Search Results (4)

Urban forests, as a form of green infrastructure, play a vital role in enhancing urban resilience, environmental health, and quality of life. However, users perceive and utilize these spaces in diverse ways. This study aims to identify latent perception types among urban forest visitors and analyze their behavioral, demographic, and policy-related characteristics in Incheon Metropolitan City (Republic of Korea). Using latent class analysis, four distinct visitor types were identified: multipurpose recreationists, balanced relaxation seekers, casual forest users, and passive forest visitors. Multipurpose recreationists preferred active physical use and sports facilities, while balanced relaxation seekers emphasized emotional well-being and cultural experiences. Casual users engaged lightly with forest settings, and passive forest visitors exhibited minimal recreational interest. Satisfaction with forest elements such as vegetation, facilities, and management conditions varied across visitor types and age groups, especially among older adults. These findings highlight the need for perception-based green infrastructure planning. Policy recommendations include expanding accessible neighborhood green spaces for aging populations, promoting community-oriented events, and offering participatory forest programs for youth engagement. By integrating user segmentation into urban forest planning and governance, this study contributes to more inclusive, adaptive, and sustainable management of urban green infrastructure. Full article

The increasing density of cities poses a huge threat to public health, so pocket parks with high accessibility and flexibility have become potential resources to promote public health. In this context, the ways in which pocket parks can improve public health have become the focus and challenge of current research. This study selected 10 different types of pocket parks in Fuzhou, China, as the research subjects and collected real-time psychological and physiological data of participants by watching videos of the sample plots. The aim was to explore the impact of the environmental characteristics of pocket parks on the psychological and physiological responses of recreational users. The results of the study showed that: (1) the environmental characteristics of pocket parks significantly affect the psychological and physiological responses of recreationists. Different environmental characteristics can affect recreationists’ emotional state, attention recovery, environmental preferences, and the indicators of IBI, HR, SDNN, RMSSD, pNN50, SCL, and EMG to varying degrees. (2) The environment of pocket parks may encourage recreationists to generate positive psychological benefits when the site is larger and has a higher degree of scenic beauty, and when the space is not effectively confined. A pocket park environment with a low paving ratio, open view, cultural elements, topographic changes, special vegetation and distributing space can also have a positive effect on the psychological benefits of recreationists to a certain extent. Low canopy density and high green visibility can also play a role in suppressing negative emotions. (3) Pocket parks with high levels of depression and off-site disturbance are not conducive to positive physiological responses from recreationists, while pocket parks with high levels of green visibility and beauty and specialized vegetation are more likely to provide health benefits to them. Full article

The ongoing and interactive effects of climate change, overharvesting, and habitat loss on fish and fisheries impacts a wide array of stakeholders who rely on access to sustainable fish populations for their health, recreation, well-being, and income. Successful responses to these threats will require the involvement of stakeholders in co-developing solutions. Understanding the socio-psychological characteristics of these diverse stakeholders, including their environmental attitudes and behaviors, can potentially improve management support and effectiveness across and within these groups. Past research has focused on climate impacts and adaptation efforts in commercial fisheries, but less is known about climate-related perceptions and attitudes of recreational fishers and other stakeholders such as citizen scientists. This study investigated how pro-environmental attitudes (PEAs), pro-environmental behaviors (PEBs), and climate change concerns vary among fisheries-based recreationists based on activity type (recreational fishing, fish monitoring for citizen science) and specialization level. Among stakeholders, citizen scientists (fish counters) exhibited the strongest PEBs, followed by more specialized recreational fishers. Citizen scientists also had stronger PEAs than recreational fishers and non-fisher/non-citizen scientists, but there were no significant differences in PEAs across specialization levels. Citizen scientists showed greater concern for climate change than recreational fishers and non-fisher/non-citizen scientists. However, respondents overall showed greater concern for “the environment” than for climate change. Our results suggest that both activity type and specialization level are important considerations when developing strategies to promote pro-environmental behaviors and climate concerns and that communication frames centered on healthy ecosystems may be more effective with some stakeholders than those focused solely on climate change. We discuss implications for building public support of climate engagement efforts and sustainable, climate-resilient fisheries. Full article

Like many other states in south-east USA, Alabama is blessed with a high percentage of natural areas. These areas support vital nature tourism and the outdoor recreation sector. This study was undertaken at the Bankhead National Forest (BNF) and Sipsey Wilderness Area (SWA), significant hubs for outdoor recreation in northwestern Alabama. The goal of this study was to collect baseline information that could be used to develop tools and strategies for increasing the diversity of users participating in outdoor recreation at BNF/SWA. A pretested questionnaire was administered to visitors at eight outdoor recreation sites in the BNF/SWA. Adults encountered at study locations were invited, after their visit, to participate in the study. The study found that (a) the majority of visitors to the BNF/SWA were Caucasians and the least encountered race was African American; (b) the most common reason for visiting BNF/SWA was for family outings, whereas activities with friends or coworkers were the second most important reason for visiting; (c) hiking (39.6%), camping (29.1%), picnicking (23.3%), and horseback riding (22.5%) were the most popular outdoor recreation activities pursued by visitors. It was concluded that a study aimed at identifying the constraints which negatively impact the use of the BNF/SWA by minorities should be a critical step in the process of trying to diversify the BNF/SWA’s user base. Increased efforts must be made to identify the reasons for the low usage of the BNF/SWA by minorities. Full article