Residents' preferences for cultural services of the landscape along the urban‒rural gradient

Ting Zhou, E. Koomen, E.S. van Leeuwen

Research output: Contribution to JournalArticleAcademicpeer-review

341 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Cultural services of the landscape contribute to a higher quality of life. The provision of these services differs along the urban–rural gradient, as does their appreciation by local residents. This paper investigates residents’ preferences for cultural services along the urban–rural gradient through a map-based survey in and around the Dutch city of Maastricht. We focus on the importance of location in explaining these preferences, distinguishing the location of residents (relative to the preferred landscape units) and the location of landscape units (relative to their positions on the urban–rural gradient). The study shows that residents prefer nearby locations for all distinguished cultural services. Locations’ valuation along the urban–rural gradient, however, differs by service type: for cultural heritage locations near the city centre are preferred, while outdoor recreation and sports and passive enjoyment of green landscapes are enjoyed more in rural areas. When considering the spatial distribution of the land-use types that provide these services, we further find that people prefer green areas closer to the city for outdoor recreation and sports and passive enjoyment of green landscapes. The results illustrate the heterogeneity of people’s preferences for cultural services along the urban–rural gradient beyond the distance from their residences. We recommend policy makers to take the urban–rural gradient into account when valuating landscape units, and in particularly the importance of green landscape units close to the city for different cultural services.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)131-141
Number of pages11
JournalUrban Forestry & Urban Greening
Volume29
Early online date23 Nov 2017
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jan 2018

Funding

This study was supported by the China Scholarship Council . We specifically like to thanks Dr. M.P. Bokhorst and the bachelor students from the Faculty of Earth and Life Sciences, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, the Netherlands who helped setting up and distributing this survey.

FundersFunder number
China Scholarship Council

    Fingerprint

    Dive into the research topics of 'Residents' preferences for cultural services of the landscape along the urban‒rural gradient'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

    Cite this