Quantifying the Wild: Public Acceptance and Challenges of Urban Wildscapes in Chiba, Japan

Daer Su, Jie Chen, Hongyu Li, Shixian Luo, Jing Xie, Huixin Wang, Fuhao Sun, Wanyue Ren () and Takeshi Kinoshita
Additional contact information
Daer Su: Graduate School of Horticulture, Chiba University, Chiba 271-8510, Japan
Jie Chen: Graduate School of Horticulture, Chiba University, Chiba 271-8510, Japan
Hongyu Li: Graduate School of Horticulture, Chiba University, Chiba 271-8510, Japan
Shixian Luo: School of Architecture, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu 611756, China
Jing Xie: Graduate School of Horticulture, Chiba University, Chiba 271-8510, Japan
Huixin Wang: Graduate School of Horticulture, Chiba University, Chiba 271-8510, Japan
Fuhao Sun: Graduate School of Horticulture, Chiba University, Chiba 271-8510, Japan
Wanyue Ren: Graduate School of Horticulture, Chiba University, Chiba 271-8510, Japan
Takeshi Kinoshita: Graduate School of Horticulture, Chiba University, Chiba 271-8510, Japan

Land, 2024, vol. 13, issue 7, 1-21

Abstract: People’s reduced connection with nature has led to many health problems. In the NBS framework, urban wildscapes (UWSs) are considered an important solution. They can contribute to improving the health of residents and ecosystems within the city. However, overly wild green spaces may also be offensive to residents. It is necessary to understand the public’s acceptance of UWSs. Current studies on the acceptance of UWSs have used vague terms to generalize the “wildness degree”. In this study, we attempted to quantify the degree of wildness using plant height and plant abundance in Japan and analyzed the results through mediated effect analysis. We discovered the following: 1. Japanese residents have low acceptance of UWSs in vacant lots. 2. The use of “height” and “abundance” may be a more objective way to quantify wildness. 3. The negative effects of abundance can be minimized. The negative effect of height cannot be controlled. This study addresses a gap in the study of Asian cities and proposes a novel approach to quantifying “wildness.” It improves the health benefits of UWSs. Furthermore, it can offer guidance on the management and construction of urban green spaces.

Keywords: urban wildscapes; green spaces; wilderness; public preference; photo elicitation survey; accepted degree of wildness (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/13/7/1048/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/13/7/1048/ (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:13:y:2024:i:7:p:1048-:d:1434420

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 ().