Wetlands typically provide many ecosystem services, including flood protection, recreational opportunities, and water purification. Despite these benefits, wetlands are commonly viewed in a negative light. The general public often consider wetlands aesthetically unpleasing, untidy, and unsafe with urban wetlands frequently treated as dumping grounds. Negative perceptions and desires to use wetland areas for other purposes has led to a global decline in wetland ecosystems. As they decline, so too do the services that they provide. In Valdivia, Chile, total urban wetland area has been declining as urbanization increases. Understanding the ways that local stakeholders perceive wetlands and the dis/services that they provide may portend the future of this rich system of wetlands. Our overarching research questions ask, how do stakeholder perceptions of urban wetlands and their dis/services in Valdivia vary, and what factors drive those differences? To answer this, we distributed an online survey to 280 stakeholders for Valdivia, many of whom work in organizations that directly manage the city’s wetlands. The survey had 25 questions and was aimed at understanding respondents’ perceptions of the wetlands, the significance of the wetlands to themselves and their community, and how important the wetlands are in providing services and disservices.
Results/Conclusions
Our findings from 101 responses suggest that stakeholders in Valdivia overwhelmingly have a positive perception of the wetlands in their city and associate many services with them. Respondents considered the wetlands to be more important for providing cultural and regulating services than provisioning services, and they did not consider the wetlands to be important in providing disservices. Unlike many past studies, respondents in Valdivia rated the wetlands as important in providing positive aesthetic value. Stakeholders who live closer to wetlands reported that they personally benefit from the city’s wetlands more than respondents who live further from wetlands. We found that more respondents thought that very large wetlands (~200ha) provided more value to the city than small wetlands (~5ha). When asked to choose which wetland was most beautiful, respondents more frequently selected large wetlands. Understanding that local stakeholders perceive the wetlands as good indicates that they may act in ways that preserve and protect the wetlands, thus ensuring that their robust suite of ecosystem services continues to be provided. More broadly, our findings that spatial characteristics of wetlands positively influence perceptions offer insight to urban practitioners who are considering ways to protect, restore, or even construct wetlands in cities elsewhere.