Valuation of Urban Green Spaces using Virtual Reality

Abstract

This paper assesses citizens’ preferences for green infrastructure and compares them across three treatments using a split-sample approach. In the first experiment an online text survey is delivered where the respondents have to make choices between hypothetical choice tasks and the status quo. In the second experiment the respondents have to choose between identical (to the first case) choice tasks, yet in this treatment they are presented as 3D videos and displayed on a computer screen. In the third experiment the respondents experience the scenarios via a 3D immersive environment via a VR Head Mounted Display (HMD). A particular focus is placed on whether VR immersive environments can reduce the task complexity and cognitive burden of the DCE design for the respondents and thus improve the reliability and validity of stated preference results. We aim to quantify the effect of presentation format on the respondents’ choice behaviour using the scale parameter.