Motivations to visit and perceived barriers to accessing the cultural ecosystem services offered by urban lakes

Fricke RM, Gawel JE, Shinneman A, Martin L, Bogstie S, Olden JD. 2026. Motivations to visit and perceived barriers to accessing the cultural ecosystem services offered by urban lakes. Lake Reserv Manage. XXX–XXX.Urban blue-green spaces (lakes with adjacent park space) provide numerous cultural ecosystem services to human populations, yet these contributions are infrequently measured and can be underappreciated in public resource planning. Here, we asked active and potential visitors to public urban blue-green spaces in western Washington, USA, to rate how likely they are to use activities and amenities at blue-green spaces and to identify problems or barriers that may prevent them from using blue-green spaces more. We collected data across 2 surveys, one disseminated primarily in person at 18 local lakeside parks in summer 2021 (n = 667), and the other via a summer 2022 Qualtrics email campaign that intended to capture a population sample reflecting local demographics (n = 756). Our factor analysis of blue-green space users’ ratings of their likelihood to participate in different blue-green space activities identified 3 latent factors: the activities respondents participate in, the ecosystem where these activities occur (lake versus park), and whether these activities are more social or solitary. These explained 24%, 12%, and 8% of variance in responses, respectively. In addition, survey responses suggest that barriers such as limited public transportation availability and water safety disproportionately affect underrepresented sociodemographic groups. Cumulatively, these findings will support lake-specific improvements in communication and accessibility by county water resource management partners.