Do Assumptions About Cultural Ecosystem Services Hold in the City? An Intersectional PPGIS Assessment of the Natural–Urban Dichotomy in Chile

Cultural ecosystem services (CESs) are increasingly recognized as a key factor in urban wellbeing; however, research has focused mainly on natural and protected areas, leaving their provision in established urban environments largely unexplored, particularly in the Global South. This study tests five underlying assumptions in the CES literature relating to the natural–urban dichotomy: that CESs concentrate in natural rather than urban areas; that protected and formally designated green spaces deliver CESs while informal ones do not; that access is unevenly distributed along intersecting sociodemographic lines; that the perceived quality, safety and size of open spaces govern CES concentration; and that areas of high landscape and natural value are also those most used for outdoor recreation. A participatory GIS-based survey (PPGIS) mapping nine CESs grouped into four operational categories was administered in the commune of Hualpén (Chile), through three sequential campaigns combining open online deployment with targeted fieldwork. Of 162 participants, 68 contributed 723 georeferenced records within the commune. Kernel density estimation identified thirteen hotspots, four of them inside the consolidated urban fabric; 58.8% of urban CESs fell outside the formal green-space system, which per unit area nonetheless reached 163.9 records km−2 against 21.6 records km−2 at the natural pole. Perceived quality and safety tracked CES concentration at the natural pole but showed no such spatial association within the city. Assumptions derived from natural and protected areas are therefore only partially transferable to consolidated urban environments. By locating, quantifying and disaggregating CESs from citizen experiences inside the urban fabric, the study offers planning instruments a route to recognize and safeguard the everyday spaces that already generate cultural wellbeing in Global South cities.