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• Tree-covered small-sized urban green spaces (UGSs) are crucial in residential areas. • Trees in large UGSs are rarely appreciated, even by residents within 300 m. • Large UGSs are essential for the provision of most cultural ecosystem services. • Trees in UGSs are appreciated mainly due to regulating ecosystem services. • UGSs accessibility assessment should consider both spatial and social factors. Easy accessibility of Urban Green Spaces (UGSs) is essential to the quality of life in urban areas. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations focus on spatial access to UGSs, define as accessible those larger than 0.5 ha situated up to 300 m of residential areas, and disregard the social significance of smaller green spaces. This paper assesses the extent to which the WHO recommendations permit the identification of locations for tree-covered UGSs that serve urban residents. The study uses geo-questionnaire to collect data on residents’ perception of the ecosystem services (ESs) provided by trees in both small-sized (<0.5 ha) and larger (≥0.5 ha) UGSs in two Polish cities, Poznań and Gdańsk. Three factors impacting the social perception of UGS accessibility were controlled: (a) distance to trees (influencing reaching it by walk), (b) age, (c) the ESs provided by trees in both sizes of UGSs. The minority, i.e. 26 % of respondents valued trees in the larger UGSs. Regulating ecosystem services appeared significant there (mainly impact on health and well-being) and cultural ecosystem services, such as recreation. Most of the treecovered areas residents’ identified as significant were small-sized UGSs within the median distance of 150 m and were related to trees in residential areas and along the roadsides. Cultural ecosystem service − a sense of intimacy, separating from the neighbors, was specifically valued there. Age does not appear to be a major determinant of social perspectives on trees in UGSs. The results suggest that smallsized tree-covered UGSs are essential to residents and should be included in policies on urban greenery. In addition, the research findings indicate that identifying UGSs that are valuable from residents’ perspectives requires a comprehensive methodological approach. Limiting the assessment of the accessibility of such sites only to analyses based on the criterion of area and distance can offer narrow policy guidelines.
Przewoźna et al. (Sun,) studied this question.