Browsing by Subject "urban biodiversity"

Urban development causes a decline of biodiversity, which is alarming as it is crucial for the health of urban nature as well as urban residents. The latter play an important role in the conservation of biodiversity, as they have to accept it. While previous studies have used single attributes and smaller samples to examine whether and how people know about biodiversity, little attention has been paid to place-based perceptions in a more holistic manner at the city level and with including different perception attributes. This study is a secondary analysis of data collected through public participation geographic information system (PPGIS) in Helsinki, Finland, as part of the CO-CARBON project and aims to understand how perceptions of high biodiversity vary between different age groups considering the type of green space, the frequency of access to different green spaces, the distance of perceived high biodiversity from home, and the location of high biodiversity. I analyzed responses of younger (n1 = 290, aged 16-39), middle-aged (n2 = 286, aged 40-52), and older (n3 = 283, aged 53-98) residents of Helsinki using geographical information systems (QGIS and ArcGIS) for spatial and statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) for non-spatial analyses. Statistical significances of the different variables were tested with multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA), Chi-square tests, Spearman rho, and optimized hotspot analysis. Some differences, but also similarities, could be found between age groups in their perception of high biodiversity. The age groups are similar in the number of mapped points in terms of green space type, as they mostly perceived natural green spaces as high in biodiversity, but older people differed from the others in terms of frequency of access to green space types, while younger people differed in terms of marking high biodiversity further away from home. Notably, all age groups perceived central bigger green areas, especially Vanhankaupunkilahti, the most as high in biodiversity. Younger people formed the most spatial hotspots of perceptions of high biodiversity, as well as a coldspot at Malmi airport, while the oldest age group formed the fewest hotspots. As a consequence of these results, I discuss and conclude what measures through which media tools could be taken in order to achieve more knowledge and involvement of biodiversity conservation. Further research on perception of biodiversity will benefit from understanding what was understood to be biodiverse at the mapped location, examining other groups, studying effective communication of biodiversity issues and conservation events, looking at biodiversity opposed to high biodiversity, and examining the biodiversity perception of wetland and urban green spaces in more detail.