Designing a Landscape for Better Mental Well-Being of Urban Forest Experiencers

Dear Colleagues,

The ongoing global urbanization creates places for people surrounded by environments on built-up lands. Urban forests form a first interface for people to interact in this anthroposphere. Forest landscapes from downtown to remote rural areas are frequently designed by urban planners as a nature-based solution to cope with issues associated with a growing population. Urban residents and frequent city visitors experience urban stress, associated with countless mental pressures in their everyday lives. The COVID-19 pandemic has increased the stress levels of people worldwide. Urban forests present a way to improve mental health. Therefore, managing human well-being goals through urban forest landscapes is an important expansion from goals through to ecosystem services. Thus, the proposed Special Issue aims to expand the science behind the innocent enjoyment of scenic beauty to multiple functions that may bring well-being to experiencers. Practical solutions are needed to foster and improve mental well-being with landscape design at minimal cost. 

Dr. Hongxu Wei
Prof. Dr. Richard J. Hauer
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Forests is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.