Biophilia: Does Visual Contact with Nature Impact on Health and Well-Being?

Grinde, Bjørn; Patil, Grete Grindal

doi:10.3390/ijerph6092332

Cited by 450 publications

(313 citation statements)

References 54 publications

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“…Thus, humans would be born with a preference for natural elements and surroundings, and consequently, a lack of these may impair their wellbeing. The biophilia hypothesis finds support in a large variety of publications including experimental and observational research on stress recovery, visual and restorative effects of nature and green, physical activity in natural environments, and diverse aspects of human health and well-being [42,43]. Our result of increased neighborhood satisfaction in the presence of higher surrounding greenness further confirms a preference of green environments and stresses the necessity of incorporating natural elements in the design of urban living areas.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 64%

Residential Surrounding Greenness, Self-Rated Health and Interrelations with Aspects of Neighborhood Environment and Social Relations

et al. 2017

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Previous research suggests that green environments positively influence health. Several underlying mechanisms have been discussed; one of them is facilitation of social interaction. Further, greener neighborhoods may appear more aesthetic, contributing to satisfaction and well-being. Aim of this study was to analyze the association of residential surrounding greenness with self-rated health, using data from 4480 women and men aged 45-75 years that participated in the German population-based Heinz Nixdorf Recall study. We further aimed to explore the relationships of greenness and self-rated health with the neighborhood environment and social relations. Surrounding greenness was measured using the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) within 100 m around participants' residence. As a result, we found that with higher greenness, poor self-rated health decreased (adjusted OR 0.90, 95% CI 0.82-0.98; per 0.1 increase in NDVI), while neighborhood satisfaction (1.41, 1.23-1.61) and neighborhood social capital (1.22, 1.12-1.32) increased. Further, we observed inverse associations of neighborhood satisfaction (0.70, 0.52-0.94), perceived safety (0.36, 0.22-0.60), social satisfaction (0.43, 0.31-0.58), and neighborhood social capital (0.53, 0.44-0.64) with poor self-rated health. These results underline the importance of incorporating green elements into neighborhoods for health-promoting urban development strategies.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 64%

Residential Surrounding Greenness, Self-Rated Health and Interrelations with Aspects of Neighborhood Environment and Social Relations

et al. 2017

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“…Interacting with nature can result in a range of human benefits including physical health, mental health, psychological health, psychological wellbeing, life meaning, cognitive ability and social cohesion, and provide spaces for physical and social activities to take place [3,14,18,19,25,28,[50][51][52][53][54]. Shanahan et al [17] identify three main pathways of nature benefitting wellbeing: direct pathway to physical health (e.g., a tree reflecting light and thereby managing temperature extremes); indirect pathway to physical health (e.g., a tree providing more shade promoting and encouraging physical activity); and an indirect pathway to mental health (e.g., the experience of viewing nature having restorative impacts on the brain).…”

Section: Food Related Wellbeingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Who Cares? The Importance of Emotional Connections with Nature to Ensure Food Security and Wellbeing in Cities

2018

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Abstract:To be "connected" is "to care", because how and what we care about is influenced, and influences, what we are connected with. Emotional connection predicts environmental concern and children exposed to green environments take this appreciation of nature with them into adulthood. However, the majority of the human population is now living within urban areas, where opportunities for people to interact and bond with nature are greatly diminished, thereby potentially threatening the liveability of cities into the future. Connection with nature has been shown repeatedly to benefit human wellbeing and predict pro-environmental behaviours. By definition "nature" includes urban agriculture, which is also an integral component of a city's foodscape, thereby providing opportunities to improve the wellbeing of city inhabitants as well as help ensure food security. This will only be attainable if the next generation has an emotional connection to nature, and the necessary life skills to help them enter adult life as informed food citizens who make healthy and sustainable decisions for themselves as well as others. This paper reviews existing literature on foodscape (or one's food environment) and biophilia (the love of life or living systems) to highlight the need for inter-disciplinary research that combines urban agriculture and food literacy to ensure future food security and wellbeing of urban inhabitants.

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“…In our study we found that less advantaged areas experience greater declines in public green space and species richness around the home under sprawling development. There is a growing body of evidence showing that experiences of local biodiversity enhance health and well-being , Mitchell and Popham 2008, Grinde and Patil 2009 and disadvantaged areas are generally associated with lower levels of health and well-being (Davey- Smith et al 1990, 1997, Bartley et al 1997, Brunner 1997. Sprawling growth therefore has the potential to widen the gap between advantaged and disadvantaged sectors of society, and can therefore be considered a public health issue.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Maintaining experiences of nature as a city grows

Sushinsky¹,

Rhodes²,

Shanahan³

et al. 2017

E&S

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ABSTRACT. Experiences of nature contribute to human health and well-being, yet as the world's population continues to concentrate in towns and cities there is mounting concern that these experiences are diminishing. Despite this, little is known about how we can maintain experiences of nature as cities grow. Here, we quantify how people's opportunities to experience nature might change with future urban growth in the city of Brisbane, Australia. We simulated the addition of 84,642 houses under compact and sprawling growth scenarios and modeled changes in people's opportunities to experience nature by estimating changes in backyard size, public green space provision, and bird species richness close to households. We discovered that the form of urban growth could strongly influence people's opportunities to experience nature in a way that is highly nonrandom across the socioeconomic gradient. Under a sprawling pattern of development, with low residential densities and few interstitial green spaces, our models suggest severe declines in access to public green space and bird species richness around people's homes. These declines are predicted to be concentrated in socioeconomically disadvantaged areas of the city. Compact development leads to greater reductions in backyard size, but smaller declines in access to public green space and bird species richness. Our results point to a difficult trade-off; residential infill will maintain larger green spaces and higher overall bird diversity but reduce backyard sizes, impacting people's opportunities to experience nature in a different way. Careful planning is needed to balance the availability of public and private urban green spaces to ensure that the opportunities for people to experience nature are maintained as urbanization continues.

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Biophilia: Does Visual Contact with Nature Impact on Health and Well-Being?

Cited by 450 publications

References 54 publications

Residential Surrounding Greenness, Self-Rated Health and Interrelations with Aspects of Neighborhood Environment and Social Relations

Residential Surrounding Greenness, Self-Rated Health and Interrelations with Aspects of Neighborhood Environment and Social Relations

Who Cares? The Importance of Emotional Connections with Nature to Ensure Food Security and Wellbeing in Cities

Maintaining experiences of nature as a city grows

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