Are households’ residential preferences consistent with biodiversity conservation in different urban contexts?

Abstract

This article combines stated preference methods and graph-based landscape approaches to assess the possible synergy existing between households’ residential preferences and biodiversity conservation in urban areas. We start by estimating household’s residential preferences regarding different landscape attributes (i.e. green spaces and compactness of the neighbourhood) of chosen urban contexts applying the choice experiment method. Then, by integrating ecological indicators obtained by using a graph-based approach in our valuation model, we study the impact of the residential choice on biodiversity conservation. Our results suggest that the preferred neighbourhood also have landscape structure that are in favour of biodiversity conservation. The preference heterogeneity for green spaces and compactness will induce landscape-based sorting. Household’s residential location choices affect biodiversity conservation differently which depend on their socio-demographic characteristics.