Heterogeneity in resident perceptions of a bio-cultural heritage in Hong Kong: A latent class factor analysis

Abstract

There is an increasing recognition of ecosystem services provided by urban trees and their importance to urban resilience and sustainability through the preservation and enhancement of biological diversity so as to withstand disturbances and retain ecosystem functions as well as guarantee the well-being of current and future urban dwellers. However, the heterogeneous perceptions that urban residents may hold towards various ecosystem services have seldom been investigated. This study made a unique contribution to the growing body of literature on urban ecosystem services by examining the unobserved heterogeneity in resident perceptions of ecosystem services provided by a distinctive bio-cultural asset, urban heritage trees, in Hong Kong, via a novel application of latent class factor analysis which allows for considering the multidimensionality of latent factors and increases model parsimony. A total of 1075 face-to-face interviews were conducted with a stratified sample of residents about their perceived importance of two categories of distinctive ecosystem services provided by urban heritage trees: biological benefits and cultural benefits. The results indicated that, on average, both biological and cultural benefits of urban heritage trees were perceived to be important. Nevertheless, six classes were identified on the basis of different levels of two latent class factors, which differed markedly with respect to individual’s perceived importance of ecosystem services provided by urban heritage trees, from fairly balanced to very divergent perceptions of biological services and cultural services. This heterogeneity was explained with covariates describing respondents’ sociodemographic characteristics and activities at heritage tree sites. The results have implications for optimally tailoring promoting and participatory approaches, fostering improved communications with the general public, and nurturing overall support for urban heritage tree conservation from heterogeneous resident groups in order to achieve urban resilience and sustainability.