Landscapes often supply socio-cultural benefits facilitated by regulating, provisioning and cultural ecosystem services. Within the Scottish exemplar, Ariane Walz and Katja Schmidt of the University of Potsdam explore socio-cultural values of various types of ecosystem services in the Pentland Hills, a case study area south of Edinburgh primarily used for recreational activities.

After conducting an on-site user survey in the Pentland Hills Regional Park in June and July, we now invite residents of Edinburgh and the adjacent Councils to take park in an online survey (www.phsurvey.org), expressing their perceptions of benefits provided by the Pentland Hills or other landscapes in and around Edinburgh. The survey will be available online until 30 September 2014.

Results of the on-site and online survey as well as semi-structured interviews with stakeholders will inform focus groups that will be held in 2015. 

Katja Schmidt, University of Potsdam, schmikat@uni-potsdam.de