Effect of an illegal open dump in an urban forest on landscape appreciation.

Rubbish in a forest environment is a great threat to this ecosystem, but this threat may also apply to the lost benefits for visitors to the forest. Previous studies proved that forest areas have a positive effect on obtaining psychological relaxation in the people visiting them. However, it was not known whether this restorative experience could be disturbed in any way by the presence of an open dump in the forest. To check how the presence of a landfill affects the visitors, an experiment was planned in which the respondents observed a forest area with a landfill and a forest landscape without a landfill for 15 minutes (control). The respondents then assessed the landscape using the semantic differential method and the Perceived Restorativeness Scale (PRS). An analysis of these observations showed that the presence of a landfill in the forest significantly changed the appreciation of the landscape by the respondents, the values of positive experiences decreased, and the negative experiences increased. Restorativeness was also reduced. Based on the results, it can be concluded that the presence of garbage in the forest may interrupt the restorative experience of its visitors.

Young adults' perspective of global environmental risks: A study on Polish university students.

This article presents the results of a study conducted on Polish university students to verify how they assess the probability of environmental risks and their potential impact on the socio-economic situation in Poland. To this end, 703 students of public universities in Warsaw were asked to complete risk assessment questionnaires. According to the respondents, of all identified types of threats, technological risks were found to be the most probable, with the environmental ones carrying the most significant social and economic impact. Among those risks, climate change was recognised as the most probable, while environmental contamination was perceived as having the strongest potential impact on Poland. No statistically significant differences were found in the views of women and men on the probability of environmental risks and their impact on the country's socio-economic situation. Compared with students of technical and economic faculties, students of natural sciences, education, and nursing assessed the probability of environmental risks and the strength of their potential impact in Poland as much higher. The results of the study can be used to develop a communication strategy dedicated to young people in the education of environmental risks.

The effects of viewing a winter forest landscape with the ground and trees covered in snow on the psychological relaxation of young Finnish adults: A pilot study.

Forest bathing is an outdoor activity, and it might be a promising preventive treatment for social problems involving stress. A vast number of studies confirm the positive effects of this activity on people's health. Nevertheless, little is known about the influence of winter forest bathing when conducted in an environment with snow cover on the ground and trees. Thus, a crossover experiment was designed in this study, with the participation of twenty-two healthy university students from Finland. During the experiment, a short exposition by a forest environment or landscape with buildings (as a control) was applied. Participants self-reported their psychological relaxation before and after the exposition, and the results were analyzed and compared. The mood, emotions, restorativeness, and subjective vitality were recorded as indices reflecting the psychological relaxation effect. The negative mood indices decreased significantly after exposition by the snow-covered environment, but the positive 'vigor' indices did not increase or decrease significantly. The level of negative emotions increased after the exposition with the control environment. Likewise, positive emotions decreased after the interaction with the control. Restorativeness was significantly increased after the exposition by the experimental forest but decreased after the viewing of the control buildings. The size of the effect in terms of restorativeness was the highest in this experiment. The subjective vitality was lowered as affected by the control, but it did not increase or decrease after the exposition with the experimental forest. There is probably an effect from the slight interruption in the process from the influence of the forest greens on participants because their vigor and vitality did not increase after the exposition with this environment in the study. However, snow might influence the participants as a calming and emotion-lowering component of the environment, but this idea needs to be further explored with the involvement of participants from other countries who would be viewing forest environments with snow cover and whose psychological relaxation could be measured.