Attitudes toward urban green spaces: integrating questionnaire survey and collaborative GIS techniques to improve attitude measurements

Abstract

Attitudes influence behavior towards urban green spaces. But determining attitudes toward urban green spaces is not well operationalized in urban planning research. A study was conducted in the West Island, Montreal, Canada to elaborate the design and development of a valid and reliable instrument to measure the dimensions of citizen attitudes toward urban green spaces. The use of qualitative and quantitative phases in the instrument design strengthened the operationalization of the attitude concept. In the qualitative stage, a novel approach integrating collaborative geographic information system (GIS) techniques and informal interviews generated complementary insights about the spatial and non-spatial factors influencing attitude towards urban green spaces. Affinity analysis aggregated the issues into three homogeneous categories that guided the construction of questionnaire items. A self-administered mail-back questionnaire was developed and distributed to 322 households using a multistage cluster sampling strategy; 179 questionnaires were returned (55.6%). In the quantitative phase, factor analysis and reliability analysis were applied to the items set to create a valid attitude measurement scale. The analysis shows that households are characterized by a two-factor attitude structure towards urban green spaces: behavior and usefulness. It is concluded that urban green spaces attitude is a multi-dimensional construct. The implications for green spaces planning are outlined.