An observational assessment of winter human-nature interaction in urban parks

Abstract

Interaction with urban nature provides many nature-derived benefits for people. However, human-nature interaction studies are conducted primarily during the vegetative season, but remain largely unexplored in winter. We therefore used non-participatory methods (i.e. systematically observing park users on-site) to characterize human-nature interactions in three urban parks in Stuttgart, Germany in the winter of 2020/2021 (N = 13,474 observations). Descriptive statistics were calculated and two multivariate logistic regression models built to serve as the basis for analyses. Results indicated that high-engagement human-nature interaction (i.e. nature photography, active observation, touching, or collecting natural elements) was generally low (2.4 % of observations) and that park visitors most frequently interacted with flora, then fauna, and finally abiotic natural elements. Certain visitation behaviors including technology use and visiting alone were associated with a lower odds of high-engagement nature interaction, whereas walking a dog was associated with a higher odds of high-engagement nature interaction. Additionally, odds of high-engagement nature interaction were higher at sites with a naturalized pond. While these findings are context-specific, they provide insight into the number of people that participate in high-engagement nature interaction, details into how they interact with urban nature in winter, and have potential implications for the design and management of urban greenspaces in future cities that best support both people and nature year round.