Social effects on crowding preferences of urban forest visitors

An image-based stated choice approach was used to investigate the conditions determining why visitors to an urban forest in Vienna feel crowded or not. Respondents (N=213) evaluated several sets of images depicting trail use scenarios with different levels of social crowding conditions and several types of social interferences. Forest users were segmented into three groups based on their global evaluations of use levels during weekends and work days, resulting in a crowding-averse, a crowding-tolerant, and a crowding-indifferent segment. Crowding-averse respondents reacted much more negatively to scenarios with high-use levels, heterogeneous trail use conditions, and violations of personal minimum spatial requirements caused by the presence of others. This user group felt overcrowded because social conditions experienced in the area interfered with their main visiting goals, especially to walk with their dog unleashed and to recreate. By contrast, crowding-tolerant respondents disliked very low-use and high-use situations, and preferred a certain amount of social stimulation in the form of some encounters, and more heterogeneous trail use conditions.     

Monitoring recreational activities in urban forests using long-term video observation

Urban forest management needs information about the amount andkinds of recreation use, in particular about emerging recreationalactivities such as Nordic walking and winter bicycling. Between2003 and 2004, year-round use levels of recreational activitieswere investigated in a forest in Vienna using permanent time-lapsevideo recording and counts by human observers on sampling days.The amount of use, yearly, weekly and daily use patterns, aswell as the group size of the traditional activity groups werecompared with Nordic walking and winter bicycling to characterizethese activities and to better understand recreation use. Forall activity groups, the rates of participation varied significantlyacross most of the time dimensions, and the relationships betweenthe time of day and rates of participation were different forindividuals and groups. Nordic walkers displayed a temporaluse pattern similar to that of jogging with workday eveningand weekend morning use peaks, while winter bicycling was similarto bicycling activities with afternoon use peaks during snowyperiods. Nordic walking and winter bicycling activities addedto the multi-use character of the heavily used forest, but seemednot to increase the potential for user conflicts because ofthe current low participation rates and the Nordic walking group'savoidance of times of heavy use.     

Exploring coping behaviours of Sunday and workday visitors due to dense use conditions in an urban forest

Undesired social conditions such as crowding can trigger coping behaviours of urban forest visitors to avoid these. Coping behaviours, such as spatial or temporal displacement, have implications for natural and social area management. However, coping behaviours have rarely been explored in the urban context and coping research has not differentiated between workday and Sunday visitors, although there are remarkable deviations in use intensities and user composition on these days, potentially affecting crowding perceptions and coping. Coping behaviours due to crowding were compared between on-site Sunday and workday visitors (N = 330) in a protected urban forest in Vienna. More than half of the visitors perceived the forest as crowded on Sundays and 44% reported coping behaviours. Workday visitors were more likely to cope compared to Sunday visitors. Temporal, intra-area and inter-area displacement, activity displacement, as well as changes in dog-walking behaviour were reported. Sunday and workday copers reported higher crowding perceptions and were more engaged in dog walking. Workday visitors compensated for dissatisfying social site conditions with coping behaviours, while Sunday copers were less satisfied despite their coping efforts. Management implications are discussed.     

How many people should be in the urban forest? A comparison of trail preferences of Vienna and Sapporo forest visitor segments

Differences in trail preferences for social conditions of visitors to forests in Vienna and Sapporo were investigated in 2006 using a standardised image-based stated choice approach. On-site visitors to two comparable peri-urban forests – the Lobau Forest in Vienna, Austria (n=373), and the Nopporo Forest in Sapporo, Japan (n=256) – evaluated the same sets of computer manipulated images depicting 128 trail scenarios with different levels of social stimulation. Latent class segmentations, in three sub-segments of similar sizes, differentiated by partly opposite preferences for social conditions, were derived for both samples. A positive contribution of social stimulation to preferences was found for about 17% of Nopporo and 9% of Lobau respondents, while for close to 50% of Lobau respondents and 38% of Nopporo respondents very low levels of social stimulation were preferred. The results indicate that urban forests should be managed for users with a desire for low social densities as well as a denser social setting providing some levels of social stimulation.     

The influence of green space on community attachment of urban and suburban residents

Although community attachment and urban green space provide many benefits to local residents, the relationship between them seems to be unknown. The aim of the study was to analyse this relationship. The objective was to investigate the influence of public green space and recreation behaviour on community attachment and explore differences in community attachment between urban and suburban residents of the Vienna region. To a large degree, both study areas border on, and share, the same recreation areas along the Danube River and are subject to urban sprawl. A mail survey was carried out in 2006 to ask local residents (N = 602) about community green space, recreation behaviour, community qualities, ownership of private green space and community attachment. Urban residents showed higher community attachment, valued the community green space higher and perceived a better quality of life in their community than the suburban sample. Regression analysis identified perceived green space supply and qualities, recreation behaviour, and residential variables predicting community attachment. Different predictors were found for the community attachment of the samples, while several public green space-related items were consistent and strong predictors. The study findings suggest that the perceived supply and quality of green space can foster community attachment.     

Recreation use of urban forests: An inter-area comparison

Recreation use in two urban forests in Vienna, Austria was compared. Visitors to an inner-urban forest and to a peri-urban forest were monitored by means of video observation during 1 year, from dawn to dusk. The amount of use and the temporal use pattern of the main user types, identified by video interpreters as walkers, cyclists, dog walkers and joggers, were compared. In the inner-urban forest, surrounding settlements, schools and business areas evoked high-use pressure, commuting activities, high shares of all-day activities, more morning and evening use particularly on workdays and, overall, more workday use. The peri-urban forest was, by far, not so heavily used and the proportion of daily routine activities such as dog walking and jogging was reduced because of the lower population density in the surroundings. While the potential for user conflicts in the inner-urban forest seemed to be quite high at weekends and workday late afternoons and evenings, in the peri-urban forest this potential was only high during weekend afternoons in the warmer season, due to the temporally concentrated appearance of walkers and bicyclists.