Investigating preferences for soil desealing: insights from citizens for sustainable urban planning in Parma, Italy

Soil desealing is a relevant adaptation action to mitigate the adverse effects of climate change and soil consumption. Recognising the importance of citizens’ involvement towards shared decision processes, surveys have been used to assess citizens’ perceptions and preferences, juxtaposing local and expert knowledge. Stated-choice experiments represent valuable instruments to gain insight into the preferences for the attributes of choice alternatives that describe hypothetical choice situations. While extensively used in the broader sustainability field, they are less employed within climate adaptation, soil desealing and participatory urban planning. This study investigates preferences on soil desealing in Parma, studying the participants’ ‘willingness to accept a certain desealing intervention’ and its procedural, technical, and formal characteristics. To objective is to help draft guidelines for urban planners and policy-makers to align them with the citizens. The results – joined with the socio-demographic characteristics and environmental attitude of the sample – show that, despite a favourable approach towards soil desealing, interventions that directly benefit summer temperatures and new high and medium-rise vegetation are preferred. The desealed area percentage and rainfall absorption are also valued. Citizens’ active involvement, however, does not appear to play a role, suggesting a possible favour towards, at least partially, technocratic approaches.