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Participatory approach employing qualitative and quantitative methods for exploration of cultural ecosystem services attributed to urban green infrastructure - case study of the city of Zagreb, Croatia

Participatory approaches in natural resource management are gaining momentum lately. When carried out properly, they produce important information, which can be used to inform planning and management based on the inputs from their direct users. The city of Zagreb has plenty of green spaces. However, insufficient public participation in green space planning and management leads to decisions that do not include public perceptions and opinions including those of green space users. This leads to green space management that does not meet public needs and expectations. Cultural ecosystem services of urban green infrastructure are important for citizens’ well- being. Focus group participatory mapping on the topic of cultural ecosystem services perception and use was employed for all districts of the city of Zagreb. In total, the focus groups consisted of 94 participants. Explored cultural ecosystem services were place attachment, recreation, aesthetic experiences, education, and cultural identity. Alongside focus group interviews, participatory mapping with participants had been conducted. Locations of certain cultural ecosystem services were recorded on a physical map and later digitalized. The qualitative analysis detected the most important attributes for each cultural ecosystem service category and tree-based urban green infrastructure type. The quantitative analysis further confirmed the results of the qualitative analysis, where place attachment, recreation and aesthetic experiences were more often mentioned, while education and cultural identity were less mentioned. Participatory approaches, such as focus group participatory mapping, are a highly useful methodological approach and tools for gathering a rich array of data on a specific phenomenon in public spaces. Even though it could be time- consuming, arguably, it is an efficient approach when there is lack of previous research and there is a need for deeper understanding, how people perceive and use urban green space. For governance and planning processes in green infrastructure that means that complete information is obtained from direct users producing new knowledge that is usually hard to capture using indicators or proxies, therefore, leading to better decision making. Besides, including public opinion in the planning and governance process increases the likelihood that future decisions are perceived positively and the process itself honest and inclusive.

cultural ecosystem services ; urban green infrastructure ; participatory mapping ; Zagreb

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