Preferences for green spaces and implications on Singapore's policies

Given the planned increase in land supply of parks and nature reserves, the various benefits parks have on human well-being, and the limited land in Singapore, land use for green spaces needs to be carefully balanced. This study explores Singaporeans’ preferences for green spaces using the damage schedule method and the subsequent impacts on policy making. With the pairwise comparison method, the questionnaire includes six pairs of choices where respondents indicate their preferences, and their demographic backgrounds were recorded. Results were analysed using Kendall’s tau correlation coefficient, Kendall’s coefficient of concordance W, and sensitivity analysis. It was found that majority stated parks as their first choice, followed by natural forests, green buildings, and non-green buildings though two groups, the senior aged and secondary education group, deviated from this trend. Reasons to account for these results are given, as well as various recommendations for the government: a) incorporate parks into buildings, b) preserve natural forests as far as possible and, c) retrofit existing buildings with green features.Bachelor of Art