Uncovering Urban Green Space (Dis)Investment Through Cultural Ecosystem Service Potential: A Case Study of Szeged, Hungary

Climate change and rapid urbanization are underscoring the need for urban green spaces that offer a wide range of ecosystem services, which can provide irreplaceable benefits to residents. Cultural services are the ones that affect visitation patterns the most and may be the easiest to influence via investment or neglect. The main aim of this research was to evaluate and cluster the urban green spaces of a Hungarian city, Szeged, based on their potential cultural ecosystem service values, to uncover their investment and management differences. Regarding the methodology, we performed three field observations on each of the selected 19 sample areas, assessing their potential cultural ecosystem services and visitation patterns. The green spaces were evaluated on a total of 36 criteria, which we analysed using principal component analysis, factor analysis, and cluster analysis. As a result of our research, we defined four main urban green space clusters: city centre squares, suburban playgrounds, central parks, and informal green spaces. The differences in their potential cultural ecosystem service values significantly affect their usage patterns and are indicators of investment inequities. Understanding and tackling the uncovered environmental injustices requires a complex assessment of the local urban fabric along with its usage and management practices.