of three integrated assessment tools—A comparison with specific reference to agricultural policies

Ecological Modelling, Sep 1, 2010

The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), a system of market support instruments, direct income trans... more The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), a system of market support instruments, direct income transfers, and rural development measures, has been put through an ongoing reform process in recent decades. This paper introduces three policy impact assessment tools (SIAT, SEAMLESS-IF, MEA-Scope tool) and analyses how these tools have responded to a number of challenges for integrated assessment modelling as reported in the international literature. Significant progress has been made with regard to modelling linkages whereas other challenges, particularly those related to issues of scale and uncertainty management, require further efforts. It is also analysed which CAP instruments are represented and what kinds of effects can be analysed at different scales. Market instruments and direct payments are comparatively well represented, while the ability to model rural development measures is mostly beyond the scope of these tools. Because each tool has found a different solution for coping with the common challenges of integrated assessment modelling, the choice of one of the tools for a particular application depends strongly on the policy questions being asked. The SIAT provides the big picture via its ability to represent broad changes in policy instruments with EU-wide cross-sector impacts. The most comprehensive analysis of agricultural policy instruments can be obtained with SEAMLESS-IF. The MEA-Scope tool complements the other two approaches with detailed regional profiles.

Research paper thumbnail of D4.2.1 - Preliminary Indicator Framework for assessment of land use policies in developing countries

Research paper thumbnail of Case Study - Germany, Sustainable Agriculture and Soil Conservation (SoCo Project)

RePEc: Research Papers in Economics, 2009

The mission of the JRC-IPTS is to provide customer-driven support to the EU policy-making process... more The mission of the JRC-IPTS is to provide customer-driven support to the EU policy-making process by developing science-based responses to policy challenges that have both a socioeconomic as well as a scientific/technological dimension.

Research paper thumbnail of Ecosystem Services in Policy Impact Assessment

Research paper thumbnail of The Digital Agricultural Knowledge and Information System (DAKIS): Employing digitalisation to encourage diversified and multifunctional agricultural systems

Environmental Science and Ecotechnology

Research paper thumbnail of Impacts of climate change adaptation options in agriculture on soil functions: : examples European case studies

Research paper thumbnail of Research on Land Use Functions in Central Asia: A bibliometric analysis

Agriculture is the backbone of Central Asia's (CA) economy providing economic and social stab... more Agriculture is the backbone of Central Asia's (CA) economy providing economic and social stability in the region. Sustainable use of agricultural land is therefore of critical importance to economic growth, human well-being and social equity, and ecosystem services. However, severe land degradation through salinization, erosion and desertification is evident and respective impacts on human health and ecosystem services are suspected. This paper aims to analyze current research on agricultural land use in CA through applying the Land Use Functions framework. In particular, it examines the type and relative shares of environmental, economic and social aspects of agricultural land use addressed in existing scientific literature. This study analyzed scientific publications dealing with agricultural land use in five CA countries: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. A systematic database search of international peer-reviewed articles was conducted using th...

Research paper thumbnail of Options for the Design of the Front Office Toolbox and the Help Desk

Research paper thumbnail of The LIAISE approach for co-designing knowledge on impact assessment tools

Impact Assessment (IA) intends to collect evidence on the likely impacts of new policies and ther... more Impact Assessment (IA) intends to collect evidence on the likely impacts of new policies and thereby minimize unwanted side-effects and maximize the benefits to society. Although it is a requirement in the EC and all OECD countries, the scope and methods vary considerably. Governments have invested considerably in research to support the evidence basis of policy making for sustainable development. However, the general picture shows a gap between the proliferation of IA tools from the scientific community and their actual use in the policy process. The FP7 network of excellence LIAISE (www.liaise- noe.eu) is designed to identify the causes for non-use of IA tools and bridge the gaps between researchers with a generally strong orientation towards their (disciplinary) peers and practitioners who tend to focus on their policy domain and policy problems. LIAISE aims at: 1) understanding of the policy process and the resulting needs for IA knowledge and IA tools; 2) description of IA tool...

Research paper thumbnail of Ecosystem Services in Policy Impact Assessment

Research paper thumbnail of Scientific Tools in Europe

LIAISE Policy Brief No. 5 on "Scientific tools in Europe: focus and application options&quot... more LIAISE Policy Brief No. 5 on "Scientific tools in Europe: focus and application options" has just been published. Policy Impact Assessment (IA) has been an obligatory procedure in the legislative process within the EU since 2002. It has to identify the likely impacts on sustainable development (specifically the social, environmental and economic impacts) of all major policy strategies and instruments prior to actual implementation. The link between IA and sustainable development is rooted in the 2006 renewed Sustainable Development Strategy. IA also provides the legal basis to feed scientific evidence into the policy process and to base policy-making on scientifically robust tools and results. In line with the recognition of the importance of IA for sound sustainable policies, the EC (DG Research and Innovation) has funded through the Framework Programmes (FP) 6 and 7 research supporting knowledge creation in this field. This policy brief presents an analysis of tools deve...

Research paper thumbnail of European Research for Impact Assessment Tools

This is the 6th issue of the LIAISE ('Linking Impact Assessment Instruments to Sustainability... more This is the 6th issue of the LIAISE ('Linking Impact Assessment Instruments to Sustainability Expertise') Innovation Report. The aim of this series is to shed light on the science-policy interface of policy Impact Assessment (IA). The application of analytical tools in policy IA is a means to include scientific knowledge in IA exercises and the policy process. Tools are used to capture the causal relationship between planned policies and its likely social, economic and environmental impacts and hence inform the analytical process of the assessment. The development of analytical tools which are readily applicable for IA is an emergent field of research. The European Commission, in its Framework Programmes (FP) on research funding, has also invested in research promoting those tools.

Research paper thumbnail of Article Assessing the Impact of Land Use Policy on Urban-Rural Sustainability Using the FoPIA Approach in Yogyakarta, Indonesia

This paper presents the results of a sustainability impact assessment (SIA) of policy induced lan... more This paper presents the results of a sustainability impact assessment (SIA) of policy induced land use changes in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. The regional problems include rapid expansions of urban areas, due to high population pressure, and the conversion of paddy fields and forests into settlements. The objective of this study was to assess the impacts of two land use policies on social, economic, and environmental Land Use Functions (LUFs) in Yogyakarta. The following scenarios were developed for the SIA: a forest protection scenario (S1), a paddy field conservation scenario (S2), and a counterfactual (no policy) scenario of 'Business As Usual' (BAU). The Framework for Participatory Impact Assessment (FoPIA) was applied to conduct an expert-based impact

Research paper thumbnail of Tools assessing trade impacts - a state of the art in European research for impact assessment

Research paper thumbnail of The requirements analysis for the Meta-Model Sustainability Impact Assessment Tools (SIAT) to ensure a High Use and Acceptability among Policy Decision Makers - A Critical Review

This paper conducts in the frame of the model development Sustainability Impact As sessment Tool ... more This paper conducts in the frame of the model development Sustainability Impact As sessment Tool (SIAT) a critical analysis at science-policy interface. The analysis emphasises the methods and the process of end-user involvement that aimed at surveying model requirements. We reveal potential problems of institutional embedding of the decision support system SIAT and give recommendations to avoid shortcomings while developing the model design. The meta-model SIAT is the central tool of the European research project SENSOR, which has been developed in the period from 2005 to 2009. First, we illustrate the methodology of the SIAT that is tailored to simulate land use policies. SIAT allows conducting ex-ante sustainability impact assessment towards the target year 2025 at the level of 570 European regions. Then, the critical analysis at the policy-science interface discusses the procedure of the SIAT development process and reveals the mean of prototyping as basis for the requirement an...

Research paper thumbnail of Impacts of climate change adaptation options on soil functions: A review of European case-studies

Land degradation & development, 2018

Soils are vital for supporting food security and other ecosystem services. Climate change can aff... more Soils are vital for supporting food security and other ecosystem services. Climate change can affect soil functions both directly and indirectly. Direct effects include temperature, precipitation, and moisture regime changes. Indirect effects include those that are induced by adaptations such as irrigation, crop rotation changes, and tillage practices. Although extensive knowledge is available on the direct effects, an understanding of the indirect effects of agricultural adaptation options is less complete. A review of 20 agricultural adaptation case-studies across Europe was conducted to assess implications to soil threats and soil functions and the link to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The major findings are as follows: (a) adaptation options reflect local conditions; (b) reduced soil erosion threats and increased soil organic carbon are expected, although compaction may increase in some areas; (c) most adaptation options are anticipated to improve the soil functions ...

Research paper thumbnail of Sustainability impact assessment of peatland-use scenarios: Confronting land use supply with demand

Ecosystem Services, 2017

Sustainable development of land use is determined by changes of the regional supply of Land Use F... more Sustainable development of land use is determined by changes of the regional supply of Land Use Functions (LUFs) and the demand of future societal land use claims. LUFs are based on the ecosystem services concept, but more adapted to human land use. In this paper, we assessed two peatland-use scenarios towards sustainable development in Northeast Germany in order to understand their impacts on LUFs and land use claims. For this, we extended an analytical framework designed to confront LUFs with land use claims identified in multi-level stakeholder strategies in a participatory manner. The sustainability assessment was performed with peatlanduse scenarios "Services for services" and "Market determines usage" that favoured environmental and economic land use claims, respectively. Findings revealed possible trade-offs between land use claims for biomass production and regional value creation as well as for peatlands`carbon and nutrient sink, and habitat functions. The core achievement is an extended sustainability assessment framework integrating land use demands of multi-level stakeholder strategies into participatory impact assessment, in a way that land use claims serve as benchmarks for LUFs. This facilitates the understanding of sustainable land use in both supply and demand perspective, and the normative evaluation of ecosystem services.

Research paper thumbnail of Sustainable Development of Multifunctional Landscapes

Springer eBooks, 2003

This publication is the first product of the Landscape Tomorrow research cooperation. It deals wi... more This publication is the first product of the Landscape Tomorrow research cooperation. It deals with (i) the analysis of general principles of landscape multifunctionality, (ii) methods for landscape characterisation and sustainabilty assessment of agricultural and forestry land management, and (iii) the identification of strategies of sustainable land management. The book contributes to the scientific basis for future land development strategies and aims at supporting land use decision making on the political, planning and management level. Financial support to this book was provided by the GelIDan federal foundation for the environment (DBU), which is gratefully acknowledged. We thank all authors for their very valuable contributions to this book and the straightforward cooperation. With this, the editing of the book was a pleasant task.

Research paper thumbnail of Scientific Tools in Europe

LIAISE Policy Brief No. 5 on "Scientific tools in Europe: focus and application options&quot... more LIAISE Policy Brief No. 5 on "Scientific tools in Europe: focus and application options" has just been published. Policy Impact Assessment (IA) has been an obligatory procedure in the legislative process within the EU since 2002. It has to identify the likely impacts on sustainable development (specifically the social, environmental and economic impacts) of all major policy strategies and instruments prior to actual implementation. The link between IA and sustainable development is rooted in the 2006 renewed Sustainable Development Strategy. IA also provides the legal basis to feed scientific evidence into the policy process and to base policy-making on scientifically robust tools and results. In line with the recognition of the importance of IA for sound sustainable policies, the EC (DG Research and Innovation) has funded through the Framework Programmes (FP) 6 and 7 research supporting knowledge creation in this field. This policy brief presents an analysis of tools developed in the context of FP6 and FP7 undertaken by the LIAISE project. This assessment focused on the following interests of IA practitioners as tool users: Which policy area(s) do the tools address? Which impact area(s) are covered by the tools? Which jurisdictional level(s) can the tools be applied at? How can the tools be categorized? There exists a wide variety of tools that comprises: Quantitative and qualitative tools, such as models, scenarios, multi-criteria analysis and participatory tools, Tool components, such as indicators, databases and comprehensive analytic methods, Evaluation frameworks, toolboxes and platforms etc. serving as a higher level system for tool selection or tool linkage. These results are based on an analysis of 203 research projects designing tools for IA funded in FP6 and 7. The results shall contribute to addressing the science-policy interface of IA by identifying possible challenges for tool users and tool suppliers with respect to tool development and selection.

Research paper thumbnail of Multifunctional Land Use

Springer eBooks, 2007

The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, etc. in this publication does... more The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.

Research paper thumbnail of Policy relevance of three integrated assessment tools—A comparison with specific reference to agricultural policies

Ecological Modelling, Sep 1, 2010

The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), a system of market support instruments, direct income trans... more The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), a system of market support instruments, direct income transfers, and rural development measures, has been put through an ongoing reform process in recent decades. This paper introduces three policy impact assessment tools (SIAT, SEAMLESS-IF, MEA-Scope tool) and analyses how these tools have responded to a number of challenges for integrated assessment modelling as reported in the international literature. Significant progress has been made with regard to modelling linkages whereas other challenges, particularly those related to issues of scale and uncertainty management, require further efforts. It is also analysed which CAP instruments are represented and what kinds of effects can be analysed at different scales. Market instruments and direct payments are comparatively well represented, while the ability to model rural development measures is mostly beyond the scope of these tools. Because each tool has found a different solution for coping with the common challenges of integrated assessment modelling, the choice of one of the tools for a particular application depends strongly on the policy questions being asked. The SIAT provides the big picture via its ability to represent broad changes in policy instruments with EU-wide cross-sector impacts. The most comprehensive analysis of agricultural policy instruments can be obtained with SEAMLESS-IF. The MEA-Scope tool complements the other two approaches with detailed regional profiles.

Research paper thumbnail of D4.2.1 - Preliminary Indicator Framework for assessment of land use policies in developing countries

Research paper thumbnail of Case Study - Germany, Sustainable Agriculture and Soil Conservation (SoCo Project)

RePEc: Research Papers in Economics, 2009

The mission of the JRC-IPTS is to provide customer-driven support to the EU policy-making process... more The mission of the JRC-IPTS is to provide customer-driven support to the EU policy-making process by developing science-based responses to policy challenges that have both a socioeconomic as well as a scientific/technological dimension.

Research paper thumbnail of Ecosystem Services in Policy Impact Assessment

Research paper thumbnail of The Digital Agricultural Knowledge and Information System (DAKIS): Employing digitalisation to encourage diversified and multifunctional agricultural systems

Environmental Science and Ecotechnology

Research paper thumbnail of Impacts of climate change adaptation options in agriculture on soil functions: : examples European case studies

Research paper thumbnail of Research on Land Use Functions in Central Asia: A bibliometric analysis

Agriculture is the backbone of Central Asia's (CA) economy providing economic and social stab... more Agriculture is the backbone of Central Asia's (CA) economy providing economic and social stability in the region. Sustainable use of agricultural land is therefore of critical importance to economic growth, human well-being and social equity, and ecosystem services. However, severe land degradation through salinization, erosion and desertification is evident and respective impacts on human health and ecosystem services are suspected. This paper aims to analyze current research on agricultural land use in CA through applying the Land Use Functions framework. In particular, it examines the type and relative shares of environmental, economic and social aspects of agricultural land use addressed in existing scientific literature. This study analyzed scientific publications dealing with agricultural land use in five CA countries: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. A systematic database search of international peer-reviewed articles was conducted using th...

Research paper thumbnail of Options for the Design of the Front Office Toolbox and the Help Desk

Research paper thumbnail of The LIAISE approach for co-designing knowledge on impact assessment tools

Impact Assessment (IA) intends to collect evidence on the likely impacts of new policies and ther... more Impact Assessment (IA) intends to collect evidence on the likely impacts of new policies and thereby minimize unwanted side-effects and maximize the benefits to society. Although it is a requirement in the EC and all OECD countries, the scope and methods vary considerably. Governments have invested considerably in research to support the evidence basis of policy making for sustainable development. However, the general picture shows a gap between the proliferation of IA tools from the scientific community and their actual use in the policy process. The FP7 network of excellence LIAISE (www.liaise- noe.eu) is designed to identify the causes for non-use of IA tools and bridge the gaps between researchers with a generally strong orientation towards their (disciplinary) peers and practitioners who tend to focus on their policy domain and policy problems. LIAISE aims at: 1) understanding of the policy process and the resulting needs for IA knowledge and IA tools; 2) description of IA tool...

Research paper thumbnail of Ecosystem Services in Policy Impact Assessment

Research paper thumbnail of Scientific Tools in Europe

LIAISE Policy Brief No. 5 on "Scientific tools in Europe: focus and application options&quot... more LIAISE Policy Brief No. 5 on "Scientific tools in Europe: focus and application options" has just been published. Policy Impact Assessment (IA) has been an obligatory procedure in the legislative process within the EU since 2002. It has to identify the likely impacts on sustainable development (specifically the social, environmental and economic impacts) of all major policy strategies and instruments prior to actual implementation. The link between IA and sustainable development is rooted in the 2006 renewed Sustainable Development Strategy. IA also provides the legal basis to feed scientific evidence into the policy process and to base policy-making on scientifically robust tools and results. In line with the recognition of the importance of IA for sound sustainable policies, the EC (DG Research and Innovation) has funded through the Framework Programmes (FP) 6 and 7 research supporting knowledge creation in this field. This policy brief presents an analysis of tools deve...

Research paper thumbnail of European Research for Impact Assessment Tools

This is the 6th issue of the LIAISE ('Linking Impact Assessment Instruments to Sustainability... more This is the 6th issue of the LIAISE ('Linking Impact Assessment Instruments to Sustainability Expertise') Innovation Report. The aim of this series is to shed light on the science-policy interface of policy Impact Assessment (IA). The application of analytical tools in policy IA is a means to include scientific knowledge in IA exercises and the policy process. Tools are used to capture the causal relationship between planned policies and its likely social, economic and environmental impacts and hence inform the analytical process of the assessment. The development of analytical tools which are readily applicable for IA is an emergent field of research. The European Commission, in its Framework Programmes (FP) on research funding, has also invested in research promoting those tools.

Research paper thumbnail of Article Assessing the Impact of Land Use Policy on Urban-Rural Sustainability Using the FoPIA Approach in Yogyakarta, Indonesia

This paper presents the results of a sustainability impact assessment (SIA) of policy induced lan... more This paper presents the results of a sustainability impact assessment (SIA) of policy induced land use changes in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. The regional problems include rapid expansions of urban areas, due to high population pressure, and the conversion of paddy fields and forests into settlements. The objective of this study was to assess the impacts of two land use policies on social, economic, and environmental Land Use Functions (LUFs) in Yogyakarta. The following scenarios were developed for the SIA: a forest protection scenario (S1), a paddy field conservation scenario (S2), and a counterfactual (no policy) scenario of 'Business As Usual' (BAU). The Framework for Participatory Impact Assessment (FoPIA) was applied to conduct an expert-based impact

Research paper thumbnail of Tools assessing trade impacts - a state of the art in European research for impact assessment

Research paper thumbnail of The requirements analysis for the Meta-Model Sustainability Impact Assessment Tools (SIAT) to ensure a High Use and Acceptability among Policy Decision Makers - A Critical Review

This paper conducts in the frame of the model development Sustainability Impact As sessment Tool ... more This paper conducts in the frame of the model development Sustainability Impact As sessment Tool (SIAT) a critical analysis at science-policy interface. The analysis emphasises the methods and the process of end-user involvement that aimed at surveying model requirements. We reveal potential problems of institutional embedding of the decision support system SIAT and give recommendations to avoid shortcomings while developing the model design. The meta-model SIAT is the central tool of the European research project SENSOR, which has been developed in the period from 2005 to 2009. First, we illustrate the methodology of the SIAT that is tailored to simulate land use policies. SIAT allows conducting ex-ante sustainability impact assessment towards the target year 2025 at the level of 570 European regions. Then, the critical analysis at the policy-science interface discusses the procedure of the SIAT development process and reveals the mean of prototyping as basis for the requirement an...

Research paper thumbnail of Impacts of climate change adaptation options on soil functions: A review of European case-studies

Land degradation & development, 2018

Soils are vital for supporting food security and other ecosystem services. Climate change can aff... more Soils are vital for supporting food security and other ecosystem services. Climate change can affect soil functions both directly and indirectly. Direct effects include temperature, precipitation, and moisture regime changes. Indirect effects include those that are induced by adaptations such as irrigation, crop rotation changes, and tillage practices. Although extensive knowledge is available on the direct effects, an understanding of the indirect effects of agricultural adaptation options is less complete. A review of 20 agricultural adaptation case-studies across Europe was conducted to assess implications to soil threats and soil functions and the link to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The major findings are as follows: (a) adaptation options reflect local conditions; (b) reduced soil erosion threats and increased soil organic carbon are expected, although compaction may increase in some areas; (c) most adaptation options are anticipated to improve the soil functions ...

Research paper thumbnail of Sustainability impact assessment of peatland-use scenarios: Confronting land use supply with demand

Ecosystem Services, 2017

Sustainable development of land use is determined by changes of the regional supply of Land Use F... more Sustainable development of land use is determined by changes of the regional supply of Land Use Functions (LUFs) and the demand of future societal land use claims. LUFs are based on the ecosystem services concept, but more adapted to human land use. In this paper, we assessed two peatland-use scenarios towards sustainable development in Northeast Germany in order to understand their impacts on LUFs and land use claims. For this, we extended an analytical framework designed to confront LUFs with land use claims identified in multi-level stakeholder strategies in a participatory manner. The sustainability assessment was performed with peatlanduse scenarios "Services for services" and "Market determines usage" that favoured environmental and economic land use claims, respectively. Findings revealed possible trade-offs between land use claims for biomass production and regional value creation as well as for peatlands`carbon and nutrient sink, and habitat functions. The core achievement is an extended sustainability assessment framework integrating land use demands of multi-level stakeholder strategies into participatory impact assessment, in a way that land use claims serve as benchmarks for LUFs. This facilitates the understanding of sustainable land use in both supply and demand perspective, and the normative evaluation of ecosystem services.