Research suggests that certain forest environments can contribute to lower stress levels in humans. This might be increasingly important to consider given the rising prevalence of stress-related diseases and illness absence. To make it feasible to plan for forest management strategies that take such restorative effects into account, it would seem to be important to identify the precise physical properties that contribute to the restorative qualities of forest stands. It would also be useful if forest stand data typically already collected by forest owners could be used for this purpose. In the present study, forest stands in northern, central, and southern Sweden were visited and assessed regarding their restorative potential. These assessments were analysed together with available forest stand data for each region using statistical models. Our results indicate that of the available forest stand data parameters, the most important individual indicators of forest stands' restorative qualities were tree age, tree sparsity, and tree height. Models based on these parameters explained 30-40 % of the variation in restorative qualities among the evaluated stands, indicating that they can be useful in planning and modelling scenarios where restorative properties of forest stands are considered.

Background: Research suggests access to green areas and visible greenery to mitigate traffic noise annoyance. Studies also suggest certain perceptual qualities of neighbourhood green spaces to improve wellbeing and physical activity. Here we test if the presence of these qualities in the neighbourhood might reduce annoyance from traffic noise at home. We control for potential single-source bias of the result by also employing independent estimates of these qualities retrieved from a separate study sample. Methods: We use cross-sectional public health survey data from 7,065 individuals including information about disturbances from road traffic noise and reports of perceived qualities in the neighbourhood green spaces. We also estimate the presence of these qualities by area-aggregating 28,016 individual perceptions collected from an independent survey sample into 3,598 different 1-km² squares. Results: With self-reports, more reported qualities in neighbourhood green spaces indicate a mitigating effect on annoyance at given noise levels. With independent estimates however, results instead suggest that more qualities actually might increase sensitivity to traffic noise and that the inverse causality might explain the negative link observed between self-reported qualities and annoyance. Conclusions: A possible explanation could be that traffic noise stands out in more contrast in environments with high quality green spaces. Extra care might then be motivated to protect such areas from noise exposure. Self-reported and independently estimated perceived green space might yield different results in epidemiological studies due to single-source bias effects.

With increased urbanization, ecological challenges such as climate change and loss of biodiversity, and stress-related disorders globally posing a major threat to public health and wellbeing, the development of efficient multiple-use strategies for urban green spaces and infrastructures is of great importance. In addition to benefits such as climate and water regulation, food production, and biodiversity conservation, green spaces and features have been associated with various health and wellbeing outcomes from a psychological perspective. Research suggests links between exposure to green environmental qualities and restoration from psycho-physiological stress and attention fatigue, promotion of physical activity, increased neighborhood satisfaction and even reduced mortality. Especially strong associations have been observed in urban and socio-economically challenged areas. Usually such salutogenic, i.e., health-promoting, effects are explained through theories related to the notion of biophilia, i.e., the idea that humans share innate tendencies to attend to natural environments and features that have been beneficial during evolution. This paper assumes an ecological approach to perception and behavior to be fruitful in order to analyze the salutogenic potential of environments such as urban green spaces and to step beyond the green vs. gray dichotomy that has been prevalent through much of the research on health-promoting environments. Through an analysis of environmental affordances for certain perceived qualities such an approach is explored through a proposed concept for urban green space use and management, the edible forest garden. Such gardens, based on agroecological principles, have emerged as one of the most promising models regarding ecologically sustainable food production. In addition to potential contributions of importance for urban sustainability and biodiversity, we argue that the inclusion of edible forest gardens in urban green spaces - today globally dominated by lawns - also potentially could reinforce several affordances of salutogenic importance, both in terms of, e.g., social cohesion but also in regard to restoration from psycho-physiological stress and attention fatigue. Increased opportunities for contact with nature and processes of food production may also reinforce pro-environmental behaviors in the population and thus also affect long-term sustainability.

A previous study (n = 24,819) of semi-urban and rural areas in the Skåne region, southern Sweden, showed that people living in flats are depen- dent on having green space with several characteristics for different affordances close to their homes to be satisfied with their neighbour- hood. The two studies presented in this paper focuses on the urban area of Malmö, the largest city in Skåne. Equivalent criteria for the presence of certain characteristics within 300 m from home were used, however analysed from other kinds of data than the regional study. In both the previous rural/semi-urban study as well as the urban studies presented here, respondents report being more satisfied with their neighbourhood the more qualities that are present within 300 m of their home. Less than half of the apartment-dwelling respondents in the Malmö urban area are satisfied with their neighbourhood if less than half of the characteris- tics are available within 300 m. Even when there are few characteristics close by, people living in their own house are generally more satisfied with their neighbourhood (70 % or more irrespective of area type) than tenants are. A relatively high concordance between the two studies, despite the fact that they represent different kinds of landscape (semi- urban and rural vs. urban) and different scales (region vs. municipality), adds validity to the recreational characteristics as a tool for assessing well-being qualities of neighbourhood landscapes.

The results from the studies of Malmö were also related to average household income and a clear association between our studies’ data on accessibility to serene areas and household income was found. This find- ing suggests that creating additional serene green space in low-income areas could be a tool to help the municipality reduce segregation.