Capturing residents' values for urban green space: mapping, analysis and guidance for practice

Planning for green space is guided by standards and guidelines but there is currently little understanding of the variety of values people assign to green spaces or their determinants. Land use planners need to know what values are associated with different landscape characteristics and how value el...

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Main Authors: Ives, Christopher D., Oke, Cathy, Hehir, Ailish, Gordon, Ascelin, Wang, Yan, Bekessy, Sarah A.
Format: Article
Published: Elsevier 2017
Subjects:
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/40563/
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author Ives, Christopher D.
Oke, Cathy
Hehir, Ailish
Gordon, Ascelin
Wang, Yan
Bekessy, Sarah A.
author_facet Ives, Christopher D.
Oke, Cathy
Hehir, Ailish
Gordon, Ascelin
Wang, Yan
Bekessy, Sarah A.
author_sort Ives, Christopher D.
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description Planning for green space is guided by standards and guidelines but there is currently little understanding of the variety of values people assign to green spaces or their determinants. Land use planners need to know what values are associated with different landscape characteristics and how value elicitation techniques can inform decisions. We designed a Public Participation GIS (PPGIS) study and surveyed residents of four urbanising suburbs in the Lower Hunter region of NSW, Australia. Participants assigned dots on maps to indicate places they associated with a typology of values (specific attributes or functions considered important) and negative qualities related to green spaces. The marker points were digitised and aggregated according to discrete park polygons for statistical analysis. People assigned a variety of values to green spaces (such as aesthetic value or social interaction value), which were related to landscape characteristics. Some variables (e.g. distance to water) were statistically associated with multiple open space values. Distance from place of residence however did not strongly influence value assignment after landscape configuration was accounted for. Value compatibility analysis revealed that some values co-occurred in park polygons more than others (e.g. nature value and health/therapeutic value). Results highlight the potential for PPGIS techniques to inform green space planning through the spatial representation of complex human-nature relationships. However, a number of potential pitfalls and challenges should be addressed. These include the non-random spatial arrangement of landscape features that can skew interpretation of results and the need to communicate clearly about theory that explains observed patterns.
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spelling nottingham-405632020-05-04T19:57:34Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/40563/ Capturing residents' values for urban green space: mapping, analysis and guidance for practice Ives, Christopher D. Oke, Cathy Hehir, Ailish Gordon, Ascelin Wang, Yan Bekessy, Sarah A. Planning for green space is guided by standards and guidelines but there is currently little understanding of the variety of values people assign to green spaces or their determinants. Land use planners need to know what values are associated with different landscape characteristics and how value elicitation techniques can inform decisions. We designed a Public Participation GIS (PPGIS) study and surveyed residents of four urbanising suburbs in the Lower Hunter region of NSW, Australia. Participants assigned dots on maps to indicate places they associated with a typology of values (specific attributes or functions considered important) and negative qualities related to green spaces. The marker points were digitised and aggregated according to discrete park polygons for statistical analysis. People assigned a variety of values to green spaces (such as aesthetic value or social interaction value), which were related to landscape characteristics. Some variables (e.g. distance to water) were statistically associated with multiple open space values. Distance from place of residence however did not strongly influence value assignment after landscape configuration was accounted for. Value compatibility analysis revealed that some values co-occurred in park polygons more than others (e.g. nature value and health/therapeutic value). Results highlight the potential for PPGIS techniques to inform green space planning through the spatial representation of complex human-nature relationships. However, a number of potential pitfalls and challenges should be addressed. These include the non-random spatial arrangement of landscape features that can skew interpretation of results and the need to communicate clearly about theory that explains observed patterns. Elsevier 2017-05 Article PeerReviewed Ives, Christopher D., Oke, Cathy, Hehir, Ailish, Gordon, Ascelin, Wang, Yan and Bekessy, Sarah A. (2017) Capturing residents' values for urban green space: mapping, analysis and guidance for practice. Landscape and Urban Planning, 161 . pp. 32-43. ISSN 0169-2046 Urban parks; Green space; Landscape values; Urban planning; PPGIS; Biodiversity http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0169204616302821 doi:10.1016/j.landurbplan.2016.12.010 doi:10.1016/j.landurbplan.2016.12.010
spellingShingle Urban parks; Green space; Landscape values; Urban planning; PPGIS; Biodiversity
Ives, Christopher D.
Oke, Cathy
Hehir, Ailish
Gordon, Ascelin
Wang, Yan
Bekessy, Sarah A.
Capturing residents' values for urban green space: mapping, analysis and guidance for practice
title Capturing residents' values for urban green space: mapping, analysis and guidance for practice
title_full Capturing residents' values for urban green space: mapping, analysis and guidance for practice
title_fullStr Capturing residents' values for urban green space: mapping, analysis and guidance for practice
title_full_unstemmed Capturing residents' values for urban green space: mapping, analysis and guidance for practice
title_short Capturing residents' values for urban green space: mapping, analysis and guidance for practice
title_sort capturing residents' values for urban green space: mapping, analysis and guidance for practice
topic Urban parks; Green space; Landscape values; Urban planning; PPGIS; Biodiversity
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/40563/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/40563/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/40563/