Settlement Typology and Community Participation in Participatory Landscape Ecology of Residents

Abstract

Numerous scholars have emphasised the importance of providing participatory landscape ecology (PLE) that local residents deem acceptable. However, the complexity of PLE may require promoting the understanding of settlement types and community participation in PLE of residents. Our empirical study contributes to the critical PLE by adopting physical and social environments to determine the community participation of residents. The physical environments are classified into four settlement types: high-rise/urban, low-rise/urban, high-rise/rural and low-rise/rural. Survey data collected from 495 residents in the Taipei metropolitan area revealed the typology of physical environments, which can be used to substantially explain community participation. Perceived residential satisfaction (PRS) and neighbouring behaviour (NB), derived from the social environment, were tested for describing community participation. We observed an indirect relationship between settlement typology and community participation through the two intervening roles of PRS and NB. This affirms the importance of social environment to the relationship between settlement types and community participation.