The Application of Visual Environmental Economics in the Study of Public Preference and Urban Greenspace

Abstract

This is an author produced version of a paper published in Urban greenspace has consistently been argued to be of great importance to the wellbeing, health, and daily lives of residents and users. This paper reports results from a study which combined the visualisation of public greenspace with environmental economics, and which aimed to develop a method by which realistic computer models of sites could be used within preference studies. As part of a methodology which employed contingent rating to establish the values placed on specific greenspace sites, three-dimensional computer models were used to produce visualisations of particular environmental conditions. Of particular importance to the study was the influence of variables including lighting, season, time of day and weather on the perception of respondents. This study followed previous work that established a suitable approach to the modelling and testing of entirely moveable physical variables within the built environment. As such, the study has firmly established that computer-generated visualisations are appropriate for use within environmental economic surveys, and that there is potential for a holistic range of attributes to be included in such studies.

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