Cultural Ecosystem Services on the university campus - A student-centered approach to assess psychological and climate-related benefits of cultural ecosystem services on the university campus.

Abstract: With climate change being one of the largest worldwide challenges of our time, it is important to prevent the loss of natural ecosystems that can act to mitigate climate change. Moreover, ensuring that urban areas are designed for human needs in conjunction with climate change adaptation/mitigation for a sustainable environment is crucial. University campus environments serve as places for study but are also used for other purposes. It is important that a campus area is designed with multifunctionality in mind. This study assesses students’ appraisals of a university campus environment with integrated climate adaptation features and evaluates the cultural ecosystem services (CES) provided by the environment as measures of Perceived Restorativeness (PRS), Quality-of-Life (QoL), and Core Affect (SCA). In this study, 21 university students individually followed a predetermined structured walk on the Lund University campus. The participants responded to a web-based questionnaire on their mobile phone with stops in four predetermined places. The four places included varying types of environmental features and values for climate change adaptation/mitigation. Important findings include that areas with water surfaces are highly restorative, which was also the case for areas with high perceived biodiversity. The study showed that CES and climate change adaptation/mitigation work well in conjunction with each other. Simultaneously, by addressing these values it could also aid biodiversity measures and by assessing students’ activities serve as a good basis for achieving multifunctionality in the environment. Careful design of urban green spaces including a diversity of features can thus preserve and improve CES, while contributing both to climate change adaptation/mitigation strategies and biodiversity.