The impact of land-use changes on accessibility to forests and potential for leisure time physical activity: A scenario based approach

Abstract

Land-use changes is an ongoing process where particularly the urban expansion is taking place at a steadily increasing rate. Sometime spontaneous and in other occasions planned. Often the urban growth takes place on former forest or agriculture land. However, with the increasing awareness of nature protection, climate change, and human health, some regions plan for a more sustainable use of land by nature restauration and afforestation programmes. Through a scenario based approach the current paper analyses how land-use changes exemplified through the Danish afforestation programme can contribute to increasing accessibility to forest areas and create enhanced possibilities for a more physical active leisure time, which is important to avoid several life style related diseases like obesity, type 2 diabetes, and circulatory disturbances.