Temperature and air pollution reductions by urban green spaces are highly valued in a tropical city-state

Abstract

Urban neighborhood green spaces provide ecosystem services important for sustainable and resilient cities. We examine public preferences for these ecosystem services by conducting a discrete choice experiment in Singapore. The results showed that the public preferred the contributions of neighborhood green spaces in reducing temperature (1, 2, or 3 °C), reducing air pollution (20 or 40 %), and learning in nature. However, they did not prefer noise abatement (10, 20, or 30 dB) and increases of bird, butterfly, and native plant species. Creation of a new neighborhood green space was preferred by people living near parks, but not preferred by those living near nature areas. These results show that diverse public preferences exist for different ecosystem services provided by neighborhood green spaces. In the context of Singapore, the urban heat island effect, to be exacerbated under climate change, and air pollution are perceived to be major environmental problems mitigated by urban vegetation. © 2020 Elsevier GmbH