Paul H. Gobster

Contributions of cultural services to the ecosystem services agenda

Cultural ecosystem services (ES) are consistently recognized but not yet adequately defined or integrated within the ES framework. A substantial body of models, methods, and data relevant to cultural services has been developed within the social and behavioral sciences before and outside of the ES approach. A selective review of work in landscape aesthetics, cultural heritage, outdoor recreation, and spiritual significance demonstrates opportunities for operationally defining cultural services in terms of socioecological models, consistent with the larger set of ES. Such models explicitly link ecological structures and functions with cultural values and benefits, facilitating communication between scientists and stakeholders and enabling economic, multicriterion, deliberative evaluation and other methods that can clarify tradeoffs and synergies involving cultural ES. Based on this approach, a common representation is offered that frames cultural services, along with all ES, by the relative contribution of relevant ecological structures and functions and by applicable social evaluation approaches. This perspective provides a foundation for merging ecological and social science epistemologies to define and integrate cultural services better within the broader ES framework.

The shared landscape: what does aesthetics have to do with ecology?

This collaborative essay grows out of a debate about the relationship between aesthetics and ecology and the possibility of an “ecological aesthetic” that affects landscape planning, design, and management. We describe our common understandings and unresolved questions about this relationship, including the importance of aesthetics in understanding and affecting landscape change and the ways in which aesthetics and ecology may have either complementary or contradictory implications for a landscape. To help understand these issues, we first outline a conceptual model of the aesthetics–ecology relationship. We posit that:1. While human and environmental phenomena occur at widely varying scales, humans engage with environmental phenomena at a particular scale: that of human experience of our landscape surroundings. That is the human “perceptible realm.”2. Interactions within this realm give rise to aesthetic experiences, which can lead to changes affecting humans and the landscape, and thus ecosystems.3. Context affects aesthetic experience of landscapes. Context includes both effects of different landscape types (wild, agricultural, cultural, and metropolitan landscapes) and effects of different personal–social situational activities or concerns. We argue that some contexts elicit aesthetic experiences that have traditionally been called “scenic beauty,” while other contexts elicit different aesthetic experiences, such as perceived care, attachment, and identity.Last, we discuss how interventions through landscape planning, design, and management; or through enhanced knowledge might establish desirable relationships between aesthetics and ecology, and we examine the controversial characteristics of such ecological aesthetics. While these interventions may help sustain beneficial landscape patterns and practices, they are inherently normative, and we consider their ethical implications.

Managing Urban Parks for a Racially and Ethnically Diverse Clientele

A major planning effort for Chicagos largest park provided an opportunity to examine outdoor recreation use patterns and preferences among a racially and ethnically diverse clientele. Results from on-site surveys of 898 park users (217 Black, 210 Latino, 182 Asian, and 289 White) showed that park users shared a core set of interests, preferences, and concerns about the park and its management. But there were also some important differences among and within racial and ethnic groups with respect to park use patterns, participation, and reports of racial discrimination. Implications for management and future research are discussed.

The human dimensions of urban greenways: planning for recreation and related experiences

In this paper, we summarize findings from a series of interrelated studies that examine an urban greenway, the 150 mile Chicago River corridor in Chicago, USA, from multiple perspectives, stakeholder viewpoints, and methodological techniques. Six interdependent “human dimensions” of greenways are identified in the studies: cleanliness, naturalness, aesthetics, safety, access, and appropriateness of development. Together, these dimensions form a core set of concerns relating to how people perceive and use the greenway for recreation and related experiences. While these dimensions show good consistency across our studies and are supported by the literature in the field, the quantitative and qualitative methods used also uncovered a rich variation in how the dimensions are construed by different stakeholder groups and along different reaches of the corridor. Using local demonstration projects from along the corridor, we illustrate how principles inherent in each dimension can be applied to improve the success of greenways through design, management, or programming. We conclude by discussing the applicability of these dimensions and methods of study to understand other urban and non-urban greenways, and suggest how the findings from such studies can be used to inform greenways planning, policy, and management.

Park-based physical activity in diverse communities of two U.S. cities. An observational study.

BACKGROUND Systematic study of human behavior in public parks and specific activity settings can inform policy to promote physical activity in diverse communities. METHODS Direct observation was used to assess physical activity in public parks in Tampa FL (n=10) and Chicago IL (n=18). Parks were selected from census tracts with high concentrations of white, African-American, and Hispanic populations. Representation from low- and high-income census tracts was also achieved. Physical activity was measured by a modified version of the System for Observing Play and Leisure Activity in Youth (SOPLAY). Activity codes from SOPLAY were transformed to energy expenditure per person (kcal/kg/min). RESULTS Seventy percent of Tampa and 51% of Chicago park users were observed engaged in sedentary behavior. In both cities, children were more likely than adults to be observed in walking or vigorous activity. In Tampa, parks located in neighborhoods with the highest concentration of Hispanic residents were associated with greatest levels of energy expenditure. In Chicago, parks in neighborhoods with the highest concentration of African Americans showed the highest energy expenditure per person. Gender was associated with physical activity only in Tampa parks. Energy expenditure also varied by activity areas. CONCLUSIONS More than one half of park users in both cities engaged in sedentary behavior. While differences in park-based physical activity by neighborhood income and racial/ethnic composition were observed, these differences can more likely be attributed to the types of designated activity areas that support physical activity. The study findings suggest that specific configurations of park environments can enhance physical activity in parks.

Perception and use of a metropolitan greenway system for recreation

Abstract Greenway development efforts often give priority to corridor length and linkages as top selection criteria, but other factors are also critical in ensuring a successful network of greenways for recreation. On-site surveys of recreationists ( n = 2873) who used a diverse sample of 13 greenway trails in metropolitan Chicago showed that trail location relative to home strongly influenced how a greenway trail was used, who used it, how often it was used, and other factors. “Local”, “regional”, and “state” trails are distinguished on the basis of use patterns, preferences, and perceptions, with each trail type filling a unique role within a metropolitan greenway system. In contrast to some greenway planning strategies, study data suggest that from a recreational use perspective, local rather than regional trails should form the basic framework of a metropolitan system. Study findings also demonstrate how vegetation management, trail surfacing, maintenance, and other factors can affect use patterns and preferences. Location, design, and management decisions that incorporate trail user information can help metropolitan greenway systems achieve a broad range of recreational, social, and environmental goals.

Urban parks as green walls or green magnets? Interracial relations in neighborhood boundary parks

A recent paper in this journal (Solecki and Welch, 1995) describes how urban parks that lie between racially different neighborhoods can become ‘‘green walls’’ or barriers to use and appreciation. Although this phenomenon is well grounded in the experience of many who plan for, manage, and live near parks in racially and ethnically segregated cities, an analysis of the authors’ logic and methods suggests that there may be better ways to test the green wall thesis than with physical‐ biological measures of park tree condition. Examples from research in Chicago area parks illustrates how alternative methods and measures from the social sciences might more clearly and directly identify the perception and experience of racially defined barriers. A case study of Chicago’s Warren Park provides a counterexample of a boundary park that acts more like a ‘‘green magnet’’ than a green wall, and addresses the potential role of such parks as active agents in improving interracial relations. # 1998 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.

Recreation and Leisure Research from an Active Living Perspective: Taking a Second Look at Urban Trail Use Data

This paper examines recreation and leisure research within the context of active living, and highlights an apparent gap between the current involvement of recreation and leisure researchers and the potential they could offer to this important and expanding area of inquiry. To illustrate this potential, I looked at two previous studies that focused on the recreational use of urban trails and reanalyzed the data from an active living perspective. In Study 1, individual, social and environmental factors helped distinguish between low, moderate, and high activity level trail uses. In Study 2, use patterns helped distinguish between health-motivated trail users and individuals using trails for recreation and other purposes, but perceptual and demographic data were similar among groups. Findings from similar studies can help inform active living research, and recreation and leisure studies can provide leadership and contributions to a transdisciplinary understanding of active living.

Environmental and Social Correlates of Physical Activity in Neighborhood Parks: An Observational Study in Tampa and Chicago

This study used observational methods to examine physical activity (PA) and selected correlates in 28 parks in Tampa, Florida, and Chicago, Illinois. We observed 9,454 park users within predetermined activity zones and coded their activity as sedentary, walking (i.e., moderate intensity), or vigorous PA. In Tampa, higher temperature, unorganized activity, lower amounts of shade, lower neighborhood income, Hispanic neighborhood ethnicity, male gender and child age group were significantly associated with walking. Vigorous activity was not associated with income and ethnicity. Morning hours, unorganized activity, lower neighborhood income and African American neighborhood ethnicity were associated with walking in Chicago. Vigorous activity was associated with children, lower neighborhood income and African American ethnicity. Findings from this study can inform policy decisions and future research directions.

Invasive Species as Ecological Threat: Is Restoration an Alternative to Fear-based Resource Management?

Invasive species is a hot topic in the USDA Forest Service these days. Along with wildfire, land conversion and unmanaged recreation, Chief Dale Bosworth has called invasive species one of the `Four Threats` needing the attention of Forest Service land managers and researchers (USDA Forest Service 2004). My unit of the Forest Service, the North Central Research Station, has responded to the call by focusing a portion of our research capacity on invasives. As a social scientist, I began looking for my niche in the issue by searching the literature for what had been done on the social aspects of invasive species.