Non-ecological factors affect human interaction with urban nature and perception of cultural ecosystem services

Abstract

Cultural ecosystem services (CESs) are not only affected by ecological factors, but also by non-ecological factors such as demographic and socio-political factors. Especially for CESs in urban ecosystems, it is necessary to study how the people's perception of CESs change during the changes in social contexts and urban management. The COVID-19 outbreak caused dramatic changes for human society. In this study, we evaluated people's perceptions of CESs provided by an urban park of Shanghai in four phases of the pre-, during and post-COVID period. It is found that aesthetic, historical and recreational values are perceived in the four phases, but the distribution of people's perceptions for CESs varied considerably, influenced by the socio-political contexts. Besides, we emphasized the importance of focusing on the CESs perceived during the prohibited use, as this is a rare period when people were separated from the park and can only perceive CESs indirectly. People's perception of CESs through indirect interactions with ecosystems has received little attention in previous research, but it should be valued by mangers to respond the issues of CESs equity.