Landscape conflict assessment based on a mixed methods analysis of qualitative PPGIS data

The paper presents a public participation GIS (PPGIS) approach designed to support landscape decision-making by spatially identifying and describing conflict. This method is based on participatory mapping and qualitative interpretation of positive landscape values (stemming from cultural ecosystem services), negative landscape values (derived from landscape factors that negatively influence social perception), and improvement preferences. It is developed and tested using data collected from 53 interviews with local community members from a highly urbanised stream corridor in the Metropolitan Region of Barcelona (Spain). Intensity score maps of positive/negative landscape values are combined according to their significant spatial co-existence. Conflict index maps are computed for each co-existing pair of positive/negative values, delimiting the areas with the highest index values. Qualitative analysis of the improvement preferences identified within these areas contributed to an understanding of the reasons behind these conflicts. Finally, a weighted linear combination of the positive/negative landscape value intensity maps is applied to identify the areas with the highest level of conflict. Therefore, this approach not only produces a spatial delimitation and prioritization of landscape conflict based on context specific landscape values, but it also characterizes the underlying drivers of conflict on the basis of the qualitative understanding of improvement preferences.