Perceptions of Cultural Ecosystem Services: spatial differences in urban and rural areas of Kokemäenjoki, Finland

ABSTRACT

This study aims to identify and evaluate the spatial distribution of Cultural Ecosystem Services (CES) benefits perceived by people in both urban and rural areas. A public participation GIS (PPGIS) approach was applied with local people who responded to an online survey and mapped their important places related to CES benefits in the Kokemäenjoki area. We explore the perceived ecosystem services of the community using different infrastructure types (green, grey, yellow and blue) based on the Corine Land Cover (CLC) classes. We identified spatial patterns of mapped important places using kernel dens ity estimation and related CES benefit associations with the infrastructures using chi-square residuals. We found that CES in urban areas are provided more often when there is more than one type of infrastructure (e.g., grey and green; grey and blue), but grey infrastructures are preferred in urban areas, while blue infrastructures produce more CES benefits in rural areas.

KEYWORDS:

• Ecosystem services
• land cover
• infrastructures
• participatory mapping
• PPGIS
• Finland

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the residents in the study area for participating in the survey.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest. The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript, or in the decision to publish the results.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Interreg Central Baltic Programme 2014-2020 European Regional Development Fund (CB354 SustainBaltic project). E. Seda Arslan’s contribution was supported by The Scientific and Research Council of Turkey (TUBİTAK) under grant number 1059B191801002, and International Postdoctoral Research Fellowship Program (2219).

Notes on contributors

E. Seda Arslan

E. Seda Arslan is an Associate Professor at the Süleyman Demirel University. She did her post-doctoral research at the University of Turku. Her research interest related to the landscape-ecology, ecosystem services and climate change. She has an MSc and a PhD in landscape architecture.

Paulina Nordström

Paulina Nordström is an Associate Professor at University of Agder, Kristiansand, Norway. Nordström has a PhD in geography with expertise in landscape theory and the spatialities of creativity. She has conducted research at various socio-material sites.

Asko Ijäs

Asko Ijäs works as a research coordinator at the University of Turku, Finland. He has an MSc in environmental sciences and over 10 years of experience from various R&D projects related to, e.g. environmental impact assessment (EIA), land use planning and environmental management. His research interest links to the practical implication of academic research and how different types of data can be integrated to the planning and management practices.

Reija Hietala

Reija Hietala is an Adjunct Professor at the University of Turku, Finland. Hietala has a PhD in geography and she has specialised for over 25 years in the issues of the environmental management in urban-rural environments. Hietala led the Central Baltic Programme funded CB354SustainBaltic project (2016-2019) with the aim to increase the cross-border planning of the land–sea interfaces in Finland and Estonia.

Nora Fagerholm

Nora Fagerholm is an Adjunct professor at the University of Turku. She has a PhD in geography and her research interest links to a holistic understanding of the human-nature interactions in spatial context. She has expertise, for over 15 years, in public participation GIS (PPGIS)/participatory GIS (PGIS) approaches.