Prioritizing urban rivers’ ecosystem services: An importance-performance analysis

Abstract

The importance-performance analysis (IPA)has been developed and widely utilized to understand customer satisfaction and prioritize provision strategies based on the assumption that satisfaction is resultant from a preference (perceived importance)for a service and a relevant judgment of its performance. However, little work has been performed to examine to what degree different social groups are satisfied with diverse ecosystem services provided by urban rivers, being a unique yet underinvested public good. This study pioneers the IPA application to systematically analyze local communities' perceived importance of urban rivers' ecosystem services and their perceptions about how well those ecosystem services have been provided by urban rivers in Guangzhou (south China). We found notable importance-performance gaps for 10 out of 12 ecosystem services. The local residents were more dissatisfied with provision performance than the non-locals even though both groups of residents could explicitly recognize the importance of urban rivers' ecosystem services. Enhancement of water purification was ranked first amongst all ecosystem services by all respondents, irrespective of respondents' hukou status (Chinese household registration system)and residing environment. Thus, this ecosystem service should be prioritized in relevant management and restoration initiatives. These data provide an accurate picture of potential approaches for the improvement and prioritization of ecosystem services that would satisfy the respective target groups' needs. The IPA offers a mechanism to help match local residents' needs with ecosystem services provision. The IPA also has promise as a means of helping decision-makers and practitioners to communicate effectively with various social groups holding diverging expectations and levels of satisfaction. Such communication is essential to curate urban spaces enjoyed and appreciated by diverse social groups via inclusive urban ecosystem governance. © 2019 Elsevier Ltd