دانلود رایگان مقاله انگلیسی تأثیر تنوع زیستی و نگرش مربوط به محیط زیست بر روی درک فضای سبز شهری - اشپرینگر 2016

Abstract

Green space in cities contributes to the quality of life for city dwellers, e.g., by increasing the opportunity for recreation. However, perception of urban green space is influenced by multiple factors. We investigated effects of biodiversity and environment-related attitudes on visual and auditory perceptions of urban green space. Field measurements of biodiversity were conducted in six sites across an urban gradient in Gothenburg, Sweden, and three categories of biodiversity—high, medium, low—were established. Households were sent a survey on aesthetic perception of urban green space, sound perception and the importance of trees and plants for the perception of bird species. Each respondent focused on the site that was located nearby. The environment-related attitudes comprised BNature-oriented^ and BUrban-oriented^ persons and were based on participants’ own attitude estimations. It was shown that participants’ Bsubjective^ aesthetic and sound-related perception of urban greenery were in line with the Bobjectively^ measured subdivisions of high, medium and low biodiversity. So also were their estimations of the importance of trees and plants for perception of bird species in urban greenery, although differing only between high and medium/ low biodiversity conditions. Persons rating themselves as highly nature-oriented were shown to give higher scores to urban green space aesthetics and to value greenery-related sounds higher, and to attach greater importance to trees and plants in their perception of bird species in urban greenery, than less nature-oriented persons. Highly urban-oriented persons compared to less urban-oriented persons did the same, but only regarding urban greenery-related aesthetics and sounds of nature. We conclude that environment-related attitudes influence perceptions of green space. Moreover, our findings support the idea that biodiversity per se also influences perceptions; people value green space significantly more with high than with low measured biodiversity. Urban planning needs to provide city inhabitants with green spaces that are species-rich, lush, varied and rich with natural sounds.

Discussion

We have shown that participants’ Bsubjective^ aesthetic and sound-related perceptions of urban green space were in line with the Bobjectively^ measured subdivisions of high, medium and low biodiversity. Their estimations of the importance of trees and plants for perception of bird species in urban greenery followed a similar pattern differing only between high and medium/low biodiversity conditions. This suggests that aesthetic experiences of green space in high biodiversity spots, on a relative scale, were more valued than low diversity spots. In other words, perceived positive values of urban greenery were highest where biodiversity was highest.

Our findings support the idea that high levels of actual biodiversity (measured in the field) contribute to positive aesthetic perceptions of green spaces. However, we are unable to conclude that biodiversity caused the differences in perception since there might be another factor, related to the level of biodiversity, which is the actual cause. On the other hand, one of the statements in the survey (Brich in species^) explicitly pointed out that the respondents should focus on the biodiversity level. This suggests that the respondents presumably had species richness in mind in their assessment of each site. Some of the previous studies have indicated that urban inhabitants might prefer high species richness perceived via visual (e.g. Fuller et al. 2007; Carrus et al. 2015) or auditory stimuli (Hedblom et al. 2014).