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The perception of walking on an urban forest path in daylight and under electric lighting

Tsiakiris, Georgios LU orcid ; Rahm, Johan LU orcid ; Hedblom, Marcus and Johansson, Maria LU orcid (2025) In Trees, Forests and People 22(101012).
Abstract
In daylight, urban forests promote human health and well-being by offering opportunities for recreation and psychological restoration. In urban forests, electric lighting is often installed to enable recreation during the dark season. This study explored how urban residents experience walking in an urban forest in daylight compared to walking in darkness with electric lighting. Local residents participated in a field study in an urban forest in Sweden. Participants, 48 in total (n = 23 in daylight, n = 25 in electric light) engaged in structured walks along a 270-m long gravel path equipped with pole-mounted electric lighting. During the walks, the participants completed observer-based environmental assessments for visual accessibility,... (More)
In daylight, urban forests promote human health and well-being by offering opportunities for recreation and psychological restoration. In urban forests, electric lighting is often installed to enable recreation during the dark season. This study explored how urban residents experience walking in an urban forest in daylight compared to walking in darkness with electric lighting. Local residents participated in a field study in an urban forest in Sweden. Participants, 48 in total (n = 23 in daylight, n = 25 in electric light) engaged in structured walks along a 270-m long gravel path equipped with pole-mounted electric lighting. During the walks, the participants completed observer-based environmental assessments for visual accessibility, prospect-escape, perceived safety, perceived comfort quality of the electric light, restorative potential, and reported their intentions to choose or avoid a similar path in the future. After the structured walks, participants verbally reflected upon their experience, providing contextualised qualitative information that nuanced the assessments. Analysis of variance, with age, gender, value orientation and connectedness with nature as co-variates, revealed that most of the assessed experiences deteriorated from daylight to electric light. Despite this, mean values indicated that the urban forest path was perceived to hold a restorative potential and that the participants had an intention to choose similar paths under electric light conditions. In a public health perspective, the provision of electric light along urban forest paths close to residential areas could be favourable but must be balanced against the detrimental effects of light pollution on other species and energy use. (Less)
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author
; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Trees, Forests and People
volume
22
issue
101012
article number
101012
pages
11 pages
publisher
Elsevier
ISSN
2666-7193
DOI
10.1016/j.tfp.2025.101012
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
2306bae4-131b-40bc-b2c9-3dde2668b413
date added to LUP
2025-09-19 12:07:21
date last changed
2025-10-01 12:16:34
@article{2306bae4-131b-40bc-b2c9-3dde2668b413,
  abstract     = {{In daylight, urban forests promote human health and well-being by offering opportunities for recreation and psychological restoration. In urban forests, electric lighting is often installed to enable recreation during the dark season. This study explored how urban residents experience walking in an urban forest in daylight compared to walking in darkness with electric lighting. Local residents participated in a field study in an urban forest in Sweden. Participants, 48 in total (n = 23 in daylight, n = 25 in electric light) engaged in structured walks along a 270-m long gravel path equipped with pole-mounted electric lighting. During the walks, the participants completed observer-based environmental assessments for visual accessibility, prospect-escape, perceived safety, perceived comfort quality of the electric light, restorative potential, and reported their intentions to choose or avoid a similar path in the future. After the structured walks, participants verbally reflected upon their experience, providing contextualised qualitative information that nuanced the assessments. Analysis of variance, with age, gender, value orientation and connectedness with nature as co-variates, revealed that most of the assessed experiences deteriorated from daylight to electric light. Despite this, mean values indicated that the urban forest path was perceived to hold a restorative potential and that the participants had an intention to choose similar paths under electric light conditions. In a public health perspective, the provision of electric light along urban forest paths close to residential areas could be favourable but must be balanced against the detrimental effects of light pollution on other species and energy use.}},
  author       = {{Tsiakiris, Georgios and Rahm, Johan and Hedblom, Marcus and Johansson, Maria}},
  issn         = {{2666-7193}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{09}},
  number       = {{101012}},
  publisher    = {{Elsevier}},
  series       = {{Trees, Forests and People}},
  title        = {{The perception of walking on an urban forest path in daylight and under electric lighting}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tfp.2025.101012}},
  doi          = {{10.1016/j.tfp.2025.101012}},
  volume       = {{22}},
  year         = {{2025}},
}