The outcomes of our walkshops were analyzed by Leon Kortekaas, a student from the Avans University of Applied Sciences. He suggested improvements to our questionnaire as well as the format of the walkshops in his internship report, and helped test this during the TNOC festival in Berlin. The abstract is listed below. While we didn't have sufficient participants for a statistically significant conclusion, the results were interesting for further study.
Abstract
The largest part of the world’s population lives in urban areas, and the number of people living in urban areas is still increasing. At the same time, climate change risks are also increasing in these areas and cities themselves contribute to this climate change substantially. In the Netherlands, with space already being limited, urbanisation threatens nature and green, while this nature and green can play a vital role in the mitigation of climate change. A solution to combine nature and urban areas can be found in the form of green infrastructure. Apart from the government, citizens themselves also have potential to realize more green infrastructure (GI) and contribute to climate change adaptation. The urban green infrastructure walkshops project tries to engage individuals through guided walks. This graduation project aims to improve the walkshops and associated surveys to better facilitate their goal of increasing environmental awareness among participants.
To this extent, multiple steps were taken. First statistical significance was checked and a data overview of previously filled in survey answers was created. After this, survey data, notes, and participant products from previously held walkshops were analysed. Statistical insignificance led to the survey data being analysed in a descriptive/quantitative way to reflect on the target group, while notes and participant products were looked at qualitatively to assess the effectiveness of the walkshops. The output from these steps was partly used to improve the existing surveys filled in pre and post walkshop by the participants. The surveys received feedback from multiple parties, and this feedback was incorporated to come to the final version of the surveys. Next, the different GI measures visited during the walkshops were identified after which a proof-of-concept multi criteria analysis (MCA) tool was set up to compare these GI measures with each other and to give suggestions to individuals on the implementation of GI.
The data analysis results include graphs and figures showing the responses to the survey questions, and summaries of the notes and participant products of the walkshops. The improved surveys are a result on their own, which also holds for the MCA tool. This tool is an Excel file which contains multiple sheets, giving the user options to alter the weights of the MCA. By answering questions about house, garden, and neighbourhood one can get tailored suggestions for possible GI measures to implement themselves. From these results it can be concluded that the amount of surveys responses is inadequate to provide statistically significant results, but that the past participants do fit in with the target group. The qualitative analysis points to the importance of a personal connection with nature with regards to increasing environmental awareness. The improved surveys and MCA tool are concluded to be reliable for use in future walkshops.
From these conclusions follows the recommendation to increase the number of collected survey responses to achieve statistical significance. It is advised to create one uniform walkshop set-up and to use this setup and the improved surveys for future walkshops to ensure uniformity in the collected data. It is further advised to have an expert look at the qualitative data analysis again to extract more data. Lastly it is recommended to further develop and improve the MCA tool.
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