Public perception of spontaneous vegetation on brownfields in urban areas—Results from surveys in Dresden and Leipzig (Germany)

Mathey, Juliane; Arndt, Thomas; Banse, Juliane; Rink, Dieter

doi:10.1016/j.ufug.2016.10.007

Cited by 102 publications

(65 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…Studies on the extent to which people value wild vegetation on urban vacant lots have yielded ambiguous results. While some studies revealed prevailing positive valuations of wild vegetation in urban settings [9,71], other studies showed that people preferred open succession stages over woody stages [194,195]. This is likely related to concerns about safety and to general cross-cultural preferences for semi-open scenery [196].…”

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confidence: 99%

Emerging Urban Forests: Opportunities for Promoting the Wild Side of the Urban Green Infrastructure

et al. 2019

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Many cities aim to increase urban forest cover to benefit residents through the provision of ecosystem services and to promote biodiversity. As a complement to traditional forest plantings, we address opportunities associated with “emerging urban forests” (i.e., spontaneously developing forests in cities) for urban biodiversity conservation. We quantified the area of successional forests and analyzed the species richness of native and alien plants and of invertebrates (carabid beetles, spiders) in emerging forests dominated by alien or native trees, including Robinia pseudoacacia, Acer platanoides, and Betula pendula. Emerging urban forests were revealed as shared habitats of native and alien species. Native species richness was not profoundly affected by the alien (co-)dominance of the canopy. Instead, native and alien plant species richnesses were positively related. Numbers of endangered plants and invertebrates did not differ between native- and alien-dominated forest patches. Patterns of tree regeneration indicate different successional trajectories for novel forest types. We conclude that these forests (i) provide habitats for native and alien species, including some endangered species, (ii) allow city dwellers to experience wild urban nature, and (iii) support arguments for adapting forests to dynamic urban environments. Integrating emerging urban forests into the urban green infrastructure is a promising pathway to sustainable cities and can complement traditional restoration or greening approaches.

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confidence: 99%

Emerging Urban Forests: Opportunities for Promoting the Wild Side of the Urban Green Infrastructure

et al. 2019

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“…This is supported by the study of Weber et al (2014) who found a higher approval for maintained roadside vegetation compared to spontaneous vegetation in Berlin, and with the fact that people generally accept vegetation with visible signs of human actions or managements (Nassauer 1995, Van den Berg andvan Winsum-Westra 2010). Including vegetation in designs also lead to homogeneous plant covers which are often visually preferred compared to scattered patches of vegetation, as it has been shown in other urban habitats like wastelands in which pioneer vegetation is less appreciated than grassland vegetation (Brun et al 2017, Mathey et al 2018. Interestingly, the grassland strip ('Sand Grassland') which can be composed of a mix of native grasses and forbs was as much appreciated than the flower strip ('Asphalt Flower') which is generally composed of exotic and/or horticultural species.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Improving nature experience in cities: What are people's preferences for vegetated streets?

Bonthoux

Chollet

Balat

et al. 2019

Journal of Environmental Management

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In the current context of strong urban sprawl, it becomes urgent to find urban approaches that simultaneously promote ecological functions and relationships between people and nature in cities. Streets are omnipresent urban elements that can deliver ecosystem services and facilitate people daily interactions with nature. Promoting vegetation in streets can take different forms which have to be combined with people's preferences. Based on photomontages, we assessed people's perceptions and valuations for herbaceous vegetation types associated to various managements and designs of pavements. Using a combination of a local field survey and a French national online survey, we collected a total of 3609 responses representing a large diversity of socio-demographic characteristics. The results of the field survey confirmed those of the online survey. Although there was variability among people valuations, we found that lowly managed pavements with spontaneous vegetation were in average higher valued than highly managed pavements without vegetation. Pavements with spontaneous vegetation were perceived as less kept than pavements without vegetation, but more beautiful and less boring. We found a consensus of high valuations towards pavements containing vegetation integrated in small design interventions (flowers seeded in foot of wall, design of a meadow strip along the pavement), suggesting that people generally accept vegetation with visible signs of human actions or managements. Socio-demographic characteristics partly explained variabilities in photo valuations. As expected, people frequently connected with nature had the highest preferences for vegetated pavements, spontaneous or integrated in designs. These results show that vegetated streets can become daily biodiversity-friendly urban greenspaces appreciated by urban dwellers. We provide recommendations for promoting vegetation in streets that will be useful for politics, urban designers and managers.

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“…Furthermore, the perspective from which a site is viewed also seems to be important. Studies that are based on the evaluation of images taken from diverse angles, distances, and viewing perspectives have indicated that these overall setting factors affect the overall results of landscape assessment [1,75,90,[168][169][170]. However, the ways in which observations from different perspectives influence the perception of an individual location remain unclear [90].…”

Section: Importance Of the Overall Setting Of The Urban Green Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

Perception of Urban Green Areas Associated with Sociodemographic Affiliation, Structural Elements, and Acceptance Stripes

Zobec

Betz

Unterweger³

2020

Urban Science

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The extensification (opposite of intensification) of urban public green spaces offers great potential for conservation. One major issue for the long-term success of such a measure is, however, its acceptance by the urban population. This contribution presents the results of an image-based online questionnaire that we set to elucidate the role of sociodemographic affiliations regarding the perception of urban green areas. We also asked whether acceptability can be increased by the presence of additional structural elements (sculptures, benches) and "acceptance stripes", i.e., stripes regularly mowed only at the margins of a natural green space. Regarding structural elements, 40to 60-year-olds consistently rejected intensely maintained lawns and perceived a lawn as positive only in combination with a sculpture. A regularly mowed acceptance stripe resulted in a positive perception of natural meadows by people with an affinity for city life, classified based on their actual place of residence and/or their social dimension including aspects such as sense of place, familiarity, profession, and interests. Thus, decision-making processes of policy makers must be evaluated together with the urban population and should be assessed multidimensionally, i.e., by considering various criteria (e.g., ecological, social, and aesthetic aspects) in order to meet the requirements of residents and achieve an increase in biodiversity.

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Public perception of spontaneous vegetation on brownfields in urban areas—Results from surveys in Dresden and Leipzig (Germany)

Cited by 102 publications

References 36 publications

Emerging Urban Forests: Opportunities for Promoting the Wild Side of the Urban Green Infrastructure

Emerging Urban Forests: Opportunities for Promoting the Wild Side of the Urban Green Infrastructure

Improving nature experience in cities: What are people's preferences for vegetated streets?

Perception of Urban Green Areas Associated with Sociodemographic Affiliation, Structural Elements, and Acceptance Stripes

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