What Nature-Based Flood Protection Solutions Are Best Perceived by People? Lessons from Field Research in Czechia

Authors addressed the public preferences and awareness of the implementation of NbS and types of cultivated crops (TCC) that may be used to mitigate pluvial floods by exploring preferences of the residents in the Oleška river basin in Czechia. An image-assisted questionnaire survey and a discrete choice experiment were used, with focus also on residents’ willingness to pay. Among the 9 examined NbS (linear and point) and 3 TCC, afforestation and grassing along the stream were best perceived by residents from the purely aesthetical point of view and, together with dry polders, they were considered the most relevant solution for flood mitigation. Based on the discrete choice experiment, linear and point NbS are preferred over TCC measures.