The delivery of Cultural Ecosystem Services in urban forests of different landscape features and land use contexts

We performed both visitor observations to collect data on use intensity and activity, and face-to-face questionnaires to collect individual use, experience and satisfaction data of forest visitors. Both methods were carried out during Aug-Oct 2016 in the 20 selected urban forest patches to capture urban forest visits during the high season in the city of Helsinki. The survey was conducted only on sunny or partly cloudy days. <br> Observations were performed for at least 90 min during the busiest visiting time: on weekdays after working hours (16:00-18:00) and on weekends during the daytime, to achieve a more inclusive user group. We counted the forest visitors, including their gender, age class, and activities. Age classes were estimated and classified into junior (under 18 years old), young adult (18-44), adult (45-64) and senior (over 65). Activities were categorized into cycling, walking, dog walking, Nordic walking (pole walking), playing with kids, picking berries or mushrooms, etc. <br> For the anonymous face-to-face questionnaires, we also visited each patch on both weekdays and weekends and attempted to reach every visitor we encountered until we completed 10 questionnaires per patch.