Social and Psychosocial Effects of Urban Green Spaces

More than 50% of the world population now lives in urban areas. The concept of green infrastructure has been developed within the last two decades, and many studies on this topic also focus on human perception, the educational values of urban wilderness as part of urban green, or the social benefits derived from urban gardening. Due to its provision of numerous complementary ecological, economic, and social benefits, green infrastructure not only enables planners to develop multifunctional, innovative, and sustainable places, but also promotes ecosystem and human health, well-being, and provides abiotic, biotic, and cultural functions to advance and contribute to urban sustainability.

Urban green infrastructure, such as as parks, forests, street trees, green roofs, gardens, and cemeteries, is of crucial importance as it improves the quality of life for urban residents and is the main carrier of ecosystem services. Urban green spaces can promote mental and physical health by supporting physical activity and providing psychological relaxation as well as stress alleviation, stimulating social cohesion. Social cohesion involves the interpersonal dynamics and sense of connection among people. As the presence of urban green spaces can encourage positive social interactions, understanding the relationship between social cohesion and urban green space is important for the understanding of holistic approaches to health.

 This Special Issue (SI), “Social and Psychosocial Effects of Urban Green Spaces”, aims to bridge the knowledge gap between urban green spaces and related quantitative as well as qualitative social, psychosocial, and psychologcial effects. By integrating new findings on the function, ecosystem services, and practices of urban green spaces, this SI aims to link the patterns, interactions, functions, and management of urban green spaces at different spatial scales. This SI addresses international research communities, urban ecologists and planners, landscape architects, geographers, psychiologists, biologists, modelers, governance researchers, as well as sociologists dealing with urban and landscape ecology.

The SI focuses on the following questions (and others beyond):

1. People’s perception and use of different urban green spaces.
2. Methods to analyze and evaluate the social and psychosocial effects of urban green spaces.
3. How can cities and their sociocultural, economic, and environmental systems be managed in a way that allows for the production of sustainable cities?
4. Developing a holistic concept of health that includes, for example, social cohesion and sense of place.

Dr. Joachim Rathmann
Guest Editor

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• nature-based solutions
• urban green
• urban blue
• therapeutic landscapes
• ecosystem services
• ecosystem disservices
• nature-based solutions
• sustainable green spaces