Data for: "Greener, Wilder, Better: Valuing Complexity and Diversity in Urban Riparian Areas"

Description:This dataset contains the survey data and experimental design files from a discrete choice experiment (DCE) assessing public preferences and willingness to pay for biodiversity-enhancing interventions in urban riparian areas in Poland. Data were collected in 2024 through a computer-assisted web interview (CAWI) with a stratified sample of 796 adult residents living in Polish cities (>20,000 inhabitants) with adjacent river infrastructure.

The dataset includes:

Choice experiment responses for 48 unique hypothetical riparian management scenarios (blocked into 3 sets), covering eight ecologically grounded attributes: vegetation type, landscape complexity, vegetation cover, species diversity, presence of dead wood, management intensity, proportion of impermeable surfaces, and annual tax payment.

Socio-demographic variables (age, gender, education, income, municipality size, region).

Recreational use patterns for urban rivers (visit frequency, preferred activities).

Preference validation data from a direct attribute ranking exercise.

Survey design metadata, including attribute levels, coding structure, and choice card allocations.

The data are anonymised and provided in .mat format (Matlab), with accompanying codebook and attribute descriptions to enable replication of the analyses presented in the manuscript.

Potential uses:

Replication of mixed logit and willingness-to-pay space models.

Meta-analysis of urban ecosystem service valuation studies.

Comparative analysis of biodiversity valuation in Central and Eastern Europe.