Aesthetic and spiritual ecosystem services provided by urban sacred sites

De Lacy, Peter J G; Shackleton, Charlie M

Title: Aesthetic and spiritual ecosystem services provided by urban sacred sites
Creator: De Lacy, Peter J G
Creator: Shackleton, Charlie M
Date Issued: 2017
Date: 2017
Type: article
Type: text
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/60919
Identifier: vital:27891
Identifier: http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su9091628
Description: The range and use of ecosystem services provided by urban sacred sites has hardly been considered in studies of urban ecology, sustainability and human wellbeing. This paper examines the perceived ecosystem services supplied by green spaces or gardens associated with places of religious worship and appreciated by worshippers in a mid-sized town in South Africa. A questionnaire with open, closed and Likert scale questions was administered at 30 places of worship (25 with gardens and five without). Respondents identified a wide diversity of ecosystem services provided by gardens, with social ones being more recognized than ecological, and economic services the least. Approximately two-thirds of respondents visited a sacred site garden weekly or more often. The majority of respondents (96%) felt that a garden was necessary because it added to their feelings of connection with God, or helped them relax and so be better able to concentrate, and 54% stated that a garden enhanced their overall spiritual experience. Regression analysis revealed that aesthetic appreciation of a garden was significantly related to woody plant species richness, number and basal area in the garden. On the other hand, spiritual experience was positively related to woody plant basal area, but not species richness nor tree number. Neither size of the garden, nor number of years the respondents had been vising a particular sacred site had any influence on the rated spiritual or aesthetic experiences. These results reveal the widely appreciated ecosystem services provided by urban sacred spaces and their centrality in enhancing spiritual satisfaction for some.
Format: 14 pages
Format: pdf
Language: English
Relation: Sustainability
Relation: De Lacy, P. and Shackleton, C., 2017. Aesthetic and Spiritual Ecosystem Services Provided by Urban Sacred Sites. Sustainability, 9(9), p.1628
Relation: Sustainability 9 vol. 9 no. 1 14 2017 2071-1050
Rights: Copyright held by the authors
Rights: Use of this resource is governed by the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

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RU DST/NRF SARChI for Interdisciplinary Science in Land and Natural Resource Use for Sustainable Livelihoods

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SDG 11. Sustainable Cities and Communities

Shackleton, Charles Michael (Distinguished Prof)

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