Yards as Critical Urban Green Spaces: Understanding Residential Yardscape Uses and Preferences Through an Interdisciplinary Lens

Abstract

Residential yards herein referred to as yardscapes are individually owned and maintained micro landscapes. More abstractly, though, yardscapes are amalgamations where individual, social, and ecological forces coalesce to form complex socio-ecological systems. In the United States alone, yardscapes cover an area the size of the state of Georgia and are the single largest irrigated crop (Milesi et al., 2005). Yardscapes are an obsession for many, an annoyance for some, and actively harmful for others, depending upon one’s perspective (Robbins, 2007). These ubiquitous pieces of the urban ecological landscape have received a considerable amount of attention in the past across three main areas, sociological, psychological, and ecological. From a sociological perspective, the form our yardscapes take is largely determined by current and historical normative influences of what a yardscape should look like (Nassauer, 1995; Nassauer et al., 2009). Norms influence yardscapes through injunctive norms (what ought to be), which describes the general form and function that yardscapes should take (Larson & Brumand, 2014), which generally encourages the preservation of the status quo i.e., yards dominated by large areas of turfgrass. Yardscapes also are influenced by descriptive norms (what is), which influences maintenance regimes and associated behaviors (e.g., fertilizing) to keep a yardscape looking as intended (Fielding et al., 2016; Martini et al., 2015). Yardscapes and associated norms are also reinforced by policies and ordinances that help to maintain the status quo across aesthetics, maintenance, vegetation, and uses (Larson & Brumand, 2014; Sisser et al., 2016). Norms, therefore, are a significant factor when trying to understand yardscapes for both a) the types of yardscapes we observe and b) the subsequent behaviors performed to maintain them. Individual differences, both demographically and psychologically, are also significant drivers of yardscape type choices and behaviors. Sociodemographic factors (i.e., including income, age, and years of residence) have predicted both yardscape type preferences, for example, older and wealthier individuals preferring lush oasis style yards in Phoenix, Arizona (Larson et al., 2017; van den Berg & van Winsum-Westra, 2010) alongside specific yard maintenance behaviors such as individuals with children and pets fertilizing less frequently (Kurz & Baudains, 2012). In addition to sociodemographic factors, environmental attitudes, specifically those focused on stewardship and preservation, have been found to promote pro-environmental behaviors in yardscapes. Individuals with higher preservation and stewardship orientations were more likely to install rain barrels and plant native species (Gao et al., 2016; Knuth et al., 2018). There is also evidence that an individual’s personal need for structure (PNS) can influence the type of yardscape one prefers. Individuals high in PNS have been found to prefer highly manicured and regimented yards (van den Berg & van Winsum-Westra, 2010). Sociodemographic and psychological factors influence individuals along the same two lines as norms driving broad yard typology preferences and specific behaviors. Ecosystem services (ES) and disservices (ED) have risen to become a prominent framework to understand the benefits of landscape-level socio-ecological systems. Although traditionally applied to rural and exurban landscapes, recent work focuses on applying the ES framework, including ED in urban areas (Ruckelshaus et al., 2015; von Döhren & Haase, 2015). ES in urban areas encompass the three main ES sections of cultural services (CES), provisioning services (PES), and regulation and maintenance services (RES) (Haines-Young & Potschin, 2018). Although several studies have investigated homeowner uses and features of their yards (Dahmus & Nelson, 2014a, among others), few have specifically analyzed ES in yardscapes (see Larson et al., 2016). From this body of work, ES in yardscapes could include a variety of services, for example, CES in the form of recreational opportunities (Dahmus & Nelson, 2014b; Dou et al., 2017), PES from edible gardens (Kamiyama et al., 2016), and CES in the form of carbon sequestration from vegetation (Monteiro, 2017). ES then have been applied in moderate success to urban landscapes, and initial evidence suggests their applicability in yardscapes. Despite the growth of research focused on yardscapes over the past decade, most scholarship still approaches these complex landscapes from a singular empirical or methodological perspective. This lack of interdisciplinarity has led to the current body of work being disjointed with some perspectives overrepresented in the literature (e.g., biophysical attributes, social norms). This dissertation takes an interdisciplinary approach to investigate yardscapes. It brings to bear theories and methods from sociology, psychology, and ecology to understand these complex amalgamations of historical and current societal norms, individual differences, and floral and faunal communities from a holistic socio-ecological systems perspective. The work attempts to confirm, fill in gaps, and propose future work in this area relative to the current body of literature.