Naturalistic forest landscape in urban areas: challenges and solutions

摘要

Growing urbanization and rapid development of the cities create conflict situations between development of building areas and natural areas. A built environment represents a high level of intervention in the ecosystem, altering the landscape and disturbing the natural processes. In an urbanized society, urban green areas are important as a place for contact with nature. The main purpose of the presented study were to review the present situation concerning the management and condition of naturalistic forest landscapes in urban areas and to study the attitude of professionals towards naturalistic forest landscapes in the urban area of Riga city, Latvia. The survey includes the opinions of representatives of different fields from Riga municipality and other institutions related to ecological, practical, planning and conservation activities, and also private working landscape architects. The statistical analysis and data's empirical distribution showed that professionals in Riga city recognize the values and benefits of naturalistic forest landscape. However, environmental preferences may depend more on affective reactions than on ecologically-based logical operations.