Perceptions of ecosystem services : Comparing socio-cultural and environmental influences

Ecosystem services such as food provisioning, climate regulation, nutrient cycling, or recreation in open landscapes underpin human wellbeing. They are highly dependent on land use, land cover and utilization pattern as well as environmental factors like climate, topography and soil. In consequence, ecosystem services supply shows a high spatial variability. However, it is less clear if the perception of the importance of ecosystem services is similarly heterogeneous in space and amongst societal actors. The aim of this large-scale study was to explore whether land cover and climate gradients as well as socio-cultural factors influence the perceptions of ecosystem services of four groups of societal actors: citizens, farmers, foresters and nature managers. Spatially explicit survey data of 3018 respondents allowed to gain insight into the distribution of perceived importance of 21 ecosystem services in the federal state of Bavaria, Germany together with the respondents’ socio-cultural characterisation (e.g. gender, education and hobbies in nature). Responses were analysed through descriptive statistics, redundancy analysis, and Generalized Linear Models. Results reveal that the perceived importance of many ecosystem services was consistently high across groups, although perception differed for some ecosystem services (e.g. production of energy plants and timber as well as recreation in urban green space). Compared to other actor groups, farmers attributed slightly lower importance to all ES except provisioning services. Socio-cultural factors better explained variability in perceived importance of ecosystem services than land cover and climate gradients. This might be either explained by the fact that the environmental gradients vary not strong enough in our case study or that they do not shape the perceptions of respondents. A limitation of the study is that the sample of respondents obtained is not representative for the population, but biased towards persons interested in the topics of the survey. Still the consensus indicated by the overall positive perception of ecosystem services among respondents highlights the integrative potential of ecosystem services when included in decision-making

Situating Media Infrastructure: Understand the Role of Public Space Characteristics in Influencing Public Interaction with Media Infrastructure

Media Architecture scholars have outlined the importance of considering the urban design perspective in informing the deployment of digital media in public space. In this paper, we build on their work and provide a detailed account based on the knowledge from urban design theories coupled with literature from Human-computer Interaction research. Specifically, we address the role of location- its physical and spatial characteristics and situated human activities- in influencing public interaction with media infrastructure. We aim to provide a framework for understanding the complex relationship between media infrastructure and urban public spaces, and explore the impact of locations on how people interact with media infrastructure by: 1) developing an initial framework of public space characteristics based on urban design knowledge, 2) conducting a case study of InLinkUK network with detailed field study and analysis on 3 selected sites in London. We discuss the initial outcome of the case study analysis and report on the next stages of this research. This paper addresses the question: how media architecture can contribute to a sense of place and provide a detailed account based on a case study in London. It attempts to broaden and extend existing calls by media architecture scholars to consider urban design knowledge in informing the deployment of digital media infrastructure in public spaces

Trade-offs and synergies in the ecosystem service demand of urban brownfield stakeholders

Brownfield site redevelopment presents an opportunity to create urban green spaces that provide a wide range of ecosystem services. It is important, therefore, to understand which ecosystem services are demanded by stakeholders and whether there are trade-offs or synergies in this demand. We performed a quantitative survey of ecosystem service demand from brownfield sites that included all major stakeholder groups. Results showed that there was a strong trade-off between demand for services related to property development (e.g. ground strength and low flood risk) and all other services, which were linked to vegetated sites. There was a secondary, but weak, trade-off between demand for services of more ‘natural’ vegetated sites (e.g. with a biodiversity protection role) and those linked to aesthetics and recreation. Stakeholders with a strong preference for biodiversity protection formed a distinct group in their ecosystem service demands. While a ‘development’ vs ‘green space’ trade-off may be unavoidable, the general lack of strong trade-offs in demand for other services indicated that the creation of multifunctional greenspaces from former brownfield sites would be desirable to most stakeholders, as long as these are biophysically possible

Establishment of the UiTM Retrospective into Integrated Wall Painting and Wall Sculpture as Public Art

This project deals with outdoor locations and UiTM to beautify the environment. Therefore, this subject's objective is to share how the art practice research was dealt with and established the establishment of the UiTM retrospective into public art. The methods involved reflecting and reviewing related literature and artwork to paradigm the formulation of a new formation of design work. The work of mural design and painting with the selected mode of colour. This project was associated with concept and mapping with the environment that functionalised to public attraction. Keywords: Mural Art, Public Art, Iron Rod Sculpture eISSN: 2398-4287 © 2022. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA cE-Bs by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open-access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under the responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians), and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia. DOI: https://doi.org/10.21834/ebpj.v7iSI7.377

Interactive Experiences in Public Spaces: A Novel Floor Display System Based on Luminous Modular Units

We describe the design of an interactive concrete floor display for public spaces and discuss its implementation and areas of application. The primary purpose of our system is to provide new forms of collaborative interaction in long-term installations in both indoor and outdoor spaces. Our design is an expandable system of interconnected tiles, which control an array of RGB Light-Emitting Diodes (LEDs) based on user input. The LEDs are built into the tiles and arranged in a manner that simulates pixels on a computer screen, providing a natural visualization mechanism. Each tile acts as an independent node in a network, where motion sensors trigger specific actions and provide interactivity to the surface. A series of applications are illustrated, including promotional advertising and interactive games. The system was installed and evaluated on a university campus for four weeks where hundreds of visitors successfully interacted with the floor

Boomerangs and creativity

The aim of this paper is to describe the country brand for Australia released by the Australian Federal Government in May 2010, ‘Brand Australia’. At the time of writing this paper, only the logo was available, and further details of the strategy (activities, targets, partners) were to be announced at a later date. This paper is focused on the available elements of the new Australian strategy; its antecedents in destination branding; the process conducted by the Australian Trade Commission (Austrade) in developing the new brand; the primary and secondary resource studies used by the Building Brand Australia program; policy aims; and the messages delivered by the brand’s new visual resources. The research method is based on website analysis and interviews. In addition to interviews with specific key respondents linked to the brand strategy, several interviews were conducted with researchers connected to tourism and cultural studies as an exercise in ‘thinking together’ about a phenomenon that is new, but also framed in a cultural sphere that is ‘exotic’ to the author. The main findings of this research can be summarized as follows: Australia enjoys the advantage of an outstanding perceived image, largely built on ‘soft’ portrayal items; Brand Australia focuses its core message in a couple of weak items (creativity and technology), probably considered strategic and undervalued by international audiences; the new program is not particularly worried about certain other weak issues (culture and environment); the new logo includes only a few elements (of the boomerang and the Australian map), mixing controversial and innocuous wellknown icons

Discussing Nature, ‘Doing’ Nature:for an emancipatory approach to conceptualizing young people's access to outdoor green space

Across the social sciences there is an extensive literature exploring the complex relationships between society and nature, increasingly concerned with, and critiquing, the notion of a unique relationship between children and green space. However, a nature/culture dichotomy remains central to socio-political discourse presenting a crisis of detachment. This nature/culture division can also be seen through practices surrounding children’s access to ‘nature’. This paper explores the conflict between academic and societal approaches to the nature/culture divide through the perceptions and experiences of learning disabled young people, aged 11–16. The findings illustrate the importance of allowing (learning disabled) young people the opportunity for embodied engagement in ‘nature’ spaces. Through activity the young people developed nuanced and hybrid understandings of nature that contest widely held dichotomies of nature and culture. This conceptualisation of complexity and non-dichotomy in the relationship between culture and nature may underpin exploration of the specific facets of nature that provide wellbeing benefits, potentially increasing the accessibility of the recognised benefits of ‘nature’ interaction for those who experience challenges in reaching environments understood as ‘nature’-full. As such, this paper presents a call for academics to communicate hybrid geographies in a way that is accessible beyond the ivory tower

Children\u27s Neighbourhood Geographies: Examining Children\u27s Perception and Use of Their Neighbourhood Environments for Healthy Activity

This dissertation examines children’s everyday neighbourhood activities, and the role of the local environment in supporting or limiting their healthy behaviours. Research from the last two decades has documented a dramatic decline in the time children spend playing in their neighbourhood settings, and engaging in local active and independent travel. Traditionally, neighbourhood-based activities have fostered key developmental and health outcomes, including higher levels of physical fitness, the negotiation of new social relationships, and increased cognitive and environmental competence. The processes of carving out neighbourhood ‘domains’ for independent activity and establishing community relationships are also linked to the development of a healthy self-identity and attachment to place. The loss of neighbourhood experiences may therefore have adverse consequences for children’s health and well-being. This study identifies and investigates patterns in children’s (aged 7 to 13 years) environmental perception, activity and mobility in various neighbourhoods within the mid-sized Canadian city of London, Ontario. Children’s local activities are examined through three complementary case studies utilizing a broad range of experiential, visual and qualitative tools, coupled with objective activity monitoring via portable GPS. Patterns in perception and behaviour were evident, but findings reinforce that children’s neighbourhood activities are highly individual and complex. Children were attuned to locally available activity opportunities, but neighbourhood engagements were generally limited and largely passive in nature. Recreational and commercial sites were identified as highly prized local destinations, but study neighbourhoods did not fully support the children’s diverse preferences. Many of the criteria of ‘child-friendly’ environments were lacking in study neighbourhoods. Findings also confirm that neighbourhood activity and mobility is influenced not only by individual characteristics such as a child’s age, but by neighbourhood social and physical conditions, as well as parent perceptions of this environment. Permission from parents for active, independent travel strongly predicted neighbourhood activity, generally expanding the size of a child’s domain and the time spent in local settings. On the whole, however, children spent little of their free time in neighbourhood environments; pedestrian-based domains were generally very small, comprised primarily of the area immediately surrounding their home. This research provides additional evidence that the local domains of children are shrinking, and that the neighbourhood is no longer a primary setting for childhood activities. These findings suggest that the primary landscapes of play are changing in ways that may be detrimental to children’s healthy development