BIBLIOS

Document type
Journal articles

Document subtype
Full paper

Title
People Prefer Greener Corridors: Evidence from Linking the Patterns of Tree and Shrub Diversity and Users’ Preferences in Lisbon’s Green Corridors

Participants in the publication
Juscidalva Rodrigues de Almeida (Author)
Reginaldo de Oliveira Nunes (Author)
Teresa Dias (Author)
Dep. Biologia Vegetal
cE3c

Summary
Despite its importance as a component of urban green spaces, as far as we are aware no study has focused on plant diversity in urban green corridors (GCs). Therefore, this study aimed at: (i) characterizing tree and shrub communities in Lisbon’s GCs and (ii) assessing whether GCs’ users value trees and shrubs. We counted Lisbon’s GCs users in the same places where we assessed the tree and shrub community. Along the nine GCs, we observed trees and shrubs belonging to 70 species, distributed across 35 families with most (≥50%) species and plants being trees, exotic, pollinated by insects, with fruit dispersion by animals, evergreen leaves, and producing dry fruits. Most GCs had a similar number of users (20–30 users h−1 survey−1) except for those of Central and Ribeirinho, which were more frequented (60 and 100 users h−1 survey−1, respectively). Most users (≥50%) were adults, walking accompanied, and performing leisure activities. Finally, the number of users was shown to be influenced by: (i) tree and shrub relative abundance, confirming that users preferred greener corridors; and (ii) function(s), showing that users preferred the most multifunctional GCs (i.e., GCs fulfilling ecological, cultural, and recreational functions). Our data suggest that Lisbon’s GCs favor more the inclusion of citizens than ecological functionality and resilience.


Institution
FACULDADE DE CIÊNCIAS DA UNIVERSIDADE DE LISBOA

Where published
Sustainability

Publication Identifiers
ISSN - 2071-1050

Publisher
MDPI AG



Document Identifiers
DOI - https://doi.org/10.3390/su132313228
URL - http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su132313228

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