The growing demand for a variety of outdoor recreation pursuits in peri-urban areas evokes the need for effective landscape management strategies based on reliable information about recreationists, their preferences and use of the landscape. Although a variety of methods are available for gathering this information, there is a lack of understanding if and how results from these methods are comparable

The salutary potential of urban greenspace for users’ physical and mental health has been investigated in a large number of empirical studies. Additionally, the pathways by which users derive health benefits from greenspace have been theorised; which include opportunities for psychological restorative experiences, physical activity and social interaction. In this paper, the relationship between health

Trees provide myriad ecosystem services of benefit to urban populations; however, urban development is pressuring existing urban tree coverage. Thus, a pertinent challenge for planners is identifying development scenarios that find synergies between urban growth and the preservation or enhancement of tree canopy coverage. This paper presents the training and validation of a model that predicts changes

The positive effects of urban green spaces on physical and mental health of urban residents have been widely documented. These studies, however, mainly focused their empirical investigations on the developed country context. There is limited knowledge on whether a similar impact occurs in the cities of developing countries. The study aims to explore the relationship between park visits and mental health

As a means of understanding responses to landscape change, the concept of climax thinking proposes that communities resist changes because individuals view their current landscape as in its optimal state. We examined perceptions of past landscape change to help predict support for future change in the context of wind energy in the Chignecto area, Atlantic Canada. Change is this region includes a wind

Urban agriculture contributes to food security and human wellbeing and is associated with a wide range of environmental benefits. In the United Kingdom, a substantial proportion of urban agriculture occurs in allotment gardens, and these are a historically significant part of the landscape. However, allotment land provision has declined significantly since its mid-twentieth century peak. Here, we examine

Green Infrastructure (GI) is defined as a network of natural and semi-natural areas that is strategically designed and managed to deliver a wide range of ecosystem services and to enhance human wellbeing. In Europe, the GI concept has been strongly related to the concepts of multifunctionality, climate change, and green growth, particularly in the last decade, leading to a research and policy agenda

It is through urban biodiversity that the majority of humans experience nature on a daily basis. As cities expand globally, it is increasingly important to understand how biodiversity is shaped by human decisions, institutions, and environments. In some cities, research has documented convergence between high socioeconomic status (SES) and high species diversity. Yet, other studies show that residents

In the context of increasing urbanization, gardens as a form of urban greenspace are an important resource for the psychological restoration of urban dwellers, while underpinning urban biodiversity and delivering ecosystem services. However, the links between restoration, garden type and biodiversity are not fully understood. In this interdisciplinary study we aimed to identify how the self-reported

Road verge gardening is a civic greening practice undertaken by residents, which can contribute to the quantity, diversity and structural complexity of the greenery within the road easement. By understanding the social drivers of verge gardening, we can potentially increase biodiversity, ecosystem function and human amenity. We surveyed residents of single occupancy dwellings in Melbourne, Australia

With agricultural areas covering almost half of European land, proper management of agro-ecosystems is key to achieve the European Union’s environmental and climate objectives. This requires spatially explicit methods and indicators. We developed an approach for the classification of agricultural land by combining two main dimensions i) land cover, using detailed geo-spatialized census data covering

Urban areas contribute to conservation of pollinators, but we lack assessments from the most biodiverse tropical regions in the world. We synthesized studies on urban plant-pollinator interactions across Brazil, compiling 86 studies conducted in urban green spaces that reported 2678 interactions for 519 plant and 337 animal species. We evaluated the spatio-temporal distribution of the data, effects

Ride-sourcing services are getting more popular each year, and their markets are growing. Much has been speculated, but not much has been tested regarding the impacts of ride-sourcing services on the transportation system. In this study, we examine the relationship between ride-sourcing services and vehicle ownership of households, by using the most up-to-date (2017) national household travel survey

Varied categorisations of residential distance to bluespace in population health studies make comparisons difficult. Using survey data from eighteen countries, we modelled relationships between residential distance to blue spaces (coasts, lakes, and rivers), and self-reported recreational visits to these environments at least weekly, with penalised regression splines. We observed exponential declines

The effects of building density on land surface temperature (LST) and its spatial patterns remain poorly understood over large areas. Using Landsat 8 satellite imagery, we quantified the effects of building density on land surface temperature (K) across 21 cities in China and analysed their spatial patterns, possible factors, and mechanisms. Results showed that the effects of building density on LST

As cities seek to become more livable and environment-friendly, activities like bicycling, walking, and urban gardening (household and community-gardening) are receiving much attention. However, few field studies have measured well-being of urban gardening, particularly during household gardening. Our study develops protocols to measure emotional well-being (EWB) reported during household gardening

In times of climate change, globalization and urbanization, landscapes change rapidly. These new drivers, complexities and fast dynamics call for innovative governance approaches. Environmental stewardship could be one solution. As opposed to traditional hierarchical landscape management, it places people as main agents in the centre of action. This study employed a Public Participation GIS (PPGIS)

Perceived safety influences women’s use of green environments (GE) for physical activity with considerable implications on health. In order to address gender inequality in GE use, the effects of physical and social environmental factors on women’s perception of safety must be assessed. To achieve this, a pilot study designed and implemented a safety map based on a qualitative Geographic Information

Urbanization is not only accompanied by local land use change, but also causes land use changes in distant places and affects the socio-ecological systems there. Urban land teleconnections (ULT) was introduced as a conceptual framework to link urbanization and land use changes of distant areas in the past, which have been generally ignored. ULT has also been proposed for use in investigating the equity

In 2018, New Zealand announced an ambitious effort to plant one billion trees by 2028 as part of its climate change mitigation plan and Paris Agreement targets for 2030 and 2050. Afforestation will be promoted through a series of incentives, including payments for carbon sequestration linked to New Zealand’s Emission Trading Scheme. Given that afforestation will be pursued voluntarily, the identification

Post-industrial ecosystems (PIEs) occur where organisms unintentionally establish communities, and are common in regions that contain former industrial areas. There is less published research on PIEs than other ecosystems such as old-fields (i.e. abandoned agriculture lands). Old-fields have been well studied and provided a body of research with which to compare succession in PIEs. We examined the

Recreational activities can negatively affect protected area landscapes and resources and soil erosion is frequently cited as the most significant long-term impact to recreational trails. This study applied extensive multiple regression modeling of trail soil loss to identify influential factors that managers can manipulate to improve the sustainability of trail design and management. Field measurements

Trees provide ecosystem services that improve the environment and human health. The magnitude of these improvements may be related to tree diversity within green spaces, yet spatially explicit diversity data necessary to investigate such associations are often missing. Here, we evaluate two methods to model tree diversity at genus level based on environmental covariates and presence point data. We

Inspired by the narrative nature of Landscape Character Assessment (LCA), we present a complete workflow to (i) build a collection of almost 7000 online texts capturing first-person perception of the Lake District National Park in England, and (ii) analyse these for sight, sound and smell perception. We extract and classify more than 28,000 descriptions referring to sight, almost 1500 to sound and

People are drawn towards personally meaningful places. Seeing or remembering those places improves mood and supports wellbeing. But existing evidence relies on self-reports and comparisons with unpleasant places. Using brain imaging techniques, we examined reactions towards images of personally meaningful places, meaningful objects, neutral places and objects, and pre-validated (IAPS) images, among

Research has tackled the physical expansion of urban growth and concomitant rural-urban transformation of land use in many parts of the world, but this phenomenon remained largely overlooked in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. To fill this knowledge gap, this study investigated land use changes from the 1970s to 2018 in the cities of Luxor and Cairo in Egypt, and of Aqaba and Amman in

Previous studies have demonstrated place attachment’s potential to contribute to psychological restoration. However, relatively few studies have explored this subject in the context of Chinese natural urban parks. This study explores the relationship between local landscape characteristics, place attachment, and perceived restorativeness using urban park photos from the cities of Macau and Fuzhou,

Understanding public perceptions of the importance of ecosystem services (ES) is crucial for the development and communication of sustainable management and policies. Yet public perspectives on ES and their sociocultural and geographic patterns are not well understood. This study asks: Which ES are perceived as more or less important by the general public?; Which ES are considered most similar when

Understanding at which spatial scales anthropogenic selection pressures operate most strongly is a prerequisite for efficient conservation and management of urban biodiversity. Heterogeneity in findings on the strength and direction of urbanization effects may result from a lack of consensus on which spatial scales are most adequate when studying biotic effects of urbanization. Therefore, here, using

Research increasingly shows that greening activity can spur contagious or imitative behavior among nearby neighbors within residential landscapes. Krusky et al. (2015) examined this phenomenon in the context of vacant lots and found support for a “greening hypothesis” that residential yards near vacant lots that were converted to community gardens exhibited higher levels of care than yards near untended

Several organizations run wildlife-gardening programs designed to mitigate the biodiversity loss and disconnect between humans and wildlife that commonly accompanies urbanization. The National Audubon Society runs the Plants for Birds and the Humminbirds at Home programs that, like others, recommend homeowners to establish diverse assemblages of native plants with supplemental feeders. Here, we use

Various payment for ecosystem services (PES) programmes are becoming very common across the globe due to ever-strengthening conservation policies and aspirations for socio-ecological sustainability. Nevertheless, quantifying the performance of PES at large spatial scales remains very challenging. Here, a biophysically-based indicator approach is formulated to assess the effectiveness of a new large-scale

Geotagged photos posted on photo-sharing platforms have recently become a new source of information for analysing landscape preferences and investigating the aesthetic dimension of cultural ecosystem services. Most studies seek to explain photo density by landscape or spatial characteristics that might account for individual preferences and aesthetic criteria favoured by photographers. We focus instead

Scenarios are a tool to develop plausible, coherent visions about the future and to foster anticipatory knowledge. We present the Sustainable Future Scenarios (SFS) framework and demonstrate its application through the Central Arizona-Phoenix Long-term Ecological Research (CAP LTER) urban site. The SFS approach emphasizes the co-development of positive and long-term alternative future visions. Through

Mortality of mammals from vehicle collisions is common, but there remain questions regarding how species traits influence vehicle collision vulnerability. We analyzed a database of North American mammal cause-specific mortality to examine factors influencing vehicle mortality. Our dataset consisted of 421 studies that monitored 34,798 individuals across 66 species including 740 vehicle mortalities

Decreasing landscape connectivity, due to habitat loss and agricultural expansion, is a threat for species movement and other flux-dependent ecological processes. Tree cover within the agricultural matrix provides perching sites, dispersal routes, and extra habitat for animals. Isolated trees and living fences in tropical pastures add structural complexity to actual matrices, but their role in landscape

Interactions with nature can improve the wellbeing of urban residents and increase their interest in biodiversity. Many places within cities offer opportunities for people to interact with wildlife, including open space and residential yards and gardens, but little is known about which places within a city people use to observe wildlife. In this study, we used publicly available spatial data on people’s

This research note explores opportunities for spatial planning to enhance the consideration of biodiversity and ecosystem services (ES) in Europe and Central Asia. We refer to and build on the regional assessment of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). We find that a targeted and integrated approach to spatial planning can substantially enhance

Research on patterns of below-ground carbon (C) storage in urban lawns has focused on biogeochemical mechanisms, with human activities playing an important but somewhat secondary role. By contrast, studies of above-ground vegetation in urban areas have emphasized socioeconomic factors that influence greenness, abundance, and diversity, without explicitly considering biogeochemical mechanisms. Here

Recent findings have shown that minority communities are frequently underserved by green infrastructure developments relative to non-minority communities, as local installations of green infrastructure often follow patterns of gentrification. Antipathy from these communities toward existing environmental management efforts present further obstacles related to green infrastructure placement. While hydrologic

Urbanisation patterns in Europe since the 1950s have resulted in a swath of low-density discontinuous development, commonly called peri-urban areas. These areas are characterised by a mixed rural-urban character, are highly dynamic in nature, and are expected to continue growing rapidly in the next few decades. This paper presents a systematic review of the literature on changes in peri-urban areas

An enquiry-based and participatory analysis approach is carried out to identify the strengths and weaknesses in the heterogeneous legislations across Europe that regulate the integration of landslide hazard into urban planning. Twenty one national and eight regional Geological Surveys (GSs) have participated in the analysis. The GSs report almost 4000 recent (2015–2017) damaging landslides events resulting

Urban vacancy is a persistent problem in many cities across the U.S. and globally. Vacant land greening helps improve neighborhood conditions and initiatives that transfer vacant lots to neighborhood residents can return benefits to where they are most needed. We examined one such initiative, the Chicago Large Lot Program, which allows property owners in high-vacancy areas to purchase 1–2 city-owned

The EU’s Green Infrastructure Strategy aims at developing a strategically planned network of natural and semi-natural areas to support the maintenance of ecosystem services (ESS) and connect protected areas (PAs), promoting in this way multifunctional landscapes. This network of GI aims to address the decline in ESS across the EU and also contribute to achieving the objectives of the Biodiversity Strategy

Residential yards contribute to human well-being and urban biodiversity. The structure, diversity, and composition of yard floras are largely determined by personal choices and landscaping priorities at local scales, but it is unclear whether these relationships hold across broader geographical areas. We investigated the relationship between homeowners’ criteria for vegetation and yard management choices

Studies have demonstrated a relationship between plant species diversity within urban green spaces (UGS) and psychological restoration of visitors. However, the majority of “non ecologist” visitors are not able to perceive all the different plant species present within UGS. More work is thus needed to explore and better understand the underlying processes of this relationship. Recent studies have suggested

This paper examines the effectiveness of construction land quotas as a tool for managing urban expansion in China. Applying a difference-in-difference approach to panel data from 2006 to 2010 in 243 Chinese cities, it was found that construction land quotas were not always enforced. Although one-third of the Chinese cities exceeded their quota limits, quotas were effective in reducing annual urban

To support eco-friendly hydropower planning in developing regions, we propose a spatial optimization model for locating dams to balance tradeoffs between hydropower generation and migratory fish species richness. Our model incorporates two special features. First, it is tailored to the dispersal of tropical migratory fishes, which typically require long, unimpeded river stretches to complete their

This study examined gentrification patterns associated with eighteen new public green spaces created across Philadelphia, Pennsylvania around 2010. Our study had three primary goals: 1) Characterize the local relationships between green space creation and gentrification across the city; 2) Investigate how different models of ownership and management approaches impact the public accessibility of newly

Researchers and practitioners obtain information on urban forest structure mainly through sampling a small percentage of the total population of trees. Nevertheless, people seldom examine the suitability of sampling designs for this task. In this study, we evaluated the performance of simple random sampling (SRS), stratified random sampling (STR), systematic sampling (SS), and generalized random-tessellation

Creative and strategic approaches are needed to achieve conservation goals in contemporary landscapes. Protected area expansion competes with multiple demands for land and needs to accommodate the socio-economic realities of landscapes to be effective. Smaller planning units can improve targeted acquisitions for protected areas, but ‘subdivision’ used in conservation planning has typically followed

Demographic transitions have an impact on the landscape and urban development. However, when planning for demographic growth, the concept of demographic shrinkage is seldom considered. Consequently, many opportunities for qualitative landscape interventions and urban development remain unnoticed. This article proposes a conceptualization for demographic shrinkage within the context of the growing region