The perception of landscape values and their connection to landscape stewardship behaviours across Europe

Landscapes are the result of our interaction with the land. Many of the decisions and actions we take have a direct effect on the landscape –from the products we consume to our implication in landscape stewardship activities. These actions are influenced by how we perceive the different benefits landscape provides to our wellbeing. We contextualise this perception with the concept of landscape values, which are linked to different landscape bio-physic and cultural characteristics and elements and are perceived collectively or individually depending on the type of benefit they relate to (such as culture, social fulfilment, or food production) and the socio-economic background, life experience and knowledge system of each person. Therefore, landscape values serve as indicators of people’s interaction with and understanding of the landscape and can help understand different landscape stewardship behaviours.
The aim of this research is to identify patterns in how the perception of landscape values is related to landscape stewardship behaviours in different European contexts. To identify how landscape values are perceived our study builds on Public Participation GIS methods in the form of an online survey based on a topographic map or satellite image. Residents from six municipalities across Europe were asked to locate the places where they perceive a list of landscape values (linked to recreation, food production, regulating ecosystem services, social and personal fulfilment, culture, and nature). To capture the landscape stewardship behaviour of the respondent we also asked them to agree or disagree with different statements in a Likert scale. Responses were analysed connecting perception based and spatially explicit biophysical data through GIS analysis tools. Descriptive statistics were applied to identify patterns in the connection between the landscape values, the Likert scale statements and the socio-economic background of the respondents.
The results allow distinguishing different landscape stewardship behaviours and increase our understanding on how the actions that we take for our environment are connected to the perception of different landscape values, geographic contexts and socio-cultural backgrounds. These findings contribute to the discourse on how human-nature interactions can be transformed to achieve more sustainable futures. Results can also inform awareness raising campaigns to better accommodate to the different recipients’ characteristics and therefore become more efficient.