Social perception of the Region of Murcia (Spain) landscapes with special reference to arid ecosystems

Abstract

In the Region of Murcia, man-nature coevolution has generated multifunctional cultural landscapes of enormous interest, among which arid landscapes stand out for their uniqueness. These systems provide many ecosystem services, including cultural ones related to the aesthetics of landscapes and feelings of well-being, although, in general, the population has little attachment to them. This work tries to know the perception that the citizens have on different landscapes of the Region of Murcia and, especially, on the arid landscapes and the dry rivers (ramblas) that flow through them. To do this, individual questionnaires have been used on population of 185 participants who were asked about their preferred and non-preferred landscapes and were asked to describe the rambla’s landscape. Perception differences were detected according to the profession, and age of the participants in various landscapes. The arid landscapes turned out to be the worst valued by the population and surprisingly the ramblas were described by the respondents with words referring both to the natural environment and to the emotions, which reveals the importance of the non-material benefits that human obtains from the nature.