In many regions in Western Europe the rural matrix is under high pressure because of land use fragmentation and environmental degradation. New frameworks and approaches are needed to revalue the rural matrix and stop its degradation. The Flemish Region of Belgium has a severely degraded environmental and ecological quality. Increasing environmental degradation in Flanders is mainly remediated by technical measures and infrastructure. Due to institutional fragmentation of competences in environmental management, there is a lack of integrated measures that improve environmental quality on multiple aspects, which often leads to inefficient or adverse policy initiatives. The ecosystem services (ES) approach can be a unifying concept, bringing together different environmental, social, and economic aspects. The potential of landscape management and planning for ecosystem service generation needs to be recognized as a true option to reach both environmental and societal policy objectives at different scales [1]. We use the “ecosystem service approach” as an umbrella concept to advocate for the creation or restoration of functional ecosystems as a cost-efficient and multipurpose strategy to improve environmental quality. The identification and quantification of hidden demands for ecosystem services is confronted with potential ecosystem services creation, based on hydro-geomorphologic suitability. The aim of this methodological framework is to develop an adequate scientific basis to contribute to a policy-relevant strategy for ecosystem services research in Belgium as part of the overall policy of sustainable development. A framework is presented that aims to (a) overcome the policy-science gap by presenting the ecosystem approach as an alternative for the increasing cost and failure of traditional environmental management; (b) identify and map potential ES; (c) quantify the potential delivery of ES by use of conceptual models that account for the spatial and temporal variability within a landscape context as ecosystems generate and receive fluxes from surrounding land-use; and (d) develop a policy support tool that allows optimal geographical implementation of ES generation. The proposed methodological framework will be further elaborated and implemented through a Strategic Basic Research project, funded by the Flemish Institute for Science and Technology.