Comparing the Finnish urban forest recommendations with the health effects of forests

The purpose of this thesis was to compare Finnish urban forest management recommendations with articles connecting human health and forest. The goal was to look at the urban forest recommendations from the point of view of human well-being, as well as to find forest variables that might increase health benefits. The search for the articles correlating forest with human health was a Boolean search performed on Scopus, Academic Search Ultimate, and Web of Science in March 2021. The search was narrowed down into 34 articles, from which the variables and health effects were collected into a database. Collecting material about Finnish urban forest management began in September 2021. Results from the articles were compared with the urban forest management recommendations. The most common health benefits from forests were improved mood, restoration, relaxation, and reinvigoration. The outcome of the comparison show that forest have generally a high number of positive health effects and social benefits. The most liked forests were relatively sparce, light pine forests with large trunks, and the most disliked forest were closed, dark forests with thick undergrowth. Finnish urban forest recommendations were mostly in accordance with the results from the article database. Forest soundscape, a popular quality in the article results, was not mentioned in the recommendations. The forest descriptions used in the articles were often scarce and vague. Forming accurate assumptions of health benefits correlation to forest variables was difficult due to the large number of sensory stimuli to subjects from real-life forest exposure. The results of the articles cannot be extrapolated to the rest of the world, as the articles were either from Europe or Asia. Based on the information, Finnish urban forest can have significant positive health effects. More studies are required so that we can more deeply understand the connection between the effects of forest variables and human well-being