Rapid population and physical expansion of cities worldwide has increased the urgency for understanding the factors that result in urbanization and the consequences of urban expansion for human beings and the environment. Present understanding of urbanization as a coupled socioecological system is limited by inadequate knowledge of the type, quantity, and quality of ecosystem services delivered in metropolitan regions and how actors incorporate both considerations of ecosystem services and household preferences into management decisions. Ecosystem services provide a service and function that is scientifically measureable and derived from a scientific understanding of ecosystem structures or processes, such as cooling from tree canopy cover. Ecosystem preferences are measurements of what ecosystem services people are willing to pay for, such as being close to recreation areas or clean air. These preferences often are revealed in housing prices. This interdisciplinary research project will investigate how decision makers respond to and make land-use and water-use decisions based on measured and preferred ecosystem services on the wildland-rural-urban fringe surrounding urban areas in the arid southwest. A comparative, gradient approach using the metropolitan areas of Las Cruces and Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Phoenix, Arizona, as case studies will be employed. By examining three cities along population, economic, and physical gradients in an arid environment, this project should add to basic knowledge about scaling in the urbanization process in a resource scarce environment. Choosing a southwestern regional context will provide greater insight into the urbanization processes in desert cities, which are underrepresented in urban theory. Primary methods include stakeholder forums and focus groups with decision makers, hedonic modeling of houses prices and ecosystem service amenities, and biophysical modeling of ecosystem services.
The degree to which decision makers consider ecosystem services and preferences in their decisions remains unclear. In an era when urban sustainability is increasingly important for guiding policy, this project will address this understudied but critical aspect of urban governance. The project will provide new understanding about ecosystem services and preferences to practitioners in arid urbanizing regions, which they can use to formulate and facilitate best management practices. Proposed interviews and stakeholder forums will give decision makers and citizen groups a voice in how land and water should be managed on the rapidly growing fringe. The proposed activities also will allow the research team to assess which ecosystem services and preferences are important to stakeholders, so that future research can address those concerns. The activities and results will reach decision makers at the city, county, state, and federal levels as well as concerned citizen groups, real estate developers, and tribal groups. This award was funded as an Urban Long-Term Research Area Exploratory (ULTRA-Ex) award as the result of a special competition jointly supported by the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service.
The goal of this study is to understand how land mangers in the rapidly urbanizing region of the US Southwest define and value open space, especially the ability of open space to provide ecosystem services, or benefits that people derive from nature. The study examines two types of land managers, federal agencies that control land and property developers. An extensive survey of federal land managers found that most agreed that public land should be considered open space while private land should not. Most agreed that farmland should not be considered open space and that homeowners are not negatively affected by open space. Higher-level managers, however, were more likely than others to agree that farmlands and rangelands were open space. This group was also more likely than lower-level employees to agree that their agencies could effectively handle future open space management. In general, however, there was broad support across all agencies for open space management. The study showed, however, that delegating decision making to individual agencies can undermine the integrated management necessary to achieve sustainable solutions as agencies may have a limited capacity and vision of whole system solutions. For property developers, the study focused on housing developments in a rapidly growing area of Phoenix, Arizona that is adjacent to large tracts of recently preserved open space. The study shows that properties on the perimeter of developments adjacent to open space tend to have far larger lots with substantial open space frontage. Homes also tend to be larger. But in other housing developments that are not adjacent to open space, the homes on the perimeter are not significantly different from those in the interior. This suggests that being next to open space leads developers to use a different strategy for maximizing their returns and suggests an inherit understanding of the value of open space to property buyers. Living adjacent to the preserve substantially increases the value of property, perhaps reflecting that open space, whether through views, privacy or other values, enhances the value of one’s own private lot. While maximizing returns to adjacent lots is an important incentive for developers, there is also some evidence of holistic design to increase the value of the surrounding open space for nonadjacent homeowners as well. In particular, homes built directly adjacent to the open space are typically single story even if two-story homes are common elsewhere in the development. This preserves the value of views for homes not directly adjacent to the open space. The study supports that notion that open space is valued by the public and private sectors and that preservation of open space in a rapidly urbanizing region should be a priority. However, effective preservation and management of open space will require an integrated, systems-level understanding of the associated social, ecological, and economic benefits and costs. In addition to these findings, several students were trained in GIS methods, data analysis, and advanced statistical techniques. These students have used these skills as they have moved onto pursue careers and further education in scientific fields.
