Researchers all over the world have been involved for some time in valuing and measuring ecosystem services. However, methods to value both costs and supply and to match them on the same scale are still under discussion. This study assesses costs and supply of a subset of supporting and regulating ecosystem service in urban parks and discusses the role and the value of these services under an environmental/economic point of view using emergy synthesis. A total of 73 parks in the city of São Paulo, Brazil, are used as a case study. Results show that green areas in urban parks provide valuable services to the city’s community through transformation processes of natural renewable inputs that would be otherwise wasted. The method can be applied in different locations and contexts to provide useful information to public managers and urban planners.

全世界的研究人员参与评估和衡量生态系统服务已有一段时间。但是，仍在讨论同时评估成本和供应并在相同规模上进行匹配的方法。这项研究评估了在城市公园中支持和调节生态系统服务的子集的成本和供应，并讨论了利用能值合成从环境/经济角度探讨这些服务的作用和价值。以巴西圣保罗市的73个公园为例。结果表明，城市公园的绿地通过自然可再生投入物的转化过程为城市社区提供了宝贵的服务，否则将被浪费掉。该方法可以应用于不同的位置和上下文，以向公共管理人员和城市规划人员提供有用的信息。