Studying cultural ecosystem services in a Portuguese city: valuing people’s perception in local policy making

• Autor(a) principal: Oliveira, Beatriz Costa
• Data de Publicação: 2019
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10773/28423
• topic: Cultural ecosystem services; UGS; Mapping; Urban planning; Questionnaire survey; Valuation

This work is focused on studying cultural ecosystem services (CES) and mapping them in the Portuguese municipality of Almada in order to understand how to incorporate this knowledge in urban planning and environmental policy-making processes. Cultural ecosystem services are the “nonmaterial benefits people obtain from ecosystems through spiritual enrichment, cognitive development, reflection, recreation, and aesthetic experiences” (Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, 2005). CES sometimes can be more important to society when compared to material benefits, being their intangible and subjective features indispensable to human well-being and part of the structures and functions humans need and want. Some benefits of CES are the reduction of urban population stress, the development of concentration and cognitive capacities, the increase of physical activity, and the boost of social and health benefits for the population. CES studies benefit urban planning, design and management. This research aims to further assess the type of uses and the negative characteristics of urban green spaces (UGS) in this municipality. The main research objectives are to map the perception of citizens about the role of CES in Almada; to understand the different uses of CES in the urban green and blues spaces; and finally to understand how ecosystems services are considered in the spatial planning instruments and local public policies of the municipality in order to find opportunities for improvement and for strengthening the valorization of CES at the local level. The mapping was done through a social valuation method (participatory approach) with the use of a GIS online survey – PPGIS method to Almada’s residents. Hotspots maps and correlations analyses were done through statistical tests and QGIS heatmaps to understand better were CES, type of UGS uses and negative characteristics are located, correlations between CES and uses, and frequency of them. This research work allows to give new information to Almada municipality about their UGS and to provide some recommendations on how to improve planning and management of the municipality territory. Also, this research can be replicated in other municipalities with interests to improve their UGS management and planning.