Hot routes in urban forests: The impact of multiple landscape features on recreational use intensity

Gerstenberg, Tina; Baumeister, Christoph F.; Schraml, Ulrich; Plieninger, Tobías

doi:10.1016/j.landurbplan.2020.103888

Cited by 40 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 54 publications

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“…According to our analysis of risk passages, one particular infrastructure is especially prone to evoke conflicts: crossroads in intensively visited forest areas. We, therefore, agree with Gerstenberg et al (2020) suggestion: "Maintaining low stand densities at crossroads may contribute to a better visual overview and avoid visitor collisions. "…”

Section: Recommendationssupporting

confidence: 87%

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“The Forest Has Become Our New Living Room” – The Critical Importance of Urban Forests During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Weinbrenner

Breithut

Hebermehl

et al. 2021

Front. For. Glob. Change

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Out of nowhere the COVID-19 pandemic has turned people’s everyday lives upside down. Public places in urban areas were closed. However, leaving the house for recreational and leisure purposes in nature was still allowed in Germany – even during lockdown in March and April of 2020. As a result, urban forests have gained unprecedented importance – not only for recreational activities, but also for maintaining social contacts and coping with psychological stress. With these diverse requirements, many people have appropriated urban forests in new and changed ways. Using the example of the forests around the southern German city of Freiburg, a team of researchers from the Department of Societal Change at the Forest Research Institute Baden-Württemberg (FVA) carried out a mixed-method study to investigate how these appropriation practices are working and to shed some light on the relevance of forests for city residents in these circumstances. In addition to the statistical analysis of an online questionnaire, ethnographic observation data and Instagram posts were analyzed. This methodological triangulation was carried out in order to purposefully combine the strengths of each method while at the same time reducing the intrinsic biases and blind spots. This resulted in a better understanding of the importance of urban forest during this extraordinary period of time. Our results show that urban forests became critically important during the lockdown. Many visitors appropriated the forest with very different motives and for different purposes. For many visitors, the forest provided the same functions during this extraordinary period that public spaces otherwise do. The forest was not only consumed as a natural space, but also constructed by visitors as a social space. We can illustrate how this social meaning was both negotiated and reproduced. To provide an abstraction of our results, we refer to the theory of spatial appropriation as well as to new approaches in sociology of space that conceptualize space as a network of social relations. These results give rise to broader questions for future research projects, recreational forest research, forest and health, and forest planning.

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Section: Recommendationssupporting

confidence: 87%

“…To further understand crowding perception in times of stark increases in forest visits, future studies could include additional methods which help gaining deeper insights in activity patterns like mapping tools (cf. Gerstenberg et al, 2020) or tracking data, e.g., from app providers (cf. Venter et al, 2020).…”

Section: Perceptions Of Conflicts and Crowdingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“The Forest Has Become Our New Living Room” – The Critical Importance of Urban Forests During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Weinbrenner

Breithut

Hebermehl

et al. 2021

Front. For. Glob. Change

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“…With all these data, our method calculates the catchment areas of every green space as the population living a maximum of a 15-min walk away using only safe roads without barriers. Our results confirm previous findings [13,14,54] that indicated network analysis is an effective approach to investigate interactions between variables. To achieve satisfactory results, we outlined the necessity of verifying the effectiveness of the available dataset and, eventually, editing it.…”

Section: Highlights Of the Methods In Considering The Complexity Of The Ugssupporting

confidence: 92%

Complex Systems Thinking Approach to Urban Greenery to Provide Community-Tailored Solutions and Enhance the Provision of Cultural Ecosystem Services

2021

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This paper presents a GIS-based method for supporting local administrations in the design of urban green areas while taking into account the complexity of the whole system. The proposed method merges the criteria of availability, accessibility, attractiveness, usability, and suitability in a multi-level approach (city, neighborhood green area) to assist in the selection of which services within green areas to enhance from those requested by citizens. The case study is an urban park in a medium-sized Italian city (Perugia). The results demonstrate that the available urban green spaces amount to 34.7 m2 per person, but only 24% of citizens have adequate access to a green area providing at least an adequate level of service, and 18% of them are without access to any appropriately equipped green area. Furthermore, citizens have limited knowledge of their city’s urban green system as a whole. Indeed, 41% of the requested services were already available in other accessible green areas with attractive and readily available dedicated equipment. These areas were suggested as alternative solutions. To achieve a complex systems approach, our results suggest observing similar systems with various and adaptable scales and studying them as open networks composed of heterogeneous internal and external variables.

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“…Recreation is often an underlying motivation for interaction with urban green spaces (Krajter Ostoić et al 2020a). Walking is universally the most common recreational activity in forests (Roovers et al 2002, Arnberger 2006, Gerstenberg et al 2020, Krajter Ostoić et al 2020a, Šodková et al 2020. Visiting Forest Park Grmoščica to spend quality family time was a priority activity for most respondents (Figure 2).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Who Are the Visitors of Forest Park Grmoščica and What Are Their Needs? Results of Quantitative Exploratory Survey

Kičić

Marin

Vuletić

et al. 2020

SEEFOR

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Forest Park Grmoščica is an important part of urban green infrastructure for the citizens of the western part of the city of Zagreb. To enhance the quality of management of the forest park to the satisfaction of its daily users, it is important to know their socio-demographic characteristics, visiting behaviour, recreational activities, as well as their perception of the forest park. The survey for users of the Forest Park Grmoščica was developed within the INTERREG DANUBE’s URBforDAN project. It was filled out by visitors of the forest park using on-site face-to-face method and was also available online. The results of the survey provided information about the users of the Forest Park Grmoščica, their socio-demographic data, visiting habits and perception. Also, the typology of users was given depending on the activities they undertake in the forest park (cyclists, joggers, visitors who spend time in Forest Park Grmoščica with their families, and pet walkers) and their main characteristics. The obtained data can improve the management of the Forest Park Grmoščica in such a way that it fulfils its social and ecological function and is adapted to the needs of its users.

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Hot routes in urban forests: The impact of multiple landscape features on recreational use intensity

Cited by 40 publications

References 54 publications

“The Forest Has Become Our New Living Room” – The Critical Importance of Urban Forests During the COVID-19 Pandemic

“The Forest Has Become Our New Living Room” – The Critical Importance of Urban Forests During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Complex Systems Thinking Approach to Urban Greenery to Provide Community-Tailored Solutions and Enhance the Provision of Cultural Ecosystem Services

Who Are the Visitors of Forest Park Grmoščica and What Are Their Needs? Results of Quantitative Exploratory Survey

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