Public views on green roofs and green walls in two major Asian cities and implications for promotion policy

Abstract

Public views on green roofs and green walls (GRGW) have received little attention; hence, related policies could be detached from community needs and expectations. A comprehensive questionnaire was developed to compare perceptions of GRGW benefits and negative impacts and attitudes towards government GRGW promotion in Beijing and Hong Kong. Beijing residents reported stronger positive perceptions of benefits, weaker perceptions of negative impacts, and greater support to promotion measures. Beijing’s more proactive and effective promotion efforts brought a better-informed citizenry with positive outlooks. Both cities appreciated promotion policies and strongly preferred advocating for GRGW quality. Public views were subsumed under three underlying factors: socio-demographic, living-environment, and greening-attitude. Principal component analysis and multiple linear regression detected city-dependent relationships between factors and perceptions. Senior and less-educated respondents in Beijing were less able to perceive the negative impacts. Younger and well-educated respondents in Hong Kong held a strong greening attitude and better recognition of benefits. GRGW perceptions were robust predictors of attitudes towards promotion policies in both cities. The implications for GRGW development vis-a-vis a city’s socio-cultural context were discussed. The findings could help governments hone the publicity and policy aspects of GRGW promotion and development and fine-tune greening programmes to citizen preferences.