Perception and Attitudes of Residents Towards Green Spaces in Croatia – an Exploratory Study

Abstract

Green spaces are important parts of urban infrastructure. COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown periods around the world have confirmed benefits that people derive from using green spaces for their physical and mental health. Green spaces need to meet the needs of users so that people can use them and benefit over time. It is important to consider users' perceptions and attitudes. User input proves beneficial in improving management practices. We investigated the differences in attitudes and perceptions of respondents from different large settlements in Croatia towards green spaces. Data on the use and perception of green spaces were collected in the first lockdown period in Europe and processed the part of the questionnaire on attitudes and perceptions towards green spaces. People have similar, mostly positive perceptions of green spaces regardless of the size of the settlement. Differences were found in the perception of disadvantages and needs related to the management of green spaces. This is the first study of the attitudes and perceptions on a large spatial scale in Croatia, so the results are exploratory and important. This study contributes to research on the social aspects of green spaces by investigating the influence of environmental context on perceptions and attitudes.

Exploring Tourist Preferences on the Visitor Management System: the Case Study of Plitvice Lakes National Park

“…Visitors of the PLNP were chosen as the privileged interlocutors of this survey. In particular, user inputs are recognized as an effective support to improve management practices (Marin et al 2021). In fact, unlike visitors, other stakeholders -e.g.…”

“…Some explored the aesthetic preferences of users for different types of forest management (Paletto et al 2018), while others looked at visitor uses and urban forest conditions (Krajter Ostoić et al 2017, Kičić et al 2020). Specifically, these latest studies have increased over the course of the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic (Marin et al 2021).…”

“…Indeed, they represent the main subjects who perceive the results of a good or poor management of the places. Therefore, comments from visitors may provide important suggestions for improving visitor satisfaction (Kaffashi et al 2015, Marin et al 2021. In fact, to take into account the dual purpose of nature conservation and recreation, the tourist point of view is of great importance (Perera et al 2015).…”

Urban Forest Recreation and Its Possible Role throughout the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Finally, several global studies point to the impact of climate change on outdoor recreation and management (e.g., [31,32,49,50]). Climate change will affect outdoor tourism by changing weather patterns and affecting the supply of outdoor recreation resources [43].…”

“…The long-term stress of lockdowns was found to affect not only the human mind but also immunity against diseases and the overall activity of the body on a biological level [5]; this was reported in the context of the global community by the WHO well over a decade before the outbreak of the pandemic [18]. The COVID-19 pandemic in 2020-2021 changed the lifestyles of local communities and entire societies [11,[19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33]. Globally, pre-pandemic UGS, such as parks or primeval forests, provided many services and benefits to people and biodiversity.…”