The Influence of Values on Preferences for Ecosystem Services in Urban Green Spaces: Evidence from Chinese Residents

Urban green spaces (UGS) play a pivotal role in enhancing urban resilience and livability through providing diverse ecosystem services. A nuanced understanding of residents’ preferences for urban green space ecosystem services (UGES), along with the underlying drivers, is fundamental to advancing human-centered and socially equitable UGS management. Values deep-seated beliefs that shape individual cognition and behavior profoundly influence human ecosystem service interactions and offer a critical theoretical lens for interpreting differences in service preferences. Drawing on 1,080 responses from a nationwide online survey, this study examines how value orientations influence residents’ preferences for UGES in China. Findings indicate that personal values exhibit significantly stronger predictive power on UGES preferences than demographic variables commonly examined in prior studies. These findings serve both a theoretical foundation and a strategic guide for achieving equity, efficiency, and human-centered approaches in UGS governance. Further analyses reveal that self-transcendence values drive preferences for regulating and cultural services, whereas self-enhancement values are more strongly associated with preferences for provisioning services. These findings suggest that prosocial and egoistic value orientations underpin preferences for ecosystem services with public versus individual benefit attributes, respectively. Thus, preferences for UGES may be regarded as external manifestations of individuals’ underlying value structures. Notably, contrasting value orientations conservation and openness to change are both positively associated with preferences for all three UGES categories, suggesting that diverse values coexist and interact synergistically in shaping demand for green spaces. In the context of generational change and evolving value paradigms, younger generations exhibit preference patterns that integrate ecological benefits with lifestyle aspirations, underscoring the need for UGS planning that embraces diversity and inclusivity. Overall, this study highlights the central role of value orientations in shaping residents’ preferences for UGES. Integrating value-based perspectives into green space development can significantly enhance subjective preference management and value-oriented governance.