High public appreciation for the cultural ecosystem services of urban and peri‑urban forests during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

Cultural ecosystem services (CES) of urban and peri‑urban forests (UPF) contribute to the urban population's health and well-being. However, UPF face numerous threats from increasing urbanization and climate change. A comprehensive understanding of the flow of the forests' CES between urban and peri‑urban areas was lacking. Further, there is little empirical evidence of how people valued and used UPF during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this study, we assessed residents' perceptions of CES provided by UPF, and their spatial distribution in Karlsruhe and Rheinstetten, Germany, using a participatory map-based questionnaire survey. Respondents (n = 501) were asked to indicate five preferred locations of UPF and to rate the individual UPFs’ importance concerning various CES. Heatmaps were created to visualize the results, and normalized ratings of the perceptions were examined. The study demonstrated that residents prefer nearby locations for all studied CES but place a higher value on peri‑urban forests regardless of their frequency of use. The survey results show an increase in visits to UPFs during the COVID-19 pandemic. The importance of urban forest for citizens’ stress reduction during the pandemic was highlighted by the participants. We recommend considering these findings in urban forest planning.