Allotment Gardens Contribute to Urban Ecosystem Service: Case Study Salzburg, Austria

Allotment gardens are a vital feature in the urban landscape. They provide a range of ecosystem services (ES) since they combine utility, social meaning, and beauty. Allotment gardens have been deeply embedded in European urban development for almost two hundred years. In many European countries, there is a great and rising interest in allotment gardening in traditional and new forms. Allotment gardens are often not well recognized as a significant part of urban green in planning. Investigations into the ES they provide will help integrate them better in urban planning. This investigation examines in which way urban allotment gardens contribute to ES in a case study in Salzburg, Austria. In this study, 156 allotment gardeners in four allotment associations were surveyed on the role allotment gardens play in recreation, food production, nature experience (learning and teaching about nature), ecological gardening, and environmental behavior. The results show the importance of allotment gardens in recreation and nature experience, while traditional food production is declining. There is an increasing interest in ecological gardening and general environmental awareness among allotment gardeners.