Green and blue settings as providers of mental health ecosystem services: Comparing urban beaches and parks and building a predictive model of psychological restoration

Urban beaches and parks are providers of numerous ecosystem services. In the cultural sphere, place bonding and psychological restoration might significantly contribute to the health and well-being of citizens. In this manuscript, we present a study aimed to evaluate the extent to which three urban beaches and three urban parks offered these advantages to a sample of users (n = 429) in the city of Donostia-San Sebastian (Spain). A second aim was to build a predictive model of restoration through both objective and subjective measures. We assessed the design and physical features of the settings using the Natural Environment Scoring Tool (NEST) and gathered a range of information about the users via a paper & pencil questionnaire. The survey included socio-demo-graphics, questions regarding the frequency and patterns of use, and four different psycho-environmental scales: Perceived Restorativeness Scale (PRS), Place Attachment and Identification Scale, and Restoration Outcome Scales (ROS). We found differences regarding the profile of users and the activities carried out in each of the settings. Users of beaches reported higher levels of attachment, identification, and experienced restoration than the participants surveyed in urban parks (p < .001). Regression analyses revealed that the main predictors of experienced restoration where perceived restorativeness (beta = 0.49), attachment (beta = 0.22), and identification (beta = 0.15), whereas the physical/design features of the environment and the routines of use made a negligible contribution in this regard. The results of the regression analyses were extended by conducting dominance and relative weight analyses.