Connection between Green Infrastructure and Human Health

Dear Colleagues,

Green infrastructure is an important part of the landscape that surrounds us, whether we live, work, or rest. The physical and mental health benefits of being in green spaces such as forests, meadows, and lakes are a common topic of scientific discourse, but the health effects of green infrastructure are less well known. Green infrastructure extends far beyond the presence of green spaces and refers largely to carefully planned space, infrastructure, small and large landscaping elements, and a network of natural and semi-natural areas with environmental elements designed and managed to provide a wide range of ecosystem services.

According to many researchers, green infrastructure should resemble the natural environment as much as possible. Very often, the inspiration for the creation of GI is the forest. Forests naturally perform a wide variety of functions, providing society with numerous tangible and intangible benefits. The former are directly related to the production of timber and other resources of plant and animal origin—forest fruits, mushrooms, game, herbs, etc. Intangible benefits result from, among other things, the influence of forests on the climate, the maintenance of biodiversity, water retention, or the creation of conditions for recreation, tourism, recreation, and education. The functions of forests characterized above are an important contribution of forest ecosystems to human life, directly affecting human well-being in spiritual, material, health, or educational spheres. These functions also directly become the basis for the creation of green and blue facilities and infrastructure in urban areas.

Most of the studies on green infrastructure focus on urban agglomerations. This time, after the COVID-19 pandemic, more and more people are looking for a place to relax but also live in suburban as well as rural areas, so the question arises: whether the creation of green infrastructure in urbanized and non-urbanized areas plays the same role? Do societies living in suburban and rural areas also feel the need to create green infrastructure? To what extent do people living in these zones use green infrastructure in their daily lives, such as for tourism, recreation, or education? Is the public’s growing health consciousness influencing the design of more such facilities?

The purpose of this Special Issue is to present possible answers to these questions by including studies and original research beyond this topic. Interested authors are encouraged to submit original research articles, reviews, and critical perspectives to fill knowledge gaps with new developments that are able to offer stakeholders potential strategies for understanding green infrastructure and broader health.

Topics of interest for publication in this Special Issue include:

• Mental and physical health in urban areas;
• Mental and physical health in rural areas;
• Wellness tourism development;
• Innovation and competitiveness in planning and creating green infrastructure;
• Monitoring of tourism in urban and suburban areas;
• Development of forest bathing for tourism;
• Local values and tangible and intangible tourism resources used in the creation of green infrastructure;
• Nature conservation and climate change in the context of green infrastructure;
• Awareness of the use of the natural potential of local areas;
• Social media and innovation for tourism and forestry education;
• Media influence on management decisions and the management of natural areas;
• Spatial planning of urban areas;
• Local entrepreneurship in nature tourism;
• Development of environmental education;
• The level of quality of life of people who come into contact with nature.

Dr. Natalia Korcz
Dr. Mariusz Ciesielski
Dr. Agata Kobyłka
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Forests is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• social consciousness
• mental health
• physical health
• outdoor education
• nature education
• ecosystem benefits