The impact of ecosystem services on the vitality of rural areas

Vitality of rural localities is the effective usage of local resources in order to create conditions for welfare of the residents and competitive advantage of economic undertakings. The vitality of rural localities needs support as an area of public intere st. It is related to human resources of rural localities, specific agricultural practices, traditions, society’s need to supplement the life style and practices of city residents through securing of balanced expansion of localities. A new approac h is integ rated in this research – influence of ecosystem services on the vitality of rural localities. The purpose of research is to improve the determination methodology of the vitality of rural localities through its integration into the specific indexes of ecos ystem services important for territories with water ponds. The tasks of research are the following: to characterize synergy between the ecosystem services through analysis of the resources available in the territory, and to identify relations between the c hanges, functions of ecosystems, regulated strategic directions and welfare consequences, also known as vitality of rural localities. The research is funded by the European Social Fund under measure No. 09.3.3 - LMT - K712 activities "Improvement of the quali fication of researchers through high - level R&D projects"Vytauto Didžiojo universitetasŽemės ūkio akademij