Characterizing outdoor recreation user groups: A typology of peri-urban recreationists in the Kromme Rijn area, the Netherlands

Abstract

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.

Including stakeholders’ perspectives on ecosystem services in multifunctionality assessments

“…The Kromme Rijn area (219 km 2 , 86.090 inhabitants) is located outside of Utrecht (The Netherlands). It is used for recreational purposes by the people of Utrecht, local residents and other visitors, as well as for dairy and fruit production (Verhagen et al 2018;Komossa et al 2019). Important landscape elements are open pastures, woody linear elements, orchards, the river beds of the meandering river 'Kromme Rijn' and cultural heritage sites (Tieskens et al 2018).…”

“…In this study, we have thus included both influential and non-influential stakeholder groups, as well as marketable and non-marketable ecosystem services. It has further been questioned whether stakeholders really appreciate multifunctionality or whether conflicts between them can actually arise due to the multifunctional character of a landscape (von der Dunk et al 2011;Komossa et al 2019;Zoderer et al 2019). Recreationists, for example, who visit an area primarily to enjoy its tranquility, beauty and fresh air, might come into conflict with land users who disrupt its recreation potential (e.g.…”

“…Moreover, we tested spatial co-occurrences between stakeholder-specific multifunctionality hotspots and land use types to find out which land use classes are commonly considered multifunctional. Our study focuses on two landscapes that have previously been characterized as multifunctional landscapes and are representative for numerous cultural landscapes in Central and Western Europe (Verhagen et al 2018;Karner et al 2019;Komossa et al 2019). Our specific research questions are: a) How do different groups of stakeholders in multifunctional landscapes value the importance of multiple ecosystem services?…”

Public Perception of Wilderness in Iceland

“…Numerous studies have been conducted worldwide to evaluate the experience of tourists towards wilderness and their reasons for visiting such areas (e.g., [12,[30][31][32][33][34]). Individuals' experience and perception of wilderness is dependent on many factors, such as their cultural and social background [35]. Furthermore, how people assess the value of wilderness is dependent on location, as well as the circumstances of each period.…”

Revierparks as an integrated green network in Germany: An option for Amman?

“…Due to increasing urbanization around the world, landscapes are experiencing profound changes in the provision of the needed green and open spaces [18]. The need for open space conferring with the daily life of communities is becoming a crucial need [19]. Spatial inconsistency between the supply of recreational services and the demand for them has raised inequity concerns regarding urban park policies.…”