This study aims to develop an integrated classification methodology for retrofitting that preserves both energy use and cultural value aspects in hot climates, especially, in North Africa, as a hot zone, which lacks retrofitting initiatives of built heritage. Despite the number of existing methods of classification for energy purposes, little attention has been paid to integrate the perceptions of cultural values in those methods. The proposed methodology classifies heritage building stocks based on building physical characteristics, as well as heritage significance levels, and then later integrates the outcomes into a matrix to propose sustainable retrofitting scenarios based on three dimensions, i.e., heritage value locations, types, and heritage significance level. For validation, the methodology was applied to the heritage residential building stock along with a microscale analysis on a building in Khedivial Cairo, Egypt. The findings include extracting twelve building classes, providing a reference building for each class, and a detailed catalogue of the extracted reference buildings that includes retrofitting scenarios for creating energy models. The originality of this work lies in integrating cultural values in a building classification methodology and providing a list of sustainable retrofitting scenarios for reference buildings. The findings contribute to fill the gap in existing building classifications, more specifically in hot climates.
Industrial agriculture (IA) has been recognized among the main drivers of biodiversity loss, climate change, and native pollinator decline. Here we summarize the known negative effects of IA on pollinator biodiversity and illustrate these problems by considering the case of Chile, a "world biodiversity hotspot" (WBH) where food exports account for a considerable share of the economy in this country. Most of Chile's WBH area is currently being replaced by IA at a fast pace, threatening local biodiversity. We present an agroecological strategy for sustainable food production and pollinator conservation in food-producing WBHs. In this we recognize native pollinators as internal inputs that cannot be replaced by IA technological packages and support the development of agroecological and biodiversity restorative practices to protect biodiversity. We suggest four fundamental pillars for food production change based on: (1) sharing the land, restoring and protecting; (2) ecological intensification; (3) localized knowledge, research, and technological development; and (4) territorial planning and implementation of socio-agroecological policies. This approach does not need modification of native pollination services that sustain the world with food and basic subsistence goods, but a paradigm change where the interdependency of nature and human wellbeing must be recognized for ensuring the world's food security and sovereignty.
This paper provides a detailed analysis of the waste footprint and waste treatments at subnational level, for Brussels, Flanders, and Wallonia. The paper details the waste footprint components into direct waste from households (disposed in bins), indirect waste generated upstream in the supply chains and induced by household consumption and waste materials from the degradation of in-use stocks. For each component, we analysed the contribution of waste types, products consumed and location where the waste was generated, as well as the associated treatments. The results show that Flanders had the highest total waste footprint in absolute terms; Brussels the highest direct waste in capita terms and Wallonia the highest indirect waste and stock depletion in capita terms. In each region, almost 78 ± 2% of the regional waste footprints were attributed to the consumption of food products, manufactured products and restaurants and accommodation services. For each region, around 45 ± 4% of the indirect waste was generated within its boundaries, 16 ± 9% in other regions and 39 ± 5% out of Belgium. Incineration was the predominant waste treatment type of the regional waste footprint, followed by recycling. Landfill was the second widely applied treatment for indirect waste. Results constitute key information relevant to enhance the waste data monitoring practices at regional level with effects at national level. We unveiled the waste footprint and associated treatments inherent to the interregional and international linkages. Results are also useful resources to substantiate waste management and circular economy policies, enacting on waste prevention and reduction, ecodesign and product lifetime extension.
The thesis brings together three independent essays on the economics of innovation. I analyse the impact of competition on firm-level innovation (chapter 1) and the impact of different types of innovation on firm performance (chapter 2) looking at the top business RD satisfaction with recruitment process, existence of the top R&D spending enterprises in the economy, and the freedom of academic exchange and dissemination are the factors that increases the attractiveness of a country for mobility inflows.
La these porte sur les organisations de cooperation agricole au stade de la production (OCAP) en Belgique. Elle s’inscrit dans le champ de l’economie institutionnelle, de l’economie sociale et de l’economie politique agraire. A partir d’une enquete empirique, la recherche s’efforce d’etayer la these de la complexite du fonctionnement interne des OCAP en Belgique etant donne la multiplicite des objectifs poursuivis par leurs membres et la nature des relations sociales dans lesquelles sont inserees ces structures cooperatives de production agricole. En tant qu’objet d’etude, les OCAP sont definies comme les formes volontaires de cooperation qui portent sur les processus biologiques de la culture des plantes et de l'elevage des animaux. Ces arrangements institutionnels sont caracterises par la construction d'un ensemble de regles collectives qui organisent la mise en commun de ressources et d’activites et par la negociation entre associes des criteres de repartition des resultats monetaires et non monetaires issus du travail. Les OCAP se distinguent des cooperatives agricoles largement developpees depuis le 19e siecle en Europe de l’Ouest pour offrir des services en amont ou en aval de la production. Ces cooperatives de services ont ete constituees pour faciliter l’integration verticale sur les marches d’exploitations independantes tandis que les OCAP, en intervenant au stade de la production, organisent la cooperation horizontale entre agriculteurs associes.Les OCAP sont relativement peu developpees en Europe et ailleurs dans le monde. Pourtant, les arguments pour cooperer au stade de la production agricole sont multiples et articulent des motivations d’ordre economique, social, politique, ecologique et ideologique. Elles relevent notamment de la volonte d’acceder aux ressources productives, de beneficier d’economies d’echelle, d’ameliorer les conditions de travail ou de renforcer les interdependances des exploitations avec leur environnement biophysique et socioeconomique. Plusieurs raisons peuvent toutefois expliquer le fait que les OCAP sont peu repandues, comme l’attachement des agriculteurs a leur terre ou l’apparition de deseconomies d’echelle a partir d’un seuil de dimension relativement bas, liees aux couts de deplacement des travailleurs et du materiel et aux couts de coordination du travail. Malgre ces difficultes, depuis les annees 2000 en Belgique, de nouvelles initiatives cooperatives au stade de la production agricole sont portees par des neo-agriculteurs et coexistent avec les autres types d’exploitations agricoles. Notre recherche interroge en particulier la diversite des pratiques organisationnelles deployees au sein des OCAP a travers l’analyse des conditions sociales de production, des mecanismes qui permettent d’articuler la multiplicite des objectifs poursuivis et des processus de democratisation de l’economie rurale. Pour cela, nous avons mene trois enquetes empiriques complementaires a partir d’une combinaison de methodes de recherche qualitative. La premiere permet de caracteriser la diversite organisationnelle des OCAP par la construction d’une typologie empirique menee sur la base d’un echantillon de 31 organisations. Trois variables dichotomiques definissent les types d’OCAP :la mise en commun du travail de la terre, le controle de la production et l’etendue de la cooperation. L’analyse des conditions sociales de production dans chacun des types procede ensuite a l’examen des formes d’acces au foncier et au capital d’exploitation, des modes de prise de decision, des conditions de travail et des modalites de repartition des resultats produits. Cette premiere etude met finalement en evidence les tensions qui caracterisent la nature des relations que les agriculteurs nouent entre eux et avec d’autres categories d’acteurs. La deuxieme enquete empirique investigue les mecanismes par lesquels les membres des structures integrales de cooperation agricole, dont la particularite est d’organiser en commun le travail de la terre selon des principes agroecologiques, parviennent a construire une coherence interne a leur organisation etant donne la multiplicite des objectifs qu’ils poursuivent. A travers une analyse comparative de dix organisations, les structures cooperatives de production agroecologique sont alors etudiees a travers le prisme des organisations hybrides car, au-dela de la logique commerciale, elles combinent des demandes contradictoires issues de leur engagement dans des logiques d’autogestion, d’agroecologie et d’ancrage territorial. Apres avoir defini les proprietes de ces logiques institutionnelles, l’analyse met en evidence les tensions paradoxales qui decoulent de leur combinaison et les reponses organisationnelles mises en œuvre pour poursuivre dans la duree les multiples rationalites engagees. La troisieme analyse consiste en une monographie d’une OCAP dont la singularite est de repartir le controle de la production agroecologique entre agriculteurs et citoyens. L’analyse vise a preciser la notion de democratie economique a partir des principes qu’elle sous-tend et des principales praxis democratiques mises en œuvre par les acteurs pour reguler leurs activites economiques. En particulier, nous avons cherche a comprendre les contradictions des pratiques organisationnelles avec les principes de democratie economique et avec certains fondements du mouvement cooperatif, ainsi que les tensions internes qui en resultent. Ce travail nous permet finalement d’apprehender dans une perspective critique et nuancee la transformation du role des citoyens dans les activites economiques et la diversification contemporaine des formes cooperatives dans le secteur agricole et alimentaire induites par l’emergence d’initiatives aux multiples parties prenantes.
We inquired individual preferences in relation to different setups of the Ter Kamerenbos/Bois de la Cambre . We analysed the profiles of groups with different preferences in relation to their use of the park, their socio-demographic situation, the places where they live and work, their mobility practices and access to green spaces. We ran an online survey between Nov. 27 and Dec. 7, 2020, for which we received 7252 valid responses, which we divided into three groups based on respondents ’ preferences for the park’s setup: Allow Traffic, Middle Ground and Ban Traffic (min. group size 1800). While our sample is not representative of the population at large, it is adequate to study the profiles of people displaying different preferences for the park.
Consciousness about the need for a more sustainable consumption and production patterns, as well as the will to cope with issues such as social exclusion and poverty, rose in the last decades. To answer such problems, new forms of social ventures have emerged on markets, including under the legal form of corporations. Social corporations are fully-fledged limited companies that officially commit themselves to a social mission by including the latter in their bylaws. Through their commercial activities, these new forms of social ventures target a specific social outcome. Either the whole population or a targeted group can benefit from this outcome. Thus, social corporations aim to pursue the common good. Entitled “Social Ventures and the Commons”, this doctoral dissertation aims to understand how new alternative profit-seeking business models, such as social corporations, can manage and contribute to the governance of common goods. With her seminal work, Elinor Ostrom widened the path for scholars to study the commons. Ever since, the academic world has extensively relied on her eight design principles when researching commons, allowing for a varied literature on the topic and the emergence of a paradigm in recent years; however, features of this paradigm are still fuzzy as different views and concepts of commons exist. While Ostrom conducted her research on the governance of traditional commons mainly, i.e. local natural resources collectively managed, the emergence of new concepts calls for a better of their governance mechanisms. Amongst the different concepts of commons existing, new commons have recently emerged. New commons are resources that have newly been recognized as commons. They derive from the principle of “commoning”: they are shared resources collectively organized and managed and can take the form of human-made commons, like culture, knowledge or urban spaces. They can be created both by humans and/or by organizations that are managed collectively. The first chapter of the dissertation, in the form of a conceptual paper, sheds light on the capacity of new alternative profit-seeking business models to govern new commons; a topic left out by scholars so far. It states under which conditions such unconventional forms of market-oriented organizations can contribute to the governance of commons and thus become commons-governing companies. Theoretical management principles applicable in the context of commons-governing companies are proposed and guide them to implement collective action through co-management with external and/or internal stakeholders. The second chapter of the dissertation presents an original global typology of social corporations that distinguishes between three generic types according to their legal structure and underlying motivation to integrate a social mission into their bylaws. It identifies four core social corporation governance elements: voting rights implementation, profit distribution, property regime, and ownership structure. Additionally, the typology is complemented with a multiple case study of three social corporations (one per generic type). The case study focuses on the five governance capabilities that social corporations develop to be sustainable in the long run, and that relate to the three main pillars of performance, conformance, and responsibility. The third and last chapter of the thesis aims to comprehend the governance mechanisms developed by social corporations governing new commons. To do so, it draws from the community-based enterprise theory and the theory of the commons. I use qualitative data used collected within three community-based enterprises governing commons, and that adopt a social corporation legal form, in the United Kingdom. These organizations vary by date of creation, size, location, legal form, and types of new commons they contribute to. Findings show that these ventures design a triple-levelled goal governance to (1) manage the organization, (2) govern the commons, and (3) foster social good in the community. This doctoral dissertation primarily aims to contribute to the field of entrepreneurship. First, it contributes to social entrepreneurship by embracing the growing phenomenon of profit-seeking social ventures and provides with a better comprehension of their governance mechanisms, also when governing commons. Second, it sustains the development and understanding of the newly recognized entrepreneurship theory of commons. It does so by understanding how privately-held profit-seeking social ventures – social corporations – contribute to the provision of commons and become commons-governing companies.
En 2005, la Region de Bruxelles-Capitale est passee d’une tarification lineaire de l’eau a une tarification progressive par personne, car cette derniere etait supposee etre sociale et ecologique. Nous montrons que les menages pauvres ne consomment pas moins d’eau par personne que les menages riches en Belgique et a Bruxelles. La tarification progressive n’avantage donc pas les menages pauvres et n’est pas sociale. Nous mettons egalement en evidence que rien n’indique que la tarification progressive ait incite les Bruxellois·es a reduire leur consommation d’eau, qui est deja basse. Elle ne serait des lors pas non plus ecologique. Par contre, la tarification progressive comporte une serie d’inconvenients et entraine de serieux problemes d’equite. Nous preconisons des lors le retour a une tarification lineaire de l’eau pour tou·te·s a Bruxelles.
This chapter first investigates the geography of actual rail transport worldwide. In doing so, we set up a typology based upon network- and traffic-related indicators per country, with special attention paid to the distinction between passenger and freight traffic. Then the chap-ter covers the factors that explain the geography of infrastructures and traffic, taking into account historic factors that may have come into play a long time ago, given that many actu-al lines were built a considerable time ago. As the chapter elucidates, rail transport is shaped by physical geography, geo-economic factors, the shape of urban systems, intermodal com-petition in line with distances, railways logics, and the importance of network effects and political factors.
Large amounts of phosphorus resources, such as mineral fertilizers and manure, are mobilized globally to produce the food consumed in cities. Accounting for the use of these resources can allow cities to plan for interventions that reduce related pressures in their hinterlands, conserve resources, and lead to more circular food systems. In this study we calculate a resource-based phosphorus footprint for the food consumption in Brussels Capital Region and use it to compare different strategies towards increased circularity: waste reuse, waste reduction, dietary changes and shifts to locally produced food. The P footprint of an average inhabitant in Brussels is 7.7 kgP cap yr −1 , 10 times higher than the physical P consumption of 0.7 kgP cap yr −1 . About 60% of the total P inputs into food production are through manure, and the rest through mineral fertilizers; almost 80% of the inputs occur outside Belgium. Most of these inputs are related to the cultivation of feed for livestock, which is why a shift to vegetarian and vegan diets can reduce the footprint down to 4.8 kgP cap yr −1 and 0.9 kgP cap yr −1 . To the contrary, consuming only food produced in Belgium would increase the footprint to 12 kgP cap yr −1 , mostly as a result of the high manure use in the north of the country. A reduction in the P footprint signifies an absolute reduce in total resource use that can alleviate pressures in the hinterland and promote a city’s transition towards circularity.
A large focus of digital transformation has been on embedding digitization across organizational functions, but the most successful transformations are often coupled with strategic renewal. A deeper look at successful digital transformations shows that strategic renewal is facilitated by pervasive digital technology adoption, as those technologies are disruptive in nature and help shift the corporate mindset towards a less defensive posture. We derive and discuss the implications of this result for managers and organizations.
In order to determine how sustainable online grocery shopping is as a practice, it is crucial to have an in-depth understanding of its drivers. This paper therefore validates the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT2) in the context of e-grocery and enriches it with five constructs. We exploit a self-administered survey among 560 customers of two Belgian supermarkets and test the model by means of hierarchical multiple regression analysis. We do so not only for the full sample, but also for users and non-users separately. For the full sample, four of the five proposed context-specific constructs-namely, perceived risk, perceived time pressure, perceived in-store shopping enjoyment, and innovativeness-help better explain the intention to adopt or continue to use e-grocery services. In the subsamples, only perceived time pressure and innovativeness add explanatory power, and this only for non-users. In other words, the additional constructs primarily help discriminate between users and non-users. In addition, while the extended model outperforms the original UTAUT2 model for all three samples, the added value of the extended model does not so much lie in a higher explained variance, but rather in a more correct identification of the drivers of BI.
This thesis investigates environmental and energy policies that Turkey needs to adopt on its way to a sustainable development path. A comparative-static, multi-sectoral CGE model, TurkMod, is developed in order to analyze the potential scenarios available for the Turkish economy to attain a low-carbon society with a reduced reliance on fossil fuel imports. Domestic energy demand has significantly increased in Turkey over the past decades and this has put a lot of pressure on policy-makers as the economy greatly depends on imports of natural gas and oil as far as current energy consumption is concerned. The CGE model in this study is based on a 2012 energy-disaggregated Social Accounting Matrix (SAM) constructed as a part of this thesis as well. The energy-disaggregated SAM incorporates 18 sectors for production activities, 11 products as commodities, 2 factors of production as labor and capital, 3 institutional accounts as firms, households, and the government, a separate account for taxes on commodities, taxes on production and taxes on different types of factor use, a capital account, and finally the rest of the world (ROW) account. Disaggregating the electricity sector to include 8 different types of power generating sectors (5 of which are renewable energy sources) enables electric power substitution in the model. The energy-disaggregated SAM is further linked with satellite accounts which include data on derived energy demand and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.The macroeconomic and environmental impacts of four distinct sets of scenarios are analyzed with respect to the baseline scenario. The first scenario simulates a 30% increase in energy efficiency in the production sectors and the residential sector and evidence is found for reaching the 21% GHG mitigation target set in Turkey’s pledge for Paris Agreement compliance. The second set of scenarios is the inclusion of a medium-level and high-level carbon tax rates for coal, oil and natural gas. The carbon tax scenarios produce significant effects on both emission reduction targets and substituting fossil fuel technologies with cleaner energy types. The third scenario investigates the sectoral and welfare impacts of providing subsidies for renewable energy sources. Turkey has already adopted a scheme where renewable energies are beings subsidized and promoted, however, this policy does not produce the necessary transformation for the Turkish society when utilized solely on its own. The fourth scenario estimates the effects of changes in world prices of energy on the Turkish economy. A 20% increase in world energy prices, i.e. oil, natural gas, and coal, induces substantial changes in the breakdown of TPES and the power-generating sector, but this scenario is a rather hypothetical one as it cannot be suggested as a viable policy option. All in all, these potential energy scenarios have significant and influential impacts on the Turkish economy and its environment. Notwithstanding, a carbon tax policy proves to be the most viable scenario which leads to reduced energy intensities in all sectors, a 21% GHG emissions abatement, and a transformation of the energy sector towards having a low-carbon content along with a reduced reliance on fossil fuel imports.
Extreme environmental variations, as a phenomenon deriving from climate change, led to an exacerbated uncertainty on water availability and increased the likelihood of conflicts regarding water-dependent activities such as agriculture. In this paper, we investigate the role of conflict resolution mechanisms-one of Ostrom's acclaimed Design Principles-when social-ecological systems are exposed to physical external disturbances. The theoretical propositions predict that social-ecological systems with conflict-resolution mechanisms will perform better than those without them. We tested this proposition through a framed field experiment that mimicked an irrigation system. This asymmetric setting exposed farmers to two (2) dilemmas: (i) how much to invest in the communal irrigation system's maintenance and (ii) how much water to extract. The setting added a layer of complexity: water availability depended not only on the investment but also on the environmental variability. Our findings confirmed the theoretical proposition: groups with stronger 'institutional robustness' can cope with environmental variations better than those with weaker robustness. However, we also found that some groups, despite lacking conflict-resolution mechanisms, were also able to address environmental variations. We explored potential explanatory variables to these unexpected results. We found that subjects' and groups' attributes might address uncertainty and avert conflict. Thus, social-ecological systems' capacity to respond to external disturbances, such as environmental variations, might not only be a question of Design Principles. Instead, it might also be strongly related to group members' attributes and group dynamics. Our results pave the way for further research, hinting that some groups might be better equipped for mitigation measures, while others might be better equipped for adaptation measures.
AbstractBackgroundVentilation/perfusion inequalities impair gas exchange in acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). Although increased dead-space ventilation (VD/VT) has been described in ARDS, its mechanism is not clearly understood. We sought to evaluate the relationships between dynamic variations inVD/VTand extra-pulmonary microcirculatory blood flow detected at sublingual mucosa hypothesizing that an altered microcirculation, which is a generalized phenomenon during severe inflammatory conditions, could influence ventilation/perfusion mismatching manifested by increases inVD/VTfraction during early stages of ARDS.MethodsForty-two consecutive patients with early moderate and severe ARDS were included. PEEP was set targeting the best respiratory-system compliance after a PEEP-decremental recruitment maneuver. After 60 min of stabilization, hemodynamics and respiratory mechanics were recorded and blood gases collected.VD/VTwas calculated from the CO2production ($$V_{{{\text{CO}}_{2} }}$$VCO2) and CO2exhaled fraction ($$F_{{{\text{ECO}}_{2} }}$$FECO2) measurements by volumetric capnography. Sublingual microcirculatory images were simultaneously acquired using a sidestream dark-field device for an ulterior blinded semi-quantitative analysis. All measurements were repeated 24 h after.ResultsPercentage of small vessels perfused (PPV) and microcirculatory flow index (MFI) were inverse and significantly related toVD/VTat baseline (Spearman’s rho = − 0.76 and − 0.63,p < 0.001;R2 = 0.63, and 0.48,p < 0.001, respectively) and 24 h after (Spearman’s rho = − 0.71, and − 0.65;p < 0.001;R2 = 0.66 and 0.60,p < 0.001, respectively). Other respiratory, macro-hemodynamic and oxygenation parameters did not correlate withVD/VT. Variations in PPV between baseline and 24 h were inverse and significantly related to simultaneous changes inVD/VT(Spearman’s rho = − 0.66,p < 0.001;R2 = 0.67,p < 0.001).ConclusionIncreased heterogeneity of microcirculatory blood flow evaluated at sublingual mucosa seems to be related to increases inVD/VT, while respiratory mechanics and oxygenation parameters do not. Whether there is a cause–effect relationship between microcirculatory dysfunction and dead-space ventilation in ARDS should be addressed in future research.
Given that mental health issues are acute in Asian countries, particularly Japan and Korea, and university students are more vulnerable to depression than the general population, this study aims to examine the landscapes of scientific research regarding depressive disorders among university students and evaluate the effectiveness of international collaboration and funding provision on the scientific impact in Korea, Japan, and China. Based on articles retrieved from the Web of Science database during the period 1992–2018, we found that the number of scientific publications, international collaborations, and allocated funds regarding depressive disorder among university students in China (97 articles, 43 international collaborations, and 52 funds provided, respectively) overwhelmingly surpassed the case of Korea (37 articles, 12 international collaborations, and 15 funds provided, respectively) and Japan (24 articles, 5 international collaborations, and 6 funds provided, respectively). The differences in collaboration patterns (p-value < 0.05) and the proportion of allocated funds (p-value < 0.05) among Korea, Japan, and China were also noted using Fisher’s exact test. Based on the Poisson regression analysis, China’s associations of scientific impact with international collaboration (β = −0.322, p-value < 0.01) and funding provision (β = −0.397, p-value < 0.01) are negative, while associations of the scientific impact and scientific quality with funding provision and international collaboration were statistically insignificant. These findings hint that Korea and Japan lacked scientific output, diversity in research targets, international collaboration, and funding provision, compared to China, but the quality of either China’s internationally collaborated or funded articles was contentious. As a result, policymakers in Korea and Japan are suggested to raise the importance of mental health problems in their future policy planning and resource distribution. Moreover, it would be advisable to establish a rigorous system of evaluation for the quality of internationally collaborated and funded studies in order to increase scientific impact and maintain public trust, especially in China.
Sustainability is a key word in modern transportation and logistics. It requires not only economic development but also environmental and social actions. The involvement of multiple stakeholders can express different perspectives and interests to achieve the balance between these three pillars. The multi-actor multi-criteria analysis (MAMCA) is a methodology that can include multiple stakeholders in the process of decision-making. It is important in the field of transport and logistic project appraisal, as many projects fail to be implemented because of a lack of support from one or more stakeholders. In MAMCA, multiple stakeholders can use different criteria trees and express their own preferences. At the end of the analysis, the advantages and disadvantages of each of the proposed scenarios are highlighted. Possible consensuses are then being discussed. However, this last step often turns out to be a difficult task. The purpose of this paper is to propose a way to help the facilitator to identify this (these) consensus(es). This will be based on the use of a weight sensitivity analysis model that was recently developed in the context of the PROMETHEE methods and which is based on inverse mixed-integer linear optimization. This approach allows finding the minimum weight modification for each stakeholder in order to improve the position of a given alternative in the individual rankings and, in an ideal case, to the first position of all the rankings simultaneously. This approach is illustrated on two real MAMCA logistic project cases to seek sustainable mobility solutions.
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 sustainable urban design and planning. In this study, the relation between different features of urban green spaces and perception of green space qualities was analyzed by combining the outcome of a survey on green space perception with GIS-based spatial metrics. A survey has been conducted among residents of the Brussels Capital Region and surroundings to assess the relative importance residents assign to different qualities of urban green spaces and how they value these qualities within visited spaces. Quietness, spaciousness, cleanliness and maintenance, facilities and feeling of safety are identified as important qualities of public green spaces, while naturalness, historical and cultural value are perceived as less important qualities. A GIS-based model was developed to infer naturalness, quietness and spaciousness as perceived by users of public green spaces from green space properties. Using variables describing biological value, land-cover composition, green space area and shape, good correlations were obtained between GIS-based assessment of naturalness and spaciousness and how green space users perceive these qualities. The model proposed may be useful for simulating green space development 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.
