Study title

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.The study is part of the Rural Economy and Land Use (RELU) programme. This work examined recreation in an area of lowland rural landscape in Norfolk, England: the catchment of the River Ant, part of the Norfolk Broads. It used a questionnaire survey (both online and in-person) to gather information on the location preferences of those undertaking recreation in the area, including assessment of the importance of various landscape factors in location choice. Ordnance Survey mapping and Google Maps were used to collect spatial responses from participants at a level of precision not obtainable from postcodes and named locations. Spatial responses include point locations, routes, and areas of interest. (The UK Data Archive study includes both questionnaire data and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) map data.) Although there is considerable interest at present in defining and quantifying the benefits humans derive from the environment, this knowledge is more advanced for some types of benefits than others. Benefits of a personal and subjective nature, such as cultural and aesthetic enjoyment of the landscape, are generally less well understood and therefore less well accounted for. In the UK, enjoyment of the landscape often takes place in countryside areas, particularly on a casual basis such as a short walk, and while previous work has attempted to capture this type of benefit it has often been on the basis of simple factors such as types of land cover or the amount or density of footpaths. Better understanding of which aspects of the environment or landscape contribute most to recreational enjoyment will allow these aspects to be protected and enhanced in future policy decisions. Further information for this study may be found through the ESRC Research Catalogue webpage: The development of sustainable, multi-functional landscapes in rural areas: a case study of a Norfolk Broads river...