Abstract
Although the value of urban ecological infrastructure (UEI) is widely recognized, insufficient research has investigated how people perceive the wide variety of UEI. To address this gap, we investigated residents' perceptions of the coupled value of aesthetic and biological qualities as related to diverse UEI and other environmental and social factors (including personal beliefs and demographics), collectively referred to as bio-cultural services and disservices. We evaluated whether people positively view their neighborhood environments as natural-looking while providing diverse plants and wildlife habitat (services), in contrast to negatively perceived disservices that we evaluated as messy-looking with weeds and pests (disservices). We analyzed survey data from residents (n = 495) in metropolitan Phoenix, Arizona, United States, coupled with environmental variables (UEI and vegetative cover) compiled from diverse sources. We ran three regression models to compare the relative influence of social and environmental factors independently and combined on the perception of biocultural services and disservices. Our results demonstrate the influence of social factors, particularly place identity, neighborhood cohesion, and income, on both biocultural services and disservices. Additionally, environmental factors such as vegetation cover increased perceptions of bio-cultural services while decreasing perceived disservices. The effects of proximity to UEI were more varied. While proximity to cropland increased perceived bio-cultural disservices, proximity to desert parks reduced disservices. Although UEI can promote biodiversity and human well-being, all UEI are not perceived the same. Our results underscore the added value of considering both the form of UEI and perceptions among people who live nearby when designing and implementing infrastructure to promote bio-cultural services that are both ecologically and socially valued.
Highlights
People’s everyday relationships with their local environments largely depend on the structure and design of natural areas within urban settings
Our research illustrates that people’s perceptions of bio-cultural services and disservices are related to both local landscape features and social factors including personal beliefs and demographics. While these factors can be investigated independently, our results showed that coupling environmental and social factors best explain variations in perceptions of ecosystem services and disservices
Our study demonstrates the importance of considering social factors, such as neighborhood identity and social cohesion, as drivers of perceived ecosystem services
Summary
People’s everyday relationships with their local environments largely depend on the structure and design of natural areas within urban settings. The projected urban population of 5.2 billion by 2030 (up from 4.0 billion in 2015; United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division, 2019) underscores the importance of understanding complex relationships between people and nature in urban ecosystems (Pickett and Cadenasso, 2008; McPhearson et al, 2016). Research into the heterogeneity of urban landscapes, both within and between metropolitan areas, provides a deeper understanding of how local features influence the perceived benefits of varied landscapes, including those related to biological outcomes (Cadenasso et al, 2007, 2013). We investigate how environmental features of people’s neighborhoods, including urban ecological infrastructure (UEI), coupled with social factors, affect public perceptions of their aesthetic and biological value
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