Demand for landscape management: regulation versus financing

Abstract

With continuing loss of open space around growing urban centers, measures to maintain periurban landscape quality are gaining importance on political agendas. Understanding the demand for alternative approaches to landscape management is crucial for designing efficient policies and acceptable financing arrangements. Here, we analyze voter support for a proposition to create landscape reserves in the densely populated canton of Zurich, Switzerland. We then contrast the pattern of voter support for this "regulation" measure with the support among the same population for a "financing" measure that proposed to maintain landscape quality through increased public spending for the management of landscape amenities and historical heritage. The demand for both landscape regulation and financing increased with decreasing local open space. The role of income differed between the two propositions and between more urban and more rural populations. Our descriptive results should contribute to the design of widely acceptable policies and financing arrangements.