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

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.

Emotional Landscapes in Urban Design: Analyzing Color Emotional Responses of the Elderly to Community Outdoor Spaces in Yi Jie Qu

“…Firstly, the elderly showed a highest CER toward clean emotion. This finding is aligns with a study of social needs and values of urban water features, which confirmed that a positive correlation between perceptions of cleanliness and higher positive emotion of happiness, serenity, surprise, and relaxation, and significantly influenced the six basic human emotions of joy, serenity, fear, disgust, sadness, and surprise [54]. Also, a study on the perceived visual landscape quality of green spaces has demonstrated that the healthy and tidy trees with appropriate color contrasts are more conducive to the restoration of human perception [55].…”

The Usage and Constraints of Urban River Corridor from a Socio-ecological Perspective: a Systematic Review

“…An equal number of studies examine personal motivation as a variable (n=29, 49%). Individuals visit urban riversides primarily for physical exercise, recreation and leisure, including activities such as walking or jogging, cycling, swimming, dancing, skateboarding, rowing, dragon boat racing, water marathons, dog walking, picnicking, dining, photography, social gatherings, commuting, chess, and camping (e.g., Chen & Ma, 2023;Gargiulo et al, 2020;Guo et al, 2022;Gong et al, 2019;Liu et al, 2023;Meng et al 2020;Vierikko & Yli-Pelkonen, 2019;wade et al, 2023;Wu et al, 2019a;Yu et al, 2022;Zhang et al, 2022b;Zingraff-Hamed et al, 2022). Furthermore, two studies also discussed the motivation for restoration (Gargiulo et al, 2020;Jakstis et al, 2023).…”

Evaluation of Perceptions Using Facial Expression Scores on Ecological Service Value of Blue and Green Spaces in 61 Parks in Guizhou

“…Green and blue spaces (GBSs) account for the majority of frequent visits to nature in a city, which function as ecological infrastructures that provide ESs to promote public health and wellbeing [24][25][26][27]. The psychological and mental benefits obtained from experiences with GBSs can further result in preventing anxiety [28], depression [25], chronic disease [26], and the impact of air pollution [29,30]. These effects were mainly detected for visitors exposed to GBSs in parks, communities, and streets in built-up regions of the host city [31].…”