urban biodiversity and ecosystem services in northern iranian cities: a data integrated review with insights from phyto ecological assessments in rasht

The accelerating urbanization of northern iranian cities has intensified the need to understand how biodiversity underpins ecosystem service efficiency in humid urban landscapes. this integrative review aimed to evaluate global progress on urban ecosystem services while contextualizing local evidence from rasht as a representative northern city. a data driven synthesis framework was developed to connect ecological diversity, functional performance, and governance capacity under a unified assessment lens termed the eco service potential index (espi). drawing upon recent studies and verified local phyto ecological datasets, the analysis revealed a moderate-to high ecological performance, where rasht’s urban vegetation demonstrates strong regulatory and functional potential yet remains constrained by governance and policy continuity. comparative interpretation across asian and european analogues highlighted similar patterns of “latent ecosystem potential” in policy limited contexts. the study introduces the urban eco service triangle, a conceptual model linking green, smart, and governance dimensions as co regulators of urban sustainability. overall, the findings present a transferable analytical pathway for quantifying ecosystem service potential and guiding evidence based policy in iranian urban planning.