The WooDestress index: a tool to evaluate the destressing potential of urban woodlands, through the assessment of their naturalness : a case study in Malmö

Sammanfattning: According to the United Nation the next years will be characterized by an urbanization process that will lead to the increase of densely populated areas. One of the possible consequence could be the increase of stressful factors, which can lead to chronic stress and chronic stress related diseases. To face this situation, a new approach in city planning is required. One of the aspect that urban managers should take into account is the important role that natural environments play to improve the citizen life quality. It was shown that the wooded areas characterized by the presence of many natural elements are among the most effective environments to reduce stress. However, an empirical method to characterize different urban woodland in order to know their “destressing potential” does not exist. For this reason, the purpose of this study is to develop an index to evaluate the naturalness of urban woodlands based on how they offer relaxing and destressing experiences. The result is the WooDestress index (WDI), a tool that considers five features already adopted to assess the naturalness in forest ecology. The evaluation of each feature depends on how it can contribute to offer relaxing experiences in an urban woodland. The index was tested for the first time in four urban parks located in Malmö (SE). According to the results, the main frame of the index seems to be valid, but it should be considered as a first draft. Some components of WDI should be improved and tested in different areas. However, with WDI it was possible to evaluate different woodlands in Malmö, obtaining different values. This result, even though it should be verified, it can be considered as a spark for the future research.