Personal and spatial contexts of CES perception – discovering relationship between place and people in central-eastern-European peri-urban areas

Abstract

Peri-urban areas represent a rapidly changing interface influencing land use patterns and consequently the scale, level and even types of ecosystem services, as well as local residents' attachment to place. The evaluation of cultural services appears as a complex challenge for the scientific world primarily because of the intangible nature of cultural ecosystem services (CES). There is a research gap in the understanding of the effects of suburbanization on the perception and valorisation of CES, especially in Central-Eastern Europe. The objective of our study is to increase the understanding of local residents' perceptions of CES and the relationships between CES and local populations. We analyse the spatial regularities and patterns based on the residents' knowledge of CES in a diverse peri-urban area located in the Budapest Agglomeration Area, Hungary. Our results present an inverse relationship between regional recognition and level of attachment to place of residence: where the value of regional recognition is high, attachment is weak. The study found that the residents have strong connections to the spiritual and historic values of their neighbourhood. The spatial pattern of agglomeration zones has a great influence on perception of CES of different age groups. In terms of gender-related differences, the study found that among younger residents, males had a stronger attachment than females. Our results fill a gap in Central-Eastern European region, where public participation in the spatial planning process is still low.