Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Urban Forestry & Urban Greening journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ufug Original article General, stress relief and perceived safety preferences for green spaces in the historic city of Padua (Italy) Thomas Campagnaro a, *, Daniel Vecchiato a , Arne Arnberger b , Riccardo Celegato a , Riccardo Da Re a , Riccardo Rizzetto a , Paolo Semenzato a , Tommaso Sitzia a , Tiziano Tempesta a , Dina Cattaneo a a Department of Land, Environment, Agriculture and Forestry, Università degli Studi di Padova, Viale dell’Università 16, 35020, Legnaro (PD), Italy b Institute of Landscape Development, Recreation and Conservation Planning, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna, Peter Jordan Strasse 82, 1190, Vienna, Austria ARTICLE INFO Handling Editor: Matilda van den Bosch Keywords: Green infrastructure Visitor perception Urban planning Discrete choice experiment Cultural ecosystem service ABSTRACT Public urban green spaces are crucial for citizens’ wellbeing and are an important part of daily life in cities. To maximize their benefits to quality of life a thorough knowledge of citizens’ preferences and preference het- erogeneity is crucial in the planning and design of urban green spaces. This study investigated visitors’ per- ception of typical green spaces, with a focus on vegetation structure and the presence of typical historic city walls, as well as preferences within the context of perceived stress and safety. We conducted this study in the historic city of Padua in north-eastern Italy. In 2017, face-to-face interviews of citizens were held and choice sets, based on modified images of different green space scenarios, were used to test users’ preferences connected to both stress relief and safety perception. The study highlighted that general, stress relief and safety perception related preferences of the respondents depend on different site characteristics. Respondents preferred a complex but not too wild scenario with sparse trees and aesthetically appealing features such as colourful flowers. Historic walls had a negative effect on general preferences. While general preferences were very similar to stress relief preferences, preferences within the context of safety differed for some attributes. It seems that the vege- tation structure and the presence of features linked to human recreational uses are important factors in planning and designing urban green spaces. Management and planning should take into consideration what users demand from green spaces as this will influence their suitable design. 1. Introduction City planners and society increasingly recognise and value the ecosystem services provided by urban green spaces. Such spaces deliver a wide variety of ecosystem services, including cultural services such as recreational, aesthetic and spiritual experiences (Daniel et al., 2012). Consequently, it is crucial to evaluate green space factors influencing the provision of cultural ecosystem services because these differ from the other categories as they have to be experienced on-site, directly influencing human wellbeing (Hegetschweiler et al., 2017). Despite the importance of the ecosystem services provided and benefits derived from green spaces, urban planning and management usually underestimate their role (Baycan-Levent and Nijkamp, 2009). Among these neglected benefits are the quality of life and wellbeing of citizens, which are influenced by the cultural (social and psychological) services (Carrus et al., 2017a; Chiesura, 2004; Hartig et al., 1991). However, green spaces can also provide psychological disservices such as those derived from perceived social danger (Sreetheran and van den Bosch, 2014). Trade-offs between services and disservices derive from the interaction between social or personal factors and environ- mental characteristics. These trade-offs among recreational factors in the selection of urban green spaces have rarely been investigated (Arnberger and Eder, 2015), in particular in respect to the provision of specific ecosystem services. Recent reviews have highlighted that the perception of urban green spaces varies based on several social and physical factors that visitors encounter (Carrus et al., 2017a; Hegetschweiler et al., 2017; Sreetheran and van den Bosch, 2014). For instance, it is expected that locations perceived as unsafe would not reduce stress (Ekkel and de Vries, 2017). Furthermore, the quality of green spaces and their location within the urban fabric have an influence on perceived restorativeness (Carrus et al., 2015). Perceived safety is a prerequisite for the use of green https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ufug.2020.126695 Received 8 November 2019; Received in revised form 26 March 2020; Accepted 20 April 2020 ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail address: thomas.campagnaro@unipd.it (T. Campagnaro). Urban Forestry & Urban Greening 52 (2020) 126695 Available online 25 April 2020 1618-8667/ © 2020 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved. T