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Landscape architects play a significant role in safeguarding urban landscapes and human well-being by means of design and they call for practical knowledge, skills, and methods to address increasing environmental pressure. Cultural ecosystem services (CES) are recognized as highly related to landscape architecture (LA) studies, and the outcomes of CES evaluations have the potential to support LA practice. However, few efforts have focused on systematically investigating CES in LA studies. Additionally, how CES evaluations are performed in LA studies is rarely researched. This study aims to identify the challenges and provide recommendations for applying CES evaluations to LA practice, focusing specifically on LA design. To conclude, three challenges are identified, namely a lack of consistent concepts (conceptual challenge); a lack of CES evaluation methods to inform designs (methodological challenge); and practical issues of transferring CES evaluations to LA design (practical challenge). Based on our findings, we highlight using CES as a common term to refer to socio-cultural values and encourage more CES evaluation methods to be developed and tested for LA design. In addition, we encourage more studies to explore the links of CES and landscape features and address other practical issues to better transfer CES evaluations onto LA designs.

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Urban parks are essential in enhancing the quality of city life by providing diverse cultural ecosystem services (CES). Despite considerable investments in park renovations, there is very little evidence about whether park renovations can properly secure CES. This study provides a basis for the incorporation of CES evaluation into urban park practice to maximize CES. We specifically ask how CES are influenced by park renovations. We developed a participatory mapping approach by asking people to assess CES on a current map and on a historical map, representing the situations before and after the renovation, instead of doing a follow-up study, in order to be more time-efficient and enhance the comparative effects. The results show that the park renovations had different impacts on CES and not all the renovations had positive impacts. This study has a huge potential for supporting park practice. First, this study shows that specific park renovations can be used to guide park management to enhance CES. Second, this study provides a new insight for landscape architects to rethink their design proposals before construction. Third, the study encourages the method of combining participatory mapping and interviews to link CES to a specific location and specific renovations.