Today’s western societies are faced with a growing incidence of poor health because of mental stress and sedentary lifestyles. Natural and cultural landscapes are increasingly seen as restorative settings, compensating for negative psycho-physiological effects on humans. For this reason the conference on Landscape and Human Health: Forests, Parks and Green Care provides a forum for the presentation and discussion of recent developments in the following research topics:

 

* Landscape effects on human health and well-being
* Methods for assessing landscape effects on human health and well-being
* Biodiversity and human health and well-being
* Effects of landscape structures and types on human health and well-being
* Forests as restorative places (e.g. forest therapy, forest bathing)
* Impacts of green care offers (e.g. social impacts, effects on health, well-being)
* Social impact of landscapes
* Social inclusion (of fringe groups) fostered by landscapes and green care offers

 

The conference addresses researchers, public authorities, public health administrations as well as people involved/interested in landscape based health offers (e.g., farmers, forest enterprises, Green Care companies, managers of protected areas).

 

The Call for Abstracts is open from 19 September to 7 November 2016. We accept both oral and poster presentations.

This conference is a follow up to the Conferences Recreation and Health in Landscape and Forest and Landscape and Health: Effects, Potential and Strategies that took place at the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL) in 2009 and 2012 and the 1st Austrian Conference on Forest and Human Health in 2011.