About
81
Publications
41,589
Reads
How we measure 'reads'
A 'read' is counted each time someone views a publication summary (such as the title, abstract, and list of authors), clicks on a figure, or views or downloads the full-text. Learn more
1,950
Citations
Introduction
Skills and Expertise
Publications
Publications (81)
Lockdown measures implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic led to a rise in people’s visits to forests and urban green spaces. However, as vaccination efforts progressed and infection rates declined, it remained uncertain whether forest visitation levels would return to pre-pandemic norms or even decreased. To explore the post-crisis status of fore...
The COVID-19 pandemic forced many nations to implement a certain degree of lockdown measures to contain the spread of the virus. It has been reported that recreational visits to forests and green spaces increased in response to the lockdown. In this study, we investigated the effect of the policy-induced changes in working conditions during the loc...
This chapter provides an overview of the empirical evidence regarding the association between
green space in general, and forests and trees in particular, and health outcomes. The evidence is
organised by life stage, and within the three life stages – early life (Section 3.2.), adulthood (Section
3.3.) and the elderly (Section 3.4.) – by type of he...
This mixed-methods paper examines the experience and effects of the loss of an allotment garden among gardeners in Zurich, Switzerland. The paper explores the subjective experience of garden loss using qualitative material gathered in field conversations with gardeners from an allotment area which was soon to be cleared for construction. In paralle...
Zur Untersuchung des Verhältnisses der Schweizer Bevölkerung zum Wald wurden bereits seit 1978 Umfragen durchgeführt, 1997 erstmals im Rahmen des sogenannten «Waldmonitoring soziokulturell » WaMos. Der vorliegende Bericht beschreibt die Ergebnisse der nationalen WaMos3-Befragung 2020. Für die Umfrage wurde das Online-Panel des Marktforschungsinstit...
Forest ecosystems play a fundamental role in mitigating global environmental changes. The development of environmentally sound behavior, and inter- and intragenerational equity can help counteract these global changes. One type of formal and non-formal environmental education is forest education, which aims to promote the achievement of sustainable...
Zur Untersuchung des Verhältnisses der Schweizer Bevölkerung zum Wald wurden bereits seit 1978 Umfragen durchgeführt, 1997 erstmals im Rahmen des sogenannten «Waldmonitoring soziokulturell » WaMos. Der vorliegende Bericht beschreibt die Ergebnisse der nationalen WaMos3-Befragung 2020. Für die Umfrage wurde das Online-Panel des Marktforschungsinstit...
Academics and city administrations generally agree that environmental management decisions should be science based, which suggests the value of collaboration between city officials and researchers. Such collaboration, termed “ecology with cities”, is an example of translational ecology that should integrate ecological and social sciences to inform...
Seit einigen Jahren erforscht die Umweltpsychologie den Einfluss des Aufenthalts in der Natur auf die Gesundheit und insbesondere auf die Stressreduktion und Erholung der Menschen. In diesem Beitrag stellen wir zwei entsprechende Studien der WSL vor. Die erste Studie analysiert den Stellenwert der Erholungsmechanismen Naturaufenthalt, Bewegung, soz...
Nach Ausbruch des COVID-19-Virus wurden in den meisten Ländern der Welt Massnahmen ergriffen, um dessen Ausbreitung einzudämmen. Während Regierungen in manchen Ländern zu Beginn der Pandemie Besuche von Wäldern und Grünflächen verboten, erlebten Wälder in anderen Ländern einen regelrechten Besucherboom. Die Studie untersucht, inwiefern die COVID-19...
Globalization and mobile societies challenge large cities to provide not only basic services, such as water or housing, but also places where long-term residents and (forced) migrants are able to form bonds and attribute meanings. The question of what types of urban settings can foster place attachment through interaction has been poorly investigat...
Academics and city administrations generally agree that environmental management decisions should be science based, which suggests the value of collaboration between city officials and researchers. Such collaboration, termed “ecology with cities”, is an example of translational ecology that should integrate ecological and social sciences to inform...
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 interdisciplin...
In this chapter, we analyse how attitudes and Environmental Citizenship are related to each other. When discussing Environmental Citizenship, it has often been defined as the outcome of environmental education. With little knowledge and a lack of models, it is difficult to show how the transformation or formation of environmentally aware citizens w...
The need to assess landscape qualities has become increasingly important over the past decades, with landscapes being continuously shaped and re-shaped through dynamic natural and anthropogenic processes. It is now widely recognised that landscapes need to be studied both in terms of their physical and ecological elements as well as how people livi...
Associations between biodiversity, human health and well-being have never been discussed with reference to agriculturally managed, species-rich mountainous meadows. We evaluated these associations between extensively managed (one mowing a year, no fertilization) and abandoned (no mowing since more than 80 years, no fertilization) semi-dry meadows l...
Despite a number of studies about how natural environments can affect human health and well-being, few have examined the potentially different effects of different types of vegetation. We therefore designed and conducted a randomised controlled experiment to identify the restorative potential of different types of trees and grass in an urban virtua...
Die Förderung der biologischen Vielfalt ist ein wesentliches Ziel von vielen Bewirtschafterinnen und Bewirtschaftern von Familien- und Hausgärten in Städten. Umso wichtiger ist es, bei städtischen Biodiversitätsstrategien auch privat bewirtschaftete Flächen zu integrieren und so vom Interesse und Engagement der Gärtnerinnen und Gärtner zu profitier...
En milieu urbain, la promotion de la diversité biologique est un objectif essentiel pour de nombreux exploitants de jardins privés ou ouvriers. Il est d’autant plus important d’intégrer les surfaces exploitées à titre privé dans les stratégies municipales en faveur de la biodiversité et de bénéficier ainsi de l’intérêt et de l’engagement des jardin...
Amidst ongoing urbanization and increased research on urban greenspaces, the biodiversity level of these spaces is an important variable. Attaining biodiversity estimates by asking non-expert greenspace users to assess aspects of a greenspace has a number of advantages over expert assessments (costs, sample size etc.). This article discusses an app...
Gardens have effects on the local ecology as well as on the wellbeing of the gardener, but few studies have attempted to study gardens using both ecological and social outcome variables. The aim of this exploratory study is to address this research gap by identifying the characteristics of gardens and the management practices of gardeners that enha...
Cambridge Core - Natural Resource Management, Agriculture, Horticulture and forestry - Rewilding - edited by Nathalie Pettorelli
Only few wilderness areas, representing an invaluable part of the world's natural heritage, remain in the highly developed regions of the world. Therefore, the rewilding of landscapes is increasingly being discussed as a management option to combat biodiversity loss and reshape landscapes in regions where the need for agricultural and forest land i...
Invasive alien species (IAS) can cause ecological and economic damages. To reduce or prevent these damages different management and prevention strategies aim to impede new establishments or a further spreading of IAS. However, for these measures to be successful, public knowledge of risks and threats of IAS as well as public support for eradication...
In einer stark vom Menschen geprägten Natur kommt Wildnis eine besondere Bedeutung zu. Auch in der Schweiz ist der Druck auf Wildnis gross: Insbesondere Infrastruktur für Tourismus und Energiegewinnung gefährdet die letzten unberührten Gebiete. Gleichzeitig entwickeln sich aufgrund der Landnutzungsaufgabe gewisse Täler hin Richtung Wildnis. Vor die...
The study compared psychological and physiological health effects of short-term stays at managed and abandoned meadows, a mountain river, and an urban site of a dependent sample of 22 adult participants (mean age 27) during an 11-day field trip. The study found that pulse rates decreased during the stays at all the meadows and the urban site while...
Forest is an important element of Swiss landscape, with about 30% of the country covered by it, forming a finely structured patchwork together with water bodies, agricultural land and settlements. It is highly valued by residents as part of their everyday living and recreational environment. The aim of this paper is to provide knowledge about how r...
Many societies are faced with a growing prevalence of poor health because of stress and sedentary lifestyles. Natural and semi-natural landscapes are increasingly seen as restorative settings, compensating for negative psycho-physiological effects on humans. The extent of these positive effects, however, may depend on the landscape's degree of natu...
How can urban nature contribute to the reduction of chronic stress? We twice measured the concentration of the “stress hormone” cortisol in the hair of 85 volunteer gardeners (six months apart), relating cortisol level change to (self-reported) characteristics of their recreational activities. Both time spent in nature and physical activity led to...
The acceptance and support by those who live in and around the largest remaining wilderness of Europe is very important for the success of a planned network of designated wilderness areas. A standardised questionnaire was administered in person to 322 local residents in the South-Western Carpathians. A cluster analysis revealed two human–nature rel...
Existing frameworks for analysing interactions between social and natural systems (e.g. Social-Ecological Systems framework, Ecosystem Services concept) do not sufficiently consider and operationalize the dynamic interactions between people's values, attitudes and understandings of the human-nature relationship at both individual and collective lev...
Die trans- und interdisziplinäre Studie BetterGardens wird vom Forschungsinstitut
für biologischen Landbau FiBL (Projektleitung) und von der Eidgenössischen Forschungsanstalt für Wald, Schnee und Landschaft WSL durchgeführt. Sie findet in den drei Städten Bern, Lausanne und Zürich statt. Das Projekt wird von städtischen Behörden
und dem Schweizeris...
The greater positive effect of natural compared to built environments on human restoration and wellbeing has found empirical support for many years. Recently, social science research started to investigate the effect of biodiversity on human health and wellbeing, but provides mixed evidence so far. The research
also remains vague regarding causal...
Urban gardening is hip. In larger Swiss cities gardening has become part of the lifestyle of many well-educated, young and relatively affluent citizens. Community gardens are an important element of these practices and in Zurich authorities have helped establish a dozen community gardens on city land over the past years. Of course, gardening in the...
Europe still retains large areas which play host to numerous native and free-functioning ecosystems and lack roads, buildings, bridges, cables and other permanent manifestations of modern society. In the past such areas were considered wastelands, whose value lay only in their potential for cultivation and economic exploitation. Today, these wilder...
The international definitions of wilderness do not apply to most regions in Europe, as there is hardly any pristine wilderness left. In many European regions the rewilding of formerly cultivated lands is called wilderness as well. The term secondary wilderness is often used for this kind of nature. The inhabitants of Switzerland likewise differenti...
Il numero di persone che vive in città è sempre maggiore. Le esigenze
espresse dalla popolazione sugli spazi e gli ambienti verdi in città sembrano
essere ottime premesse per una natura urbana diversificata e vitale, favorevole
a molte specie di piante e animali presenti in città. Sono queste le
conclusioni alle quali è giunto un vasto studio inter...
This review focuses on the physical environment from the perspective of the user. The physical environment has a strong impact on the people perceiving it. Extensive empirical work has shown the positive effect of natural compared to urban environments on restoration and well-being. Experimental research of this field is reviewed in detail in the f...
Les villes sont de plus en plus peuplées. Nos exigences vis-à-vis des espaces
de détente et des paysages quotidiens coïncident étonnamment bien avec
les conditions qui favorisent une nature urbaine diversifiée, habitat d’un
grand nombre d’animaux et de plantes. Telle est la conclusion de l’étude
en écologie et en sciences sociales à vaste échelle B...
Around 30 % of Switzerland’s surface area is covered with forest and represents an integral part of the population’s everyday landscape. It is, thus, important for politicians and planners at all levels to know how the Swiss population relates to the forest so that they can best promote and maintain the various forest functions and the quality of t...
In den Städten leben immer mehr Menschen. Unsere Ansprüche an
Erholungsräume und Alltagslandschaften decken sich mit den Vor-
aussetzungen für eine vielfältige Stadtnatur als Lebensraum für eine
grosse Anzahl von Tieren und Pflanzen erstaunlich gut. Zu diesem Fazit
kommt die breit angelegte ökologische und sozialwissenschaftliche
Studie Biodive...
Exposure to natural environments influences psychological well-being positively, compared to exposure to urban environments. However, do differences arise from differently managed agricultural land? This question was explored in the experimental study reported on in this article. 138 persons from Zurich, Switzerland, were randomly assigned to one o...
In this chapter we consider how experiences of nature can affect human health and well-being. We first address the matter of 'what has been'; that is, we sketch the development of theory and research concerned with health benefits of natural environments, from ancient times to the current situation. This shows the current research to be a recent ex...
Dramatically increasing urbanization is observable worldwide and brings pressure on space within urban areas as the built environment intensifies. Considerable evidence suggests that contact with nature is important for city dwellers, although it is not known whether residents' appreciation of the forms of urban green spaces is constant across diff...
Physical environment influences human health and well-being. In comparison with urban environments, natural environments contribute towards psychological well-being, which has been shown in several studies. However, a comparison of the effects caused by different natural conditions has not been focused on much. Furthermore, experiments on this topi...
Taking the great diversity of lectures given at the “Health and recreation in forest and landscape” Conference held in Birmensdorf from 1st to 3rd April 2009, the present article brings them into an approximate classification and shows new fields of action or suggests those which should be gone into more thoroughly. The research projects presented...
Landscape is an important resource for mountain regions, particularly for tourism. Guiding future landscape development is necessary to meet the expectations of mountain inhabitants, tourists, and the general public outside mountain areas. The studies presented here show how different societal groups perceive past and future landscape changes in th...
Landscape is an important resource for mountain regions, particularly for tourism. Guiding future landscape development is necessary to meet the expectations of mountain inhabitants, tourists, and the general public outside mountain areas. The studies presented here show how different societal groups perceive past and future landscape changes in th...
Traditional medical and public health approaches to illness and health are among the successes of modern science. However, society today is faced with the increasing incidence of various forms of poor health related to modern lifestyles. Contributing factors include an increasingly sedentary population, increasing levels of psychological stress rel...
Landscape change is very much influenced by local people. As our data shows there are three different groups that have a crucial influence on landscape change on the micro level. First there is the group of democratically legitimated local politicians, the second group is formed by social movements of the civil society such as for instance associat...
Within an overland transport agreement between Switzerland and the European
Union, Switzerland has accepted the gradual increase in HGV axle weight limits
from 28 to 40 tons. Thus, people’s quality of life is influenced in the affected
regions, as they are very much exposed to the pollution with noise and harmful
substances. Hence, it is assumed th...
There is growing evidence concerning the influence of nature on human health, and several studies show the effects of nature stays on psychological as well as physical wellbeing (e.g. Health Council of the Netherlands and Dutch Advisory Council for Research on Spatial Planning). However so far, most studies focus on a comparison between natural and...
In zahlreichen europäischen Ländern führt die Urbanisierung zu einer Verdich-tung der Städte, und Naturflächen werden selten. Verdichtete Städte fördern einen bewegungsarmen Lebensstil und erhöhen die Notwendigkeit für Erholung. Psy-chischer Stress und Übergewicht sind Folgen dieser Entwicklungen, gefährden die Gesundheit und führen zu einer höhere...
