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Improving green infrastructure planning and management through participatory mapping of cultural ecosystem services (CULTUR-ES)

Domestic project

PROGRAMME: HRZZ Instalation Research Projects

STATUS: Ongoing
Project start: 01. Jan 2018.
Project end: 31. Dec 2022.

ABSTRACT:

With growing population in urban areas both globally and in Europe, importance of green infrastructure (GI) for quality of life is constantly increasing. GI provides various ecosystem services (ES) and is recognised by European Commission as a tool for achieving goals of various policies (spatial planning, nature and biodiversity conservation, climate change adaptation, etc.). According to the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, cultural ES are defined as „the nonmaterial benefits people obtain from ecosystems through spiritual enrichment, cognitive development, reflection, recreation, and aesthetic experiences”. Importance of studying cultural ES is reflected in prevalence of cultural landscapes in Europe, demand for them is constantly increasing, and it will continue in future. On the other side, there is an increasing demand in democratic societies to include public in decision making with regard to planning and management of GI, while public exclusion from the process often leads to protests. Participatory mapping of cultural ES collects data on how public perceive cultural ES from urban GI, which is useful input for future planning and management of urban GI. The goal of this project is to identify, quantify and map cultural ES and disservices from urban GI based on public perception, explore what affects the perception, and to give recommendation on how to include results of participatory mapping in current spatial planning and management of urban GI. Mix of qualitative and quantitative methods and tools will be used for that purpose (focus groups, survey, webGIS). The project will enhance knowledge on cultural ES and disservices from urban GI, especially in terms of quantification of non-material benefits, as well as disservices from GI since these are often excluded from research on cultural ES.

PROGRAMME: Croatian Science Foundation, Installation Research Project IRP-2017-05-1986

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