Landscape and Urban Planning 132 (2014) 89–101 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Landscape and Urban Planning j our na l ho me pa g e: www.elsevier.com/locate/landurbplan Preferences for European agrarian landscapes: A meta-analysis of case studies Boris T. van Zanten ∗ , Peter H. Verburg, Mark J. Koetse, Pieter J.H. van Beukering Institute for Environmental Studies, VU University, De Boelelaan 1087, 1081 HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands h i g h l i g h t s • We compare landscape preferences across a diverse set of European case studies. • We find generic preferences for livestock, mosaic land and historic buildings. • Preferences for landscape attributes are related to population density and income. a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Received 8 February 2014 Received in revised form 19 August 2014 Accepted 20 August 2014 Keywords: Meta-analysis Landscape values Landscape preferences Landscape features Landscape valuation Cultural ecosystem services a b s t r a c t Stated preference studies are increasingly employed to estimate the value of attributes of European agrar- ian landscapes and changes therein. Despite the vast amount of case studies, preferences for landscape attributes are context specific, which inhibits cross-case comparison and up-scaling. In this study, we address this problem by applying a meta-analysis of stated preference studies that focus on attributes of European agrarian landscapes (n = 345). The main objective of this study is to identify generic preferences for particular types of landscape attributes across case studies. In addition, landscape context variables that explain preference heterogeneity between different cases that address similar landscape attributes are identified. We find that landscape attributes that describe mosaic land cover, historic buildings or the presence of livestock generally receive the highest stated preferences across cases. Furthermore, we find relations between preferences for particular attributes and context variables – such as population den- sity and GDP per capita – using a meta-regression analysis. The results of the present study provide the first cross-disciplinary and cross-case evidence on relations between preferences for landscape attributes and socio-economic and landscape context conditions. The study is a first step toward up-scaling of land- scape preferences and the development social landscape indicators that reflect the perceived value of landscapes at regional and pan-regional scales, which is increasingly important as landscape policies are progressively implemented at European level. © 2014 Published by Elsevier B.V. 1. Introduction Agricultural landscapes provide multiple ecosystem services beside the production of food, feed and fibers (Van Zanten et al., 2014). Amongst the most common services are recreation and tourism as well as cultural heritage and aesthetic functions, often summarized as cultural services (Chan et al., 2012; Daniel et al., 2012). A common way to obtain insight into these cul- tural services is to study stated landscape preferences. In Europe, ∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +31 205989556. E-mail addresses: boris.zanten@vu.nl, boris.vanzanten@gmail.com (B.T. van Zanten), Peter.verburg@vu.nl (P.H. Verburg), Mark.koetse@vu.nl (M.J. Koetse), Pieter.van.beukering@vu.nl (P.J.H. van Beukering). various scientific disciplines have made contributions to the landscape preference literature. Many of these research efforts were driven by changes in landscapes due to processes such as intensification, scale enlargement and agricultural abandonment (Howley, Hynes, & Donoghue, 2012; Hunziker & Kienast, 1999; Van Berkel & Verburg, 2014). These processes have drastically changed landscape structure and composition and, therefore, the visual appearance and quality of many post-war European agrarian land- scapes (Klijn, 2004; Van der Zanden, Levers, Verburg, & Kuemmerle, in review). Landscape preferences have been addressed by numerous empirical studies. These studies have applied different method- ologies originating from different disciplines, among others environmental psychology, landscape ecology, environmental eco- nomics and geography. Despite addressing a similar problem, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2014.08.012 0169-2046/© 2014 Published by Elsevier B.V.