The Ogres Zilie kalni park urban forest management

The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic demonstrated the importance of urban forests for human well-being at a time of tight constraints, when large forests close to urban areas were in high demand. Increased use affects the management of territories. Urban forests play an important role in providing ecosystem services. Urban forests show a close link between ecosystem services and forest functions. A literature review was carried out, exploring the ecosystem services and specific urban forest services provided by such territories. This article examines the experience of the Ogres Zilie kalni during the Covid-19 pandemic, taking into account the peculiar functions of urban forests. Different types of recreation that take place in the Ogres Zilie kalni, and their impact on park management are discussed. The aim of the article is to analyse and present the challenges of urban forest governance and management under the influence of Covid-19, looking through the functions of urban forests. Taking into account the classifications of ecosystem services available in Zilie kalni, zoning and assessment of the territory have been carried out. Cartographic material has been created based on practical experience and employee interviews.The practical experience of territory management gained during Covid-19 is important and should be taken into account in the future development of green spaces, respecting the new habits of visitors potentially affected by the pandemic, where one of the most important proposals is to develop more small localised recreation areas on smaller

Influence of First-Time Visitors' Perceptions of Destination Image on Perceived Value and Destination Loyalty: A Case Study of Grand Canal Forest Park, Beijing

During the COVID-19 pandemic, urban forest parks are becoming increasingly significant for recreation and relaxation, not just for urban residents but also for tourists. This study empirically examined the structural relationships among first-time visitors' perceptions of destination image, perceived value and destination loyalty through structural equation modeling. Additionally, the mediating influence of perceived value and the moderating effect of gender were investigated as well. The Grand Canal Forest Park in Beijing was selected as the case study. In total, 486 questionnaires that were considered to be legitimate were gathered and afterwards analyzed. The results revealed that first-time visitors' perceptions of destination image can positively and significantly affect their perceived value and destination loyalty. In addition, perceived value partially mediates the relationship between first-time visitors' perceptions of destination image and destination loyalty. Moreover, the findings of the examination of the moderating effects showed that gender has substantial moderating effects on the relationships described above. The theoretical and practical implications, limitations and future research of the current study are also discussed. © 2023 by the authors.

The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Citizens' Attitudes and Behaviors in the Use of Peri-Urban Forests: An Experience from Italy

Peri-urban forests are complex systems capable of providing amenity and scenic values as well as recreational opportunities for citizens. From early 2020, national governments have promulgated restrictions, requiring citizens to adopt a new lifestyle to counter the COVID-19 outbreak. This study aimed to understand if citizens' behaviors and attitudes in the use of peri-urban forests are changing due to COVID-19 restrictions. Methodologically, a questionnaire survey was carried out, adopting a systematic sampling method. Two peri-urban forests were chosen as study areas: the first one was close to the town of Trento in the Alps (Monte Marzola), and the second one was in the proximity of the city of Florence (Monte Morello). At the end of data collection, 281 questionnaires were collected and processed. The results showed an increase in visits to peri-urban forests during the COVID-19 pandemic (36.4% of visitors in Monte Marzola and 17.1% in Monte Morello, respectively) with the aim of satisfying the need for relaxation and contact with nature. However, the use of peri-urban forests in times of crisis has been quite different in the two contexts: the visitors of Monte Marzola evidenced the role of a forest as a place where they can satisfy their need to play sports (mean value 4.53 in a five-point Likert scale), while Monte Morello forest was considered by visitors to be a place where the demand for companionship was fulfilled (mean value 4.27). © 2023 by the authors.

Experience Them, Love Them, Protect Them-Has the COVID-19 Pandemic Changed People's Perception of Urban and Suburban Green Spaces and Their Conservation Targets?

Public green and open spaces fulfil various social, ecological, economic, and aesthetic roles, which can be complementary while also competing with one another. The COVID-19 pandemic catalysed multiple societal changes, including citizens' perception, needs and expectations relating to urban green spaces. This article discusses the extent to which the temporally and geographically changed patterns of experiencing these natural spaces also influenced users' perception and behaviour as well as their appreciation of the conservation areas. The study is based upon two surveys carried out in the greater metropolitan region of Vienna, the capital city of Austria. A quantitative survey (representative online panel) among Viennese population (n = 1012), as well as qualitive interviews with experts responsible for conservation areas, administrators of federal parks, along with NGOs representatives were carried out in spring and summer 2021. Our study shows changed perception of urban citizens towards green spaces during the COVID-19 pandemic. An increased importance of time spent in nature (68%) and possibility to visit large green areas (67%) was reported by Viennese citizens. Also, higher recognition of green spaces located close to home was observed among 69% of the respondents. There were significant differences in opinions on green areas during the pandemic in various age and gender groups. Thus, the presented study contributes to the ongoing international discussion on the transition of societal needs and its effects on urban green spaces induced by the pandemic. Presented results highlight the need of urgent transformation towards a more sustainable, resilient and healthy urban space. Graphical abstract.

FOREST VISITORS DATA BEFORE AND DURING COVID-19 LOCKDOWN CRISIS: FOREST RECREATIONAL SERVICES IN THE FACE OF COVID-19 PANDEMIC STRESS

COVID-19 has overtaken human freedom of movement and association. Moreover, the infection has claimed numerous lives of more than a million people by the middle of 2021. Given the numerous forest ecosystems services and benefits to humans and biodiversity, urban forests and parks provide a significant part by offering urban dwellers recreational and leisure space, mental health relief, and meditation. Consequently, this data aims to give a clear state of forest visits to a forest near Brno City before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Medical experts, leaders, and policymakers could use this data to make better decisions regarding lockdown rules, recreational services during the lockdown, and epidemiological situations. Moreover, this data will help other researchers on health and welfare issues concerning forest and urban nature visits and other recreation services. Using TRAFx Infrared Trail Counter, we counted visitors in the Training Forest Enterprise Masaryk Forest Křtiny in the outskirts of Brno City in the Czech Republic. Data (https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/8NAKW) has been prepared and presented herein for further use. © 2022 Public Recreation and Landscape Protection - With Environment Hand in Hand? Proceedings of the 13th Conference. All rights reserved.

Diversity Monitoring of Coexisting Birds in Urban Forests by Integrating Spectrograms and Object-Based Image Analysis

In the context of rapid urbanization, urban foresters are actively seeking management monitoring programs that address the challenges of urban biodiversity loss. Passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) has attracted attention because it allows for the collection of data passively, objectively, and continuously across large areas and for extended periods. However, it continues to be a difficult subject due to the massive amount of information that audio recordings contain. Most existing automated analysis methods have limitations in their application in urban areas, with unclear ecological relevance and efficacy. To better support urban forest biodiversity monitoring, we present a novel methodology for automatically extracting bird vocalizations from spectrograms of field audio recordings, integrating object-based classification. We applied this approach to acoustic data from an urban forest in Beijing and achieved an accuracy of 93.55% (±4.78%) in vocalization recognition while requiring less than ⅛ of the time needed for traditional inspection. The difference in efficiency would become more significant as the data size increases because object-based classification allows for batch processing of spectrograms. Using the extracted vocalizations, a series of acoustic and morphological features of bird-vocalization syllables (syllable feature metrics, SFMs) could be calculated to better quantify acoustic events and describe the soundscape. A significant correlation between the SFMs and biodiversity indices was found, with 57% of the variance in species richness, 41% in Shannon’s diversity index and 38% in Simpson’s diversity index being explained by SFMs. Therefore, our proposed method provides an effective complementary tool to existing automated methods for long-term urban forest biodiversity monitoring and conservation.

COVID-19 pandemic observations as a trigger to reflect on urban forestry in European cities under climate change: Introducing nature-society-based solutions.

COVID-19 pandemic observations triggered a reflection by the author on urban forests in European cities under climate change as nature-society-based solutions. This commentary introduces a complementary triad of approaches that are all known but might lead to a novel view of urban nature, including forests, regarding changes in pandemic diseases and/or related to urbanization and climate change: Hybridity, succession, and flexibility: First, allowing for green spaces used by humans and nature but also those that are exclusively for ecosystems to provide space for undisturbed development and thus better control pests and diseases. Second, allow for succession at urban open spaces to let nature experiment on solutions for a drier and hotter climate that urban society can implement in urban forestry. And third, allow planning to set targets in efficiency assessment and monitoring that are matching time periods which natural ecosystems need to adapt to climate change acknowledging nature as a real 'partner' in nature-society-based solutions in one-health cities.