A Participatory Approach to Assess Social Demand and Value of Urban Waterscapes: A Case Study in San Marcos, Texas, USA

Madeline T. Wade, Jason P. Julian (), Kevin S. Jeffery and Sarah M. Davidson
Additional contact information
Madeline T. Wade: Department of Geography and Environmental Sustainability, The University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK 73112, USA
Jason P. Julian: Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, Texas State University, San Marcos, TX 78666, USA
Kevin S. Jeffery: Blue Index, Reimagining Waterscapes for Healthy Communities, San Diego, CA 92116, USA
Sarah M. Davidson: Blue Index, Reimagining Waterscapes for Healthy Communities, San Diego, CA 92116, USA

Land, 2023, vol. 12, issue 6, 1-39

Abstract: Waterscapes can have meaningful benefits for people’s wellbeing and mental health by helping them feel calmer and more connected to nature, especially in times of stress such as the COVID-19 pandemic. The waterscapes along the San Marcos River (Texas, USA) provide economic, social, environmental, and emotional benefits to the surrounding community. To assess the social demand for and emotional experiences in these blue spaces, we used a new framework called Blue Index that collects noncontact data from photo stations. From 10 photo stations across different waterscapes, we collected and analyzed 565 volunteer assessments from May 2021 to March 2022—during the COVID-19 pandemic and following the reopening of riverside parks. Most respondents (57%) indicated they spend more time at the river than they did before the onset of the pandemic. Moreover, 93% of respondents agreed that the waterscape they were visiting represented a refuge from stress and isolation caused by COVID-19. Overall, people valued waterscapes for ecological benefits and relationships with the place, rather than for recreation and tourism. Emotions experienced at all 10 waterscapes were overwhelmingly positive. Statistical tests revealed that higher positive emotions were significantly associated with biophysical perceptions of flow, cleanliness, and naturalness. Our results demonstrate that the benefits of blue spaces derive from an interrelated combination of ecosystem and mental health. The new Blue Index approach presented here promotes participatory land management through noncontact community engagement and knowledge coproduction.

Keywords: urban blue space; relational values; community science; COVID-19; participatory research; social–ecological systems; mixed methods; emotional experiences (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/12/6/1137/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/12/6/1137/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jlands:v:12:y:2023:i:6:p:1137-:d:1157494

Access Statistics for this article

Land is currently edited by Ms. Carol Ma

More articles in Land from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().