Acta Sci. Pol. Formatio Circumiectus 19 (3) 2020, 73–82 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15576/ASP.FC/2020.19.3.73 www.acta.urk.edu.pl/pl ISSN 1644-0765 ORIGINAL PAPER Accepted: 23.12.2020  e-mail: jakubiak@agh.edu.pl © Copyright by Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Rolniczego w Krakowie, Kraków 2020 ENVIRONMENTAL PROCESSES IDENTIFICATION OF URBAN WATER BODIES ECOSYSTEM SERVICES Mateusz Jakubiak 1 , Krzysztof Chmielowski 2 1 Department of Environmental Management and Protection, Faculty of Mining Surveying and Environmental Engineering, AGH University of Science and Technology in Kraków, Al. Mickiewicza 30, 30-059 Kraków, Poland 2 Department of Sanitary Engineering and Water Management, Faculty of Environmental Engineering and Land Surveying, University of Agriculture in Krakow, Al. Mickiewicza 21, 31-120 Kraków, Poland ABSTRACT Aim of the study The aim of the research is an analysis of the concept of ecosystem services in context of urban water bodies. In result of the study, fnal ecosystem services and the goods and benefts of urban aquatic ecosystems were identifed. Material and methods The study of the development of the concept of ecosystem services was based on the literature review. Water ecosystems were analyzed in terms of their ecosystem services that can be assigned to individual classes list- ed in CICES V5.1. The next step of the analysis was to consider which of the identifed ecosystem services of water ecosystems were also provided by urban water bodies. The results of the analysis were divided into biotic and abiotic services in three basic divisions: provisioning, regulation & maintenance, cultural services. Due to the specifcity of CICES classifcation, examples of both, fnal ecosystem services and ecosystem goods and benefts, were assigned to each class code. The research was conducted in relation to Polish con- ditions. Results and conclusions The 26 biotic and 12 abiotic classes of ecosystem services provided by urban water bodies were identifed in the analysis. Cultural services of the urban water bodies seem to be the most important for the daily life of city residents. The demand for urban water bodies ecosystems services grows together with increasing social awareness. Social expectations should be refected in the decisions and actions taken by urban planners and policy makers. Keywords: urban agglomerations, CICES, ecosystem goods and benefts INTRODUCTION Ecosystems in urban agglomerations are under strong human pressure and therefore are subject to signif- cant changes. At the same time, progressive urban- ization seems to be an inevitable process. Urban ar- eas have grown rapidly in recent decades. Areas of transformed land increase with the demand for its new functions: residential, industrial and service (Das and Das, 2019). Biologically active areas decrease along with transformations of urban land. The num- ber of inhabitants of urbanized areas is also constantly growing. In 2018, more than 55 % of the world’s pop- ulation were city dwellers. More than 23 % of people live in large agglomerations (of over a million inhabi- tants). United Nations estimates that these values will