A comparison of cultural ecosystem service survey methods within south England

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A comparison of cultural ecosystem service survey methods within south England. / Willcock, Simon; Camp, Brittany J.; Peh, Kelvin S. -H.
In: Ecosystem Services, Vol. 26, No. B, 08.2017, p. 445-450.

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Willcock S, Camp BJ, Peh KSH. A comparison of cultural ecosystem service survey methods within south England. Ecosystem Services. 2017 Aug;26(B):445-450. Epub 2016 Jul 12. doi: 10.1016/j.ecoser.2016.06.012

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Willcock, Simon ; Camp, Brittany J. ; Peh, Kelvin S. -H. / A comparison of cultural ecosystem service survey methods within south England. In: Ecosystem Services. 2017 ; Vol. 26, No. B. pp. 445-450.

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TY - JOUR

T1 - A comparison of cultural ecosystem service survey methods within south England

AU - Willcock, Simon

AU - Camp, Brittany J.

AU - Peh, Kelvin S. -H.

PY - 2017/8

Y1 - 2017/8

N2 - Across all societies, humans depend on goods received from nature, termed ecosystem services. However, cultural ecosystem services (CES), the non-material benefits people obtain from ecosystems, are often overlooked in land-use decision making due to their intangible nature. This study aimed to evaluate three possible survey methods for site-based CES data collection; language-based supervised surveys (in which interviewers conduct surveys in real-time, recording verbal responses), language-based unsupervised surveys (respondents complete written surveys without an interviewer), and image-based unsupervised surveys (respondents complete surveys via image selection without an interviewer). Language-based supervised surveys were found to be more efficient in collecting CES data than language-/image-based unsupervised surveys, with a mean completion rate over 1.5-fold greater than either unsupervised survey; furthermore, survey completion was over twice as fast, and less than a sixth of the monetary cost per respondent compared to unsupervised surveys. The site-based assessment developed in this study provides robust data, and is shown to provide rapid and useful feedback to land-use decision makers. We recommend that rapid, site-based assessment methods are utilised to collect the information required to support CES-related decision making.

AB - Across all societies, humans depend on goods received from nature, termed ecosystem services. However, cultural ecosystem services (CES), the non-material benefits people obtain from ecosystems, are often overlooked in land-use decision making due to their intangible nature. This study aimed to evaluate three possible survey methods for site-based CES data collection; language-based supervised surveys (in which interviewers conduct surveys in real-time, recording verbal responses), language-based unsupervised surveys (respondents complete written surveys without an interviewer), and image-based unsupervised surveys (respondents complete surveys via image selection without an interviewer). Language-based supervised surveys were found to be more efficient in collecting CES data than language-/image-based unsupervised surveys, with a mean completion rate over 1.5-fold greater than either unsupervised survey; furthermore, survey completion was over twice as fast, and less than a sixth of the monetary cost per respondent compared to unsupervised surveys. The site-based assessment developed in this study provides robust data, and is shown to provide rapid and useful feedback to land-use decision makers. We recommend that rapid, site-based assessment methods are utilised to collect the information required to support CES-related decision making.

U2 - 10.1016/j.ecoser.2016.06.012

DO - 10.1016/j.ecoser.2016.06.012

M3 - Article

VL - 26

SP - 445

EP - 450

JO - Ecosystem Services

JF - Ecosystem Services

SN - 2212-0416

IS - B

ER -