Study title

Brazil

Household

Individual

This project looks at how to better understand how environmental assets interact with other assets to improve women and men’s well-being, reduce poverty and vulnerability, and thus promote more resilient and gender just urban spaces. A number of different interdisciplinary methods were used to establish the potential and actual ES in the area, these included:1. A scientific environmental assessment of the potential ES in the catchment2. Qualitative interviews around the natural environment and how it is accessed and understood by those living in and around Nova Contagem 3. Narrative walks using a phone application to record thoughts on, and images of, the natural environment in which the participants live4. A small survey measuring asset stocks, and exploring understandings of assets, how they interact with each other for those living, working, or frequently visiting Nova Contagem1] Using land cover maps, the three case study areas were classed as containing varying combinations of biophysical structures. Satellite images were then used to further interrogate the case study areas to identify and group biophysical structures according to their dominating structures (e.g. scale, level of management, presence of water). Site walkovers were undertaken during which the presence of biophysical structure types were verified and subjectively translated into service providing units (SPUs; see Table below). This translation activity is undertaken as a way to link biophysical structures with land use cover typologies. ES data from the literature (e.g. MEA, 2005, UK NEA 2011, Gomez-Baggethun et al., 2013, Lundy and Wade 2011), combined with field notes, were used to identify the potential ES and goods delivered by each urban SPU.2] Some 26 qualitative semi-structured interviews were undertaken in the home of residents within the communities studied and were recorded and then transcribed. Typically lasting 40 minutes to an hour, they covered issues such as how the participant came to live in the barrio, what they most liked about it and most disliked, what they thought of the local public parks and squares, of the countryside surrounding the barrio and of the reservoir and other blue space. It sought to understand how the participants engaged with the environment and how they understood nature and what it meant to them in terms of wellbeing. The qualitative interviews were undertaken in 3 growing urban communities, with 10 interviews in in Nova Contagem (6 women and 4 men), and 16 in two smaller urban areas which had expanded on the banks of the Vargem das Flores reservoir (7 women and 9 men). Visitor interviews were also undertaken with people visiting the Vagen de Flores (VF) Reservoir 11 (5 women and 6 men). 3] In addition to the qualitative interviews a selection of the same respondents were also undertook a walking interview (9) through their urban environment. The walking narratives used a smart phone application, which allowed images of ‘likes’ and ‘dislikes’ to be recorded. 4] A questionnaire survey (395 respondents) sought to get some measure of the assets of those questioned – human, social, financial and natural and the extent to which they valued the natural environment as an asset. The quantitative interviews allowed associations to be draw between different assets, and logistic regression modelling was used to provide a robust assessment of how different assets impact on each other and what predicts, for example, greater engagement with the natural environment. It sought to analyse the data patterns and differences by gender and ‘income’.