Welcome to Greenmapper!

Join our scientific experiment. Map and support your attractive, valuable nature and landscape areas online. Together we learn how to improve nature and landscape governance.

MAP

Map your favorite nature-related places

JOIN

Join communities to help make a difference

SUPPORT

Support your areas as a friend

Show your love for your favorite pieces of nature

GREENMAPPER

Share nature related places you love

Do you have specific places with green nature or water that you highly appreciate? Day-to-day nature in a park near your home? A mind-blowing nature spot you’ve only visited once? Please share your places at Greenmapper! Why? Let us explain.

WISE DECISIONS

In our rapidly developing and globalising world many developments impact on natural areas and green space. Roads and houses are built, agriculture and mining activities claim ever more land, park managers have to make strategic choices on what and what not to preserve, and so on. To make wise decisions in regard to nature, it is essential to have sound and detailed knowledge on how many people appreciate which green and natural areas, and for what reasons. But where to find such knowledge?
Furthermore, when land-use decisions need to be taken, it is logical to let people who love the natural areas have a voice. Since they can then express their opinions, and they can give support of various kinds. But how to realize this involvement? How can fans of the same area connect to each other? And how can land-owners, policy makers, nature managers, and project developers reach the fans?

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THE DOUBLE MISSION

We at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands have a double mission with Greenmapper. First, we want to strengthen both science and policy with better data on the appreciation of nature and landscapes. For this we are building a crowd-sourced Greenmapper Attractive Nature Database. Our aim is to have 125.000 representative respondents from 50 countries marking nature places: at local, regional, national, and global levels to allow for serious analysis and policy support at all levels.
Second, we want to make it easy and normal for fans of areas to be reachable online. For this, we develop the Greenmapper Landscape Friend platform. We aim for 1 million people being reachable as an online friend of their favorite nature areas and landscapes, to digitally revolutionize nature and landscape governance. Help us in our mission and join in! We will do the science. And together with our partners, we will work on improving the governance of nature and landscapes. Please note: Your personal data remain private with Greenmapper.

Map attractive nature and become a landscape friend

Register as a landscape friend for one or more attractive places

Register as landscape friend for one or more attractive places
✓ Mark 4 attractive nature places: local, region, nation, globe
✓ Non-anonymous – email and address known to Greenmapper
✓ Others can reach you as friend of your area, but only anonymously via Greenmapper
✓ 5-8 minutes
✓ Mark up to 16 places later on

Start
Register as a nature or landscape management organization

✓ Mark the area(s) you own or manage
✓ See how many people marked your area
✓ Reach out to these fans through the platform
✓ Build communities upon your areas

Start

Projects

We are currently working on different projects together with societal organizations. One major project is the Interreg project FREIIA together with island partners in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Netherlands and France. Another project is the ‘Innovative financial instruments for landscape governance’ project together with the National Park of Texel and Staatsbosbeheer (a.o.).

FREIIANationaal Park Duinen van Texel

Publications

Daams, M.N., Sijtsma, F.J. and Veneri, P. (2019), Mixed Monetary and Non-Monetary Valuation of Attractive Urban Green Space: A Case Study Using Amsterdam House Prices. Ecological Economics 166 (2019) 106430

F.J. Sijtsma, N. Mehnen, P. Angelstam and J. Muñoz-Rojas (2019). Multi-scale mapping of cultural ecosystem services in a socio-ecological landscape: A case study of the international Wadden Sea Region. Landscape Ecology 34(7), 1751-1768. DOI :10.1007/s10980-019-00841-8

S.S.K. Scholte, M.N. Daams, H. Farjon, F.J. Sijtsma, A.J.A. van Teeffelen and P.H. Verburg (2018). Mapping recreation as an ecosystem service: considering scale, interregional differences and the influence of physical attributes. Landscape and Urban Planning​, 175 (2018), pp. 149-160. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2018.03.011

M.N. Daams and F.J.Sijtsma, (2017). How Green Do We Want to Live in 2100? Lessons learned from the homes of the present‐day rich. (Special Issue Nature-Based Solutions and their Relation to Urban Resilience) Buildings, 2017, 7(4), 97, pp.1-17. doi:10.3390/buildings7040097 http://www.mdpi.com/2075-5309/7/4/97 (open access)

F.J. Sijtsma, W.G. van der Bilt, A. van Hinsberg, B. de Knegt, C.M. van der Heide, H.Leneman, R. Verburg (2017). Planning nature in urbanized countries. An analysis of monetary and non-monetary impacts of conservation policy scenarios in the Netherlands. Heliyon, 3 (2017), e00280, pp.1-30. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2017.e00280

Bijker R.A. and Sijtsma F.J. (2017). A portfolio of natural places: Using a participatory GIS tool to compare the appreciation and use of green spaces inside and outside urban areas by urban residents. Landscape and Urban Planning 158 (2017) pp. 155-165. DOI: 0.1016/j.landurbplan.2016.10.004

Davis, N., Daams, M., Sijtsma, F., & van Hinsberg, A. (2016). How deep is your love – of nature? A psychological and spatial analysis of the depth of feelings towards Dutch nature areas. Applied Geography, 77, 38-48. DOI: 10.1016/j.apgeog.2016.09.012

Daams, M. N., Sijtsma, F. J., & van der Vlist, A. J. (2016). The Effect of Natural Space on Nearby Property Prices: Accounting for Perceived Attractiveness. Land Economics, 92(3), 389-410. DOI: 10.3368/le.92.3.389

R.A. Bijker, N.Mehnen, F.J. Sijtsma and M.N. Daams (2014), Managing urban wellbeing in rural areas: The potential role of online communities to improve the Financing and governance of highly valued nature areas. Land, 3(2), pp437-459.(In special issue: ’A New Urbanization Land Change Continuum’)

De Vries, S., A. Buijs, F. Langers, H. Farjon, A. van Hinsberg, F.J. Sijtsma (2013). Measuring the attractiveness of Dutch landscapes: identifying national hotspots using Google Maps. Applied Geography. Volume 45, December 2013, Pages 220-229.

Pellenbarg, P.H., F.J. Sijtsma and P.J.M. van Steen (2013). Perceived place attractivity based on green water and nature values. TESG, 104 (2), pp. 255-257.

Sijtsma, F.J., H. Farjon, S. van Tol, A. van Hinsberg, P. van Kampen and Arjen Buijs (2013). Evaluation of landscape changes – Enriching the economist’s toolbox with the Hotspotindex. In: W. Heijman, & C. M. J. v. d. Heide (Eds.), The Economic Value of Landscapes. Chapter 8, pp 136-164. London: Routledge.

Sijtsma, F., Broersma, L., Daams, M., Mehnen, N., Oostra, M., & Sietses, A. (2014). A socio-economic analysis of the international Wadden area: Analysis carried out through the Wadden Sea Long-Term Ecosystem Research (WaLTER) and University of Groningen. (345 ed.) Groningen: Urban and Regional Studies Institute / University of Groningen.

Sijtsma, F., & Daams, M. (2014). How near are urban inhabitants to appreciated natural areas? An exploration of Hotspotmonitor based well-being indicators. Results for the Netherlands, Germany, and Denmark.: Report at the request of the OECD; supporting the How’s life in your region? study. (348 ed.) Groningen: Urban and Regional Studies Institute / University of Groningen.

Potenties van de Hotspotmonitor om de graadmeter Landschap te verfijnen – F. Langers, A.E. Buijs, S. de Vries, J.M.J. Farjon, A. van Hinsberg, P. van Kampen, S. van Tol en Frans J. Sijtsma (2013). WOt Werkdocument 321. Alterra – Wageningen.

Sijtsma, F.J. en M.N. Daams, 2013.Wie waardeert welke natuurgebieden waarom? Over wat natuurbeheer kan leren van de markteconomie. De Levende Natuur, 114(2), pp.46-50.

F.J. Sijtsma (m.m.v. M.N. Daams en J.C. Hoekstra) Waardering en financiering van de Nederlandse natuur – Argumenten voor grootschalige innovatie in private financiering van natuur, onder blijvende eindverantwoordelijkheid van het Rijk. Voorbereidende voor het advies ‘Onbeperkt Houdbaar: Naar een Robuust natuurbeleid‘ van de Raad voor de Leefomgeving en Infrastructuur (RLI).

F.J. Sijtsma, M.N. Daams, H. Farjon and A.E. Buijs, (2012). Deep feelings around a shallow coast. A spatial analysis of tourism jobs and the attractivity of nature in the Dutch Waddenarea. Ocean and Coastal Management, 68 (2012), November, pp138-148. (DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ocecoaman.2012.05.018)

Open access database

Explore Greenmapper data

We surveyed over 15.000 people in The Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, Switzerland,
Italy, Brazil and South-Korea. We share our data to support academic research and policy making. Please contact us if you would like to analyze the gathered data.

Contact us

Questions or remarks? Feel free to contact us!