Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Land Use Policy journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/landusepol Urban green space qualities: An integrated approach towards GIS-based assessment refecting user perception Philip Stessens a, *, Frank Canters b , Marijke Huysmans c ,AhmedZ.Khan a a Building, Architecture & Town Planning (BATir) Department, Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Belgium b Cartography & GIS Research Group, Department of Geography, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), Belgium c Department of Hydrology & Hydraulic Engineering, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), Belgium ARTICLEINFO Keywords: Urban green space Ecosystem services Environmental quality GIS Brussels ABSTRACT For city dwellers urban green space is the primary source of contact with nature. Qualitative green space is increasingly perceived as an important factor for quality of life in urban areas and a key component of sus- tainableurbandesignandplanning.Inthisstudy,therelationbetweendiferent featuresofurbangreenspaces and perception of green space qualities was analyzed by combining the outcome of a survey on green space perceptionwithGIS-basedspatialmetrics.AsurveyhasbeenconductedamongresidentsoftheBrusselsCapital Regionandsurroundingstoassesstherelativeimportanceresidentsassigntodiferentqualitiesofurbangreen spaces and how they value these qualities within visited spaces. Quietness, spaciousness, cleanliness and maintenance, facilities and feeling of safety are identifed as important qualities of public green spaces, while naturalness, historical and cultural value are perceived as less important qualities. A GIS-based model was de- velopedtoinfernaturalness,quietnessandspaciousnessasperceivedbyusersofpublicgreenspacesfromgreen space properties. Using variables describing biological value, land-cover composition, green space area and shape,goodcorrelationswereobtainedbetweenGIS-basedassessmentofnaturalnessandspaciousnessandhow green space users perceive these qualities. The model proposed may be useful for simulating green space de- velopment and improvement scenarios and assess their impact on perceived quality. Thus it may serve as a spatial decision support tool for improving the quality of urban green spaces. 1. Introduction Positiveperceptionsofgreenandopenspaceareonlysurpassedby dwelling characteristics as important predictors of high levels of neighborhood satisfaction (Douglas, Russell et al. 2018). A proper as- sessment of the role and benefts of green spaces (GS) for urban re- sidents is an important concern in the emerging area of urban eco- systemservices(ES).Sincethelastdecenniumofthe20thcentury,the concept of ES has gained an important role in the debate on sustain- ability and quality of life (Lappé, 2009; Burkhard, Petrosillo et al. 2010). Neßhöveretal.(2007) considerESasthemissinglinkbetween ecosystems and human wellbeing. Also on the policy level more at- tentionandactionisdirectedtothedependenceofmanonnatureand its ecosystems. In urban areas, the aspect of non-material benefts or culturalESishighlyrelevant(Chang,Quetal.2017)andGSqualityisa major factor for how people receive cultural ES. In order to reinforce this link in urban areas, an understanding of the quality and manage- ment of urban ecosystem services is required to ensure sustainable urban planning (Luederitz, Brink et al. 2015) and general wellbeing. Urbangreenspaces(UGS)havebeenthesubjectofawiderangeof studies, yet correlations with assumed benefts have been often based on their presence or abundance, and less based on their qualities (KabischandHaase,2013; HaalandandvandenBosch,2015).Several recent studies, however, point to the importance of assessing urban green space quality (Velarde, Fry et al. 2007; Bertram and Rehdanz, 2015; delaBarreraetal.,2016; OdeSang,Knezetal.2016; Hedblom, Knez et al. 2017; Zhang, Van den Berg et al. 2017; Madureira, Nunes et al. 2018). Rather than a biased preoccupation with green-space acreageandtreecounts,plannersshouldalsoconsiderthegeometryof thegreennetworkandthequalityofthegreenery(Jim,2004)andthe various aspects of GS quality (Bertram and Rehdanz, 2015). Many studies on urban green quality are health-related and yield mixed https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2019.104319 Received 26 March 2018; Received in revised form 17 May 2019; Accepted 19 October 2019 ⁎ Corresponding author at: Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Building, Architecture & Town Planning Department (BATir), 50, Avenue Franklin Roosevelt, Box194/2, 1050, Brussels, Belgium. E-mail addresses: philip.stessens@ulb.ac.be (P. Stessens), frank.canters@vub.be (F. Canters), marijke.huysmans@vub.be (M. Huysmans), ahmed.khan@ulb.ac.be (A.Z. Khan). Land Use Policy 91 (2020) 104319 Available online 13 December 2019 0264-8377/ © 2019 Published by Elsevier Ltd. T