scholarly journals Evaluating Cultural Ecosystem Services of Urban Residential Green Spaces From the Perspective of Residents' Satisfaction With Green Space

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qizheng Mao ◽  
Luyu Wang ◽  
Qinghai Guo ◽  
Yuanzheng Li ◽  
Min Liu ◽  
...  
2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 165-169
Author(s):  
Christopher Rodgers

‘Green spaces’ provide important cultural ecosystem services in our towns and cities. ‘Green’ space may come in many forms – for example parks, village greens, urban commons, or just neglected and undeveloped wasteland. But all of it is important as it can provide much needed space for open air recreation and exercise in crowded urban areas. The covid-19 pandemic and associated lockdown has shown just how important it is for us to have easy access to open space for recreation and exercise. But much of our green space is, in an age of austerity, under threat. Covid-19 has shown that we need to reappraise planning policy for the designation and protection of new areas of green space in our urban environment; to better protect existing open space, including village greens and commons; and to seek to rebalance planning policy to ensure that the drive for new housing does not take place at the expense of ensuring that adequate green space is provided for existing and future communities.


Forests ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. 876
Author(s):  
Silvija Krajter Ostoić ◽  
Ana Marija Marin ◽  
Martina Kičić ◽  
Dijana Vuletić

Background and Objectives: Cultural ecosystem services of urban green spaces are increasingly important and often recognized as such by people living in urban areas. Qualitative studies on perception of cultural ecosystem services from urban green spaces are still rare. Previous studies addressed only certain types of urban green space and often only some services. There is a lack of understanding how people perceive cultural ecosystem services from different types of tree-based urban green spaces. Hence, the purpose of the study was to explore whether and how people perceive and use cultural ecosystem services of different types of tree-based urban green spaces. Materials and Methods: Focus groups were conducted with citizens in each city district. Interviews were recorded, transcribed and transcripts analyzed in MAXQDA software. We used bottom up code-category-theme approach to analyze the data without predefined set of codes or categories. Results: Place attachment, aesthetic and recreational services were more recognized than educational and cultural identity services. For place attachment, most important single attributes were positive memories, and good maintenance, while most important categories were facilities, existence of emotional ties, possibility of experiences, recreational use and access. Presence of specific tree species and presence of trees in general were most important attributes for aesthetic services, while possibility of experiences and trees were the most important categories. Conclusions: People perceived various cultural ecosystem services from tree-based urban green space, even though some services more than others. Recreation may be the underlying goal of our participants when interacting with tree-based urban nature. Forests, parks were recognized as those providing multiple cultural ecosystem services. However, other types of green spaces were also recognized as bearers of these services, albeit with less services and attributes attached. It supports the importance of careful planning of urban green spaces in terms of providing a variety of green space types. The study provides basis for later quantification of cultural ecosystem services (CES) from tree-based urban green space.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hajung Ko

Abstract Objectives: To distinguish between the differences in cultural services based on the type of urban green area, through atypical expressions.Context: Urban green spaces provide important ecosystem services, with cultural ecosystem services (CES) playing a significant role in citizens’ lives. Nevertheless, these are often undervalued as it is difficult to quantitatively evaluate the characteristics of an individuals’ subjective perception of urban space. By examining social media content, we can analyze the content created by users and grasp demand values. Methods: This study analyzed urban green areas in the inland of Ansan city in Gyeonggi-do, South Korea. Data were collected twice, on October 3, 2017 and October 4, 2018, to verify that the extracted keywords were representative. We extracted keywords from blog posts related to CES and evaluated the possibility of using them as quantitative indicators. Results: The results indicate that the perceived expression words were different depending on the type of green space. Certain CES such as “exhibit” and “climbing” are affected by green space type. However, it was difficult to identify emotional responses to CES. We found that some words contained double meanings, which made it difficult to evaluate individuals’ perceptions of CES based on the frequency of specific words.Conclusions: This study demonstrates that social media data on CES greatly extends the type and, especially, the volume and scale of information derived from traditional survey methods. The significance of this study lies in its attempt to quantitatively evaluate the recognition of CES in daily life.


Author(s):  
Yi Fan Koh ◽  
Ho Huu Loc ◽  
Edward Park

Cultural ecosystem services has been increasingly influential in both environmental research and policy decision-making, such as for urban green spaces However, its popular definition conflates the concepts of ‘services’ and ‘benefits’ which made it challenging for planners to employ it directly for urban green space management. One the most widely used definition of this non-tangible ecosystem services are “functions of environmental spaces and cultural activities which may then result in the enjoyment of cultural ecosystem benefits”; yet the latter itself have never found its way into official laws and regulations. In this study, via a case study in Singapore, we propose new evidence to re-evaluate and re-position the two of the most important emerging concepts in managing the green spaces in urban areas. Using the transdisciplinary mixed methods of public participation GIS and social media text mining analysis, a wealth of cultural ecosystem services and their associated benefits were reported. This was especially so with regards to recreational and aesthetic services and experiential benefits. Recommendations to improve the park were also suggested, alongside sharing of methodological considerations for future research. Overall, this paper recommends the employment of the redefined cultural ecosystem services conceptual framework to generate relational, data-driven and actionable insights to better support urban green space management, which is not only useful to Singapore governments but also world-wide relevant.


Forests ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (7) ◽  
pp. 813
Author(s):  
Hui Dang ◽  
Jing Li ◽  
Yumeng Zhang ◽  
Zixiang Zhou

Urban green spaces can provide many types of ecosystem services for residents. An imbalance in the pattern of green spaces leads to an inequality of the benefits of such spaces. Given the current situation of environmental problems and the basic geographical conditions of Xi’an City, this study evaluated and mapped four kinds of ecosystem services from the perspective of equity: biodiversity, carbon sequestration, air purification, and climate regulation. Regionalization with dynamically constrained agglomerative clustering and partitioning (REDCAP) was used to obtain the partition groups of ecosystem services. The results indicate that first, the complexity of the urban green space community is low, and the level of biodiversity needs to be improved. The dry deposition flux of particulate matter (PM2.5) decreases from north to south, and green spaces enhance the adsorption of PM2.5. Carbon sequestration in the south and east is higher than that in the north and west, respectively. The average surface temperature in green spaces is lower than that in other urban areas. Second, urban green space resources in the study area are unevenly distributed. Therefore, ecosystem services in different areas are inequitable. Finally, based on the regionalization of integrated ecosystem services, an ecosystem services cluster was developed. This included 913 grid spaces, 12 partitions, and 5 clusters, which can provide a reference for distinct levels of ecosystem services management. This can assist urban managers who can use these indicators of ecosystem service levels for planning and guiding the overall development pattern of green spaces. The benefits would be a maximization of the ecological functions of green spaces, an improvement of the sustainable development of the city, and an improvement of people’s well-being.


Author(s):  
Shuiyu Yan ◽  
Jun Tang

This paper applied landscape indexes to evaluate the size, form, and structure of green spaces in the mountainous city of Chongqing and found that green spaces benefit from certain advantages in size, but the network suffered from low heterogeneity and limited interconnectivity. To ensure the integrity and continuity of ecological processes and improve the efficiency of ecosystem services (ES), the authors used Geographic Information System (GIS) software to conduct adaptability evaluation and adjacent buffer analysis for the existing green spaces, wetlands, rivers, and other landscapes with relatively high capacity for ES. We designed a comprehensive map of potential areas for UGS expansion by superimposing the maps obtained from adaptability evaluation and buffer analysis. We also proposed some strategies that respect, consider, and evaluate aspects and special features of urban environment to optimize green space planning and improve ES efficiency, such as protection of important areas, development of green corridors, and careful consideration of ecological processes and complex functions in urban areas. Based on these strategies, the paper put forth suggestions for green space planning to improve ES efficiency that can function as foundation for subsequent green space planning.


2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 123-137 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lizzie Jones ◽  
Robert A. Holland ◽  
Jennifer Ball ◽  
Tim Sykes ◽  
Gail Taylor ◽  
...  

2013 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jürgen Breuste ◽  
Johanna Schnellinger ◽  
Salman Qureshi ◽  
Anna Faggi

AbstractBreuste J., Schnellinger J., Qureshi S., Faggi A.: Urban ecosystem services on the local level: Urban green spaces as providers. Ekologia (Bratislava), Vol. 32, No. 3, p. 209-304, 2013. Ecosystem services are provided at different spatial and service/functional scales. The local level is the basic unit for ecosystem services, especially when it comes to the human dimension of urban landscapes. These services are provided by green elements (patches) or basic complex ecosystems (green areas) which differ from their neighbourhoods through their structures and functions. This study reviews the generally available knowledge on urban green functions and services at the site level and explains them by using own studies in five different cities in three different continents related to distinct ecosystem services. This allows the development of a methodology to evaluate and compare ecosystem services at the site level. The methodology is based at two levels, patch and green space, and includes the relationship with the surrounding green and built-up space. Different urban green space types are characterized by their internal structures of vegetation, size, shape and location in relation to at least a semi-quantitative scaling of their urban ecosystem services. The evaluated urban green spaces are public urban green spaces. The urban ecosystem services assessed include climate regulation, biodiversity, nature experience, recreation and health. The actual urban challenges, such as land use change, adaptation to climate change, demographic change and urban cultural diversity, demand a systematic and very concrete monitoring of urban ecosystem services at the site level.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document