We present landscapes' outdoor recreation potential for 5 archetypical user groups.  Spatial patterns of outdoor recreation potential are mapped across the EU.  Distinction of archetypical outdoor recreation types may help targeted management.

Multifunctional landscapes are used and shaped by a range of different stakeholders. The high number of diverging values, interests or demands in such landscapes can lead to conflicts that impact sustainability goals. In this study, our aim was to include stakeholders' valuations of ecosystem services in multifunctionality assessments and thereby to identify different and possibly contradictory perspectives on landscape multifunctionality. Two European cultural landscapes, the Vereinigte Mulde (Germany) and the Kromme Rijn (The Netherlands), were used as case studies. Spatially explicit indicators of eleven ecosystem services were assessed and weighted according to their survey-based perceived importance for different stakeholder groups. While some significant differences between the groups were apparent, the results also revealed that all stakeholder groups acknowledge the importance of multiple ecosystem services. Stakeholder-specific multifunctionality hotspots occurred mainly in forests or grasslands and largely overlapped between the groups. Our study therefore clearly shows that the diversity of ecosystem services must be preserved in order to preserve the values that cultural landscapes offer to a wide range of people. While local solutions must be sought to resolve local land use conflicts over the use of ecosystem services, we conclude that multifunctionality can be declared a common goal.

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Increasing urbanization accompanied by a growing demand for recreational use of peri-urban green spaces is likely to cause land-use conflicts. The nature of these conflicts is subject to the heterogeneous preferences of outdoor recreationists. Although the importance of diversifying between recreational user groups has been acknowledged in the literature, most studies-and especially studies on landscape preferences-focus on specific user groups and are not operationalized for creating a recreationist typology. This study presents a typology on case-study level accounting for variations in landscape preferences, visitation behavior, and socio-demographic information. The typology is based on data originating from a structured questionnaire with a total of 200 respondents. It is constructed by employing two commonly used data-driven methods for typology development: PCA of preferences for landscape characteristics and cluster analysis of all data (landscape preferences, visitation behavior and socioeconomic variables) to derive alternative typologies. Comparing the results of both types of analysis leads to a consistent picture of the main differences between three distinct outdoor recreation user groups which we refer to as 'the convenience recreationist', 'the day tripper' and 'the culture/nature recreationist'. The first user group prefers convenient, short-term recreation, close to home. The second group is characterized by clear preferences for one-day recreational activities and destinations, while the last group is mainly defined by its strong interest in culture and nature. Our study identified large variations in outdoor recreation preferences and recreation needs between these three user groups. Understanding the heterogeneity of recreation preferences can help to articulate effective landscape management strategies, targeted to ensure the multi-functional character of peri-urban landscapes for different types of users.

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