•We assessed how spatial autocorrelation affects the identification of ES relationships such as trade-offs, synergies and bundles.•We determined ES relationships using common methods: correlation, ...regression and principal component analysis.•For each method, we conducted a comparison between one that accounted for spatial autocorrelation with another that did not.•Not accounting for spatial autocorrelation is likely to result in misidentification of ES trade-off, synergies and bundles.
The identification of relationships between multiple ecosystem services (ES) (i.e. trade-offs, synergies and bundles) is essential for ES management. However, the identification of ES relationships may be susceptible to spatial autocorrelation — a statistical bias due to ES observations being related to each other across space. Spatial autocorrelation remains largely overlooked in the literature on ES relationships and its implications are not clear. Here we assess the implication of not accounting for spatial autocorrelation when determining ES relationships using four ES found in the city-state of Singapore. We quantify the ES relationships using some of the most common methods of determining relationships between ES: correlation, regression and principal component analysis. We then compare each method with the corresponding method that accounts for spatial autocorrelation. We found that accounting for spatial autocorrelation resulted in less statistically significant ES relationships, especially at finer resolutions, in correlations (33.3% less significant relationships) and regressions (50% less relationships). Depending on the spatial resolution, different ES were bundled when accounting for spatial autocorrelation when using principal component analysis. Our results suggest that not accounting for spatial autocorrelation in ES relationship studies is likely to result in the misidentification of ES trade-off, synergies and bundles. We thus recommend that future ES relationship studies consider the effects of spatial autocorrelation in their analyses.
Abstract
With the increasing loss of biodiversity due to urbanization, it is essential to examine and re-imagine the place of nature in cities. The opportunity to redesign positive relationships ...between cities and nature is particularly apparent in the development of new cities—rapidly developing areas observed in many Asian and African countries. As these new cities are built on a perceived tabula rasa, there is a potential to design positive nature futures. This study, therefore, aims to understand how nature is incorporated into existing plans for new cities and identify pro-nature perspectives envisioned within these plans. We use the Urban Nature Futures Framework (UNFF) to conduct a content analysis on the masterplans of new city and town developments within the Jakarta Metropolitan Area (JMA). The UNFF promotes the creation of multiple positive visions of nature in cities by considering three broad nature perspectives: Nature for Nature, Nature for Society, and Nature as Culture, as well as emphasizing equity in these visions. Our findings show that the Nature for Society perspective tends to dominate the design of new cities in the JMA, closely followed by the Nature for Nature perspective embodied by pollution control measures. New cities also emphasise the Nature as Culture perspective through nature stewardship programmes. Based on these results, we exemplify how the UNFF can be used to further integrate nature elements in new cities’ masterplans. We conclude with a discussion of the strengths and limitations of the framework at each stage of the new city development process.
•Urban neighborhood green spaces provide diverse ecosystem services in a tropical city.•We analyzed public preferences for these ecosystem services in Singapore.•Temperature and air pollution ...reductions were strongly preferred by the public.•Noise abatement and increases of wildlife species were not significantly preferred.•Those living near nature areas did not support introducing a new green space.
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.
Urban nature is widely recognized to be vital for sustainable urban development due to its wide range of benefits to urban residents. One of these benefits is urban nature’s contribution to promoting ...pro-environmental behaviour. This behaviour can reduce individual consumption, thereby decreasing the overall ecological footprint of urban areas. However, there is limited empirical evidence for a link between urban nature and pro-environmental behaviour. To test this link, we apply the value-belief-norm theory by examining the relationship between learning in urban nature and environmental values among Singaporean residents (
n
= 1,500). Our findings showed that learning in urban nature affected biospheric values and personal norms of the public. In turn, these values and norms promoted the public’s support for certified timber products, organic products, and boycotts of non-sustainable products. Relational values also supported these impacts. These benefits indicate an urban ecosystem service transcending city boundaries as urban nature in one region can support reducing an ecological footprint in other regions. These study findings may contribute to finding a contribution of urban nature as a nature-based approach to encouraging sustainable consumption, and a role of relational values in promoting pro-environmental behaviour.
•Relational and instrumental values are nearly indistinguishable in practice.•Importance of nature in fondest childhood memories linked to relational and instrumental values.•NEP statements related ...to relational and instrumental values.•Relational and instrumental values linked to extraversion and emotional stability.•Urgently need to expand empirical evidence base of relational values.
Relational values have been proposed as a more inclusive alternative to instrumental and intrinsic values of nature. Although theoretically different, the empirical work to ascertain whether relational values are in practice different to instrumental values has been scarce. We surveyed 501 university students in Singapore to assess whether they could distinguish in practice between relational and instrumental values of several parks and to identify correlates of their value scores (their personality, the New Ecological Paradigm (NEP) and their nature experiences). Using correlation and factor analysis, we find that relational and instrumental values are nearly indistinguishable in practice for our respondents. Correlates of high value scores are the importance of nature in fondest childhood memories and NEP statements related to concern with a future ecological crisis. Relational and instrumental values further shared multiple personality (extraversion, emotional stability) and NEP statement predictors. Our results call to urgently expand the empirical evidence base of relational values to inform their conceptualization.
Urban populations benefit greatly from the ecosystem services provided by urban green and blue spaces. While the equity of provision of and access to urban green and blue spaces has been widely ...explored, research on equity of ecosystem service provision is relatively scant. Using household level data, our study aims to assess the supply equity of five regulatory ecosystem services in Singapore. We employed linear mixed-effects models and Hot Spot Analysis to analyze their distributional equity across individual households of various demographic characteristics (horizontal inequality), and calculated Gini coefficient for the distribution of PM
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removal service among households categorised into demographic subgroups (vertical inequality). Our results show little evidence of inequitable ecosystem service provision among Singapore's diverse socio-demographic groups. This can be attributed to the early integration of environmental management strategies and meticulous socio-economic desegregation efforts into urban development plans, which maximised provision and maintenance of urban green spaces to all residents.
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