Allotment Gardens Contribute to Urban Ecosystem Service: Case Study Salzburg, Austria

Abstract

Allotment gardens are an important feature in the urban landscape. They provide a range of ecosystem services (ES) and hence combine utility, social meaning, and beauty. Allotment gardens have been deeply embedded for almost two hundred years in European urban development. In many European countries, there is a great and rising interest in allotment gardening in traditional and new forms. Allotment gardens are often not well recognized as an important part of urban green in planning. Investigations into the ES they provide will help integrate them better in urban planning. This paper examines in which way urban allotment gardens contribute to ES in a case study in Salzburg, Austria. In this study, 156 allotment gardeners in four allotment associations were surveyed on the role allotment gardens play in recreation, food production, nature experience (learning and teaching about nature), ecological gardening, and environmental behavior. The results show the importance of allotment gardens in recreation and nature experience and the declining importance of traditional food production. There is an increasing interest in ecological gardening and a general environmental awareness among allotment gardeners.