Utilization of urban agriculture to enhance urban sustainability: investigating people's heterogeneous preferences for proximity to urban agriculture through a choice experiment.

The purpose of this study is to investigate people's preferences for the geographical distance between residential locales and two types of urban agricultural land, namely, traditional agricultural land and a more complex and intensive agricultural landscape called "satoyama" and to evaluate the heterogeneity in people's preferences. The enhancement of urban sustainability is a crucial issue in sustainable development that can be potentially improved by urban agriculture. However, urban residents' perceptions and preferences regarding the distance between urban agricultural land and their locales remain unclear, and concrete measures to maintain and expand urban agriculture are still vague. Therefore, an online survey and choice experiment was conducted, with respondents from Ishikawa Prefecture in Japan, who are assumed to be familiar with the agricultural context. Mixed logit and latent class logit models were employed to evaluate urban residents' heterogeneous perceptions and preferences. The results reveal that: (1) urban residents generally prefer urban agricultural land in areas away from their residence; (2) preferences are diverse, and those who are relatively young, with higher income, and more environmentally conscious favor dwelling near urban agricultural land; (3) there is a quadratic relationship between the distance connecting people's locales and urban agricultural land, and thus, the most desirable distance exists; and (4) there is a difference in the proximity that people prefer between traditional agricultural land and satoyama. Based on the results, policy implications for urban planners and policymakers include implementing urban agriculture in peri-urban areas and handling a tradeoff between residential opposition and the intensity of urban agriculture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]