TY - JOUR

T1 - Urbanites’ perception of vegetation in landscape-based stormwater management elements (LSM)

AU - Lausen, Emilia Danuta

AU - Backhaus, Antje

AU - Jensen, Marina Bergen

AU - Lausen, Emilia Danuta

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.

PY - 2022

Y1 - 2022

N2 - The popularity and use of green infrastructure measures such as green roofs, green walls, and curb extensions is growing, especially in dense urban areas. At the same time, from an ecosystem services perspective, interest in urban nature and reconciliation ecology is underlined. Attempts to introduce more biodiverse vegetation in cities can conflict with the responses of some urbanites to the appearance of “wild” vegetation. Through semi-structured interviews with 47 randomly picked bypassers in Copenhagen, Denmark, this study explored urbanites’ aesthetical perceptions of wild vegetation, especially of three green infrastructure types employed in landscape-based stormwater management: green roofs, green walls and curb extensions. The results confirm the importance of the physical plant properties, especially the color of plants and the presence of flowers; they point also to the strong influence of cultural factors, especially familiarity with a site or a similar project, and knowledge of the project’s environmental value. Interestingly, the results indicate that cultural factors might be capable of garnering support for a project among people whose initial impression of its appearance was negative. Additionally, affective and emotive responses were found to be of significance. Compared to other studies, perceptions of wild vegetation in green infrastructure elements prove to be perceived more positively than reported previously.

AB - The popularity and use of green infrastructure measures such as green roofs, green walls, and curb extensions is growing, especially in dense urban areas. At the same time, from an ecosystem services perspective, interest in urban nature and reconciliation ecology is underlined. Attempts to introduce more biodiverse vegetation in cities can conflict with the responses of some urbanites to the appearance of “wild” vegetation. Through semi-structured interviews with 47 randomly picked bypassers in Copenhagen, Denmark, this study explored urbanites’ aesthetical perceptions of wild vegetation, especially of three green infrastructure types employed in landscape-based stormwater management: green roofs, green walls and curb extensions. The results confirm the importance of the physical plant properties, especially the color of plants and the presence of flowers; they point also to the strong influence of cultural factors, especially familiarity with a site or a similar project, and knowledge of the project’s environmental value. Interestingly, the results indicate that cultural factors might be capable of garnering support for a project among people whose initial impression of its appearance was negative. Additionally, affective and emotive responses were found to be of significance. Compared to other studies, perceptions of wild vegetation in green infrastructure elements prove to be perceived more positively than reported previously.

KW - Aesthetics

KW - Attitudes

KW - Green infrastructure

KW - Stormwater re-use

KW - Wild vegetation

U2 - 10.1007/s11252-022-01250-7

DO - 10.1007/s11252-022-01250-7

M3 - Journal article

AN - SCOPUS:85132939038

VL - 25

SP - 1577

EP - 1588

JO - Urban Ecosystems

JF - Urban Ecosystems

SN - 1083-8155

ER -