Health-relevant effects of different urban forest structures.

• Applicants: Professorin Dr. Elisabeth André; Professor Dr. Christoph Beck; Privatdozent Dr. Joachim Rathmann
• Subject Area: Human Geography
• Term: since 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 471909988

Drought stress in recent years as well as storm events have had a massive damaging effect on forests, not only in Bavaria. In addition to timber production and other ecosystem services, urban forests in particular are used for recreation and health promotion, so that forests as a health resource have now become an issue that is increasingly being discussed in public and in politics. The health-promoting potential of nature and landscape includes influences on subjective well-being as well as on human physiology. In terms of methodology, there has recently been a growing awareness that digital technology should not be used purely to increase efficiency, but rather to focus on physical and psychological factors of human well-being. Thus, the influence of forests on health can be comprehensively addressed. The overarching initial goal of the project is the cooperative identification of the different "structural types" of the Augsburg City Forest with its environment through the different methods/techniques and prior knowledge of the interdisciplinary project partners. In doing so, categories are to be determined which represent forest structural characteristics that are as clearly delimitable as possible with regard to local and human bioclimatic as well as other potentially health-relevant parameters. The relevant forest structure types will be characterised below as comprehensively as possible with regard to their specific manifestations of health-relevant parameters - both local and human bioclimatic as well as non-climatic (subjective perception, human physiological effects). On the basis of the different, complementary qualitative and quantitative surveys, an integrative evaluation and comparison of the health-relevant effects of different forest structure types results. By means of qualitative and quantitative approaches, estimates of potential health-relevant effects of different silvicultural scenarios are subsequently worked out, and finally, recommendations are derived for silvicultural development strategies to be favoured with regard to expected health effects.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants