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In modern industrialized world, notably in countries of the European Union, the majority of population lives in urban areas (Kabisch & Haase, 2013). The typical urban scenes can negatively impact human health (McCracken, Allen, & Gow, 2016). These effects can be compensated by exposure to natural environment. From this point of view Thompson (2011) treats the natural environment as a resource which is important for the overall wellbeing of humans.
In the last decades the outdoor recreation has become very popular worldwide (Tzoulas & James, 2010; Koppen, Sang, & Tveit, 2014). The positive impact of green spaces not only on the physical, but also on the mental health of the urban population is well investigated (Pikora, Giles-Corti, Bull, Jamrozik, & Donovan, 2003; Crawford et al., 2008; Nutsford, Pearson, & Kingham, 2013; McCracken et al., 2016). As pointed by McCracken et al., (2016), so called ‘Stress Recovery Theory’ stated that via intensive contact to nature some symptoms of stress and anxiety can be mitigated.
Green spaces are different in their types, physical locations and suitability/accessibility for outdoor recreation. Characteristics as wildlife habitat diversity, mix of vegetation types, age and health of trees, landscape beauty are preferred in the decision to use these lands for outdoor recreation (Ghimire et al., 2017). In the larger settlements, the outdoor recreation activities are provided in urban green spaces (Tzoulas & James, 2010; Cord, Roeßiger, & Schwarz, 2012; McCracken et al., 2016; Monz, D'Antonio, Lawson, Barber, & Newmane, 2016). Such formal urban green spaces like city parks, gardens and so on cannot be sufficient to meet the citizen needs for contact to nature, especially in the densely inhabited regions (Rupprecht, Byrne, Ueda, & Lod, 2015).
In the last years, the protected sites, the natural parks and the national parks gain importance as destinations for recreational activities (Kim, Lee, & Klenosky, 2003; Monz et al., 2016; Karanikola, Panagopoulos, & Tampakis, 2017). For citizens visits to suburban parks provide an opportunity to live in a closer contact with nature (Cord et al., 2012). In social aspect, the proximity of green space which is suitable for recreation is especially significant for individuals living predominantly in near cities and for people with low incomes (Mitchell & Popham, 2008; van den Berg, Maas, Verheij, & Groenewegen, 2010; Boman, Fredman, Lundmark, & Ericsson, 2015; Plane & Klodawsky, 2013). Тhe protected sites and parks are attractive to visitors because of their protected status, which apparently ensures their naturalness and cleanness (Ferreira & Harmse, 2014; Karanikola et al., 2017).