Seasonality in recreation supply and demand in an urban lake ecosystem in Finland

Monetary valuation methods are commonly used to analyze recreation values of water ecosystems. However, most studies on water-related recreation values have not analyzed direct links between ecological elements providing recreation opportunities and user demands. Therefore, we implemented an ecosystem service approach to study human-nature interaction during the actual recreation visit to an urban freshwater site. We developed a conceptual model of local cultural ecosystem services (CES) to study interactions between recreation supply and demand. We were interested in seasonality of water-related recreation supply, and the different demands of summer and off-summer visitors. We chose urban Lake Kuusijärvi in the city of Vantaa, Finland, as our case study area, because it is a popular outdoor recreation area around the year. We identified 14 key elements of the supply of local CES and 22 socio-cultural values for the demand for local CES. We found little seasonal change in recreation supply, but the socio-demographic characteristics and demands of summer and off-summer visitors varied significantly. Demand was higher and more diverse during the summer season, while off-summer visitors were more specific in their demands. Moreover, some visitors feared that some socio-cultural values can be lost if the recreational use of the lake area increases. We discuss our findings in a theoretical context focusing especially on interactions between supply and demand of local CES at Lake Kuusijärvi.peerReviewe

Innovative Governance of Urban Green Spaces : Learning from 18 innovatives examples around Europe

In this report we have investigated 18 examples of innovative governance arrangements in urban green space management across Europe. In this analyses, we focused on three interrelated research questions: i) What do innovative governance arrangements look like in terms of aims, actors, structure, contexts, dynamics, and which of their elements can be seen as innovative? ii) Which are the most important perceived effects of these arrangements in their environmental and political contexts? iii) What lessons can be drawn from the supporting and hindering factors for these arrangements, and the power dynamics that take place