Economic valuation of street-level urban greening: A case study from an evolving mixed-use area in Berlin

Although there have been many studies on the economic valuation of urban green (recreational value of urban parks, ecosystem services provided by green roofs), preferences for certain types of street-level greening measures, such as increasing street-level vegetation and trees or green initiative programming, are largely unknown. To begin to put a monetary value on these aspects of urban green, we use a discrete choice experiment to explore people’s preferences and willingness to pay for green features in an urban Neighborhood Management development zone in Berlin. Data was collected through an online survey distributed in the neighborhood. While the resulting sample was not representative of Berlin as a whole, the results from a latent class logit model indicate that our respondents strongly value some of the green attributes presented in the survey, especially street greening. This analysis can be used to guide decision-making regarding urban greening and green building practices at both policy- and project-level.