Social perception of the aesthetic quality of the Mediterranean agricultural landscape: the fruit trees in bloom in the Region of Murcia

Abstract

The aesthetic quality of the agricultural landscape is a cultural ecosystem service (ES) provided by an agroecosystem that has a positive effect on the health and well-being of the population. In recent decades, land use changes in agroecosystems have resulted in a modification and fragmentation of the agricultural landscape, with associated landscape variation and consequent variation of the ES. In this context, the aim of this paper is to estimate social preferences for the aesthetic quality of the agricultural landscape and to determine the relative importance of its component attributes. For this purpose, the flowering of Cieza (Murcia) is used as a case study, integrated in a landscape that is highly representative of semi-arid Mediterranean agroecosystems. Using the choice experiments technique, the perceived usefulness and relative importance of the different landscape attributes were obtained. The results showed people’s preferences for landscapes with a high presence of fruit trees, natural vegetation and traditional water features and with an absence of buildings and asphalt roads. These results provide agroecosystem managers with additional value for fruit orchard management focused on conserving the most naturalised elements of the landscape in order to promote a higher social valuation of this agroecosystem.