The benefits of nature experience: Improved affect and cognition

Bratman, Gregory N.; Daily, Gretchen C.; Levy, Benjamin J.; Gross, James J.

doi:10.1016/j.landurbplan.2015.02.005

Cited by 658 publications

(518 citation statements)

References 63 publications

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“…The studies took place in laboratory or field settings and compared the relationship between viewing or walking in open green spaces and memory. Short-term memory was tested using Digit Span Tests [11,13,32,33]. One study investigated the association of exposure to GI and long-term memory by asking participants about the details of the room in which the experiment took place 1 week earlier.…”

Section: Attentionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Four studies report a positive relationship between exposure to GI and attention capacity measured through a variety of attention tasks such as the Trail Maker Tests, Operation Span Task, Change Detection, and Attention Network Tasks [33][34][35]. Viewing a GI video has also been shown to significantly help office workers respond to visual stimulants, such as pressing a button when a dot appears on screen, more quickly [18].…”

Section: Attentionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These green spaces included city parks [32,33,52,80] and urban forests [34]. Most of the studies were experimental and compared the effects of walking in green spaces and urban spaces on health outcomes [32][33][34]80]. One study was a field experiment investigating the effects before and after a walk in a park [52].…”

Section: Walks In Green Spacesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…One study was a field experiment investigating the effects before and after a walk in a park [52]. The health benefits associated with walks in green spaces include better capacity to pay attention [32,33,80] and a greater tendency for pro-social behaviors [52,53].…”

Section: Walks In Green Spacesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Green Infrastructure, Green Stormwater Infrastructure, and Human Health: A Review

Suppakittpaisarn

Jiang

Sullivan

2017

Curr Landscape Ecol Rep

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Purpose of the Review In a growing trend, cities around the world have been installing Green Infrastructure (GI) in the form of vegetated landscapes that provide ecological benefits such as stormwater management, wildlife habitats, and temperature moderation (Tzoulas et al. Landsc Urban Plan. 61(3):11, 2007). Some GI, such as trees and green spaces, have positive impacts on human health. It is less clear how newer types of GI, such as rain gardens, green roofs, and bioswales, impact human health. These newer GI types are called Green Stormwater Infrastructure (GSI). Planners and designers need to know the extent to which GSI impacts humans. This systematic review does exactly that-we explore the published evidence regarding the relationships between GI and human health. Recent Findings We identified 55 peer-reviewed articles addressing these issues. Familiar types of GI, such as trees and green spaces, were found to be beneficial to the body (cardiovascular system, cortisol regulation, and pregnancy health), mind (attention capacity and mental health), and behavior (lower crime, better self-regulation, and more pro-social behaviors). We found much less research exploring the impacts of GSI on health.Summary Our findings show that for some of the specific categories of GI, such as trees, considerable evidence exists on the impacts on human health. For other categories, such as rain gardens, green roofs, or biodiverse plantings, however, there is scant evidence of a health impact. We believe it is likely that these forms of GI do impact human health and that the reason for the scarcity of evidence is that few careful studies have examined the impacts of newer forms of GI on specific human health outcomes. Future researchers should investigate the health effects of type, dose, frequency, and duration of exposure to GI and GSI.

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Section: Attentionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Attentionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Walks In Green Spacesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Walks In Green Spacesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Green Infrastructure, Green Stormwater Infrastructure, and Human Health: A Review

Suppakittpaisarn

Jiang

Sullivan

2017

Curr Landscape Ecol Rep

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“…. Ordinal rankings of perceived recreational impact to wildlife (1=Positive, 3=No impact, 5=Negative) compared to motivation to view wildlife (1=Not Important, 3=Neutral, 5=Very important) (n=59 Outdoor recreation provides opportunity for green exercise and reconnection with nature that is believed to have many psychological and biological benefits for human well-being (Pretty et al, 2005;Bratman et al, 2015). As human stress levels continue to rise in response to urbanization, outdoor recreation is becoming increasingly researched as a potential strategy for reducing urban-related stress and improving the quality of city life (Ulrich et al, 1991;Bolund & Hunhammar, 1999;Takayama et al, 2014).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

A Human-Environment Systems Approach to Outdoor Recreation, Human Biological Stress, and Landscape Aesthetics

Opdahl¹

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Outdoor recreation, as the intersection between physical exercise and nature, provides a multitude of psychological and physiological benefits to human well-being.Though many studies have reported qualitative stress reduction from outdoor recreation, few have focused on quantitative measurements of stress across recreational activity types, intrapersonal differences, and environmental variables. To determine whether outdoor recreation affects physiology, we collected 190 paired salivary cortisol and testosterone samples and 157 surveys from 88 hikers, 81 mountain bikers, and 44 offhighway vehicle (OHV) motorists. After recreation, cortisol concentrations were significantly reduced in hikers and OHV motorists, but cortisol and testosterone concentrations increased in mountain bikers. These three recreational activity types also significantly differed in motivation and wildlife observations, which could be additional mechanisms of physiological change. Out of all three recreation types, hikers were most motivated by environmental variables. To test how the environment could be affecting hikers, we evaluated the impact of landscape aesthetic perceptions and land cover types on hiker spatial movement and stress relief. Using data from 58 GPS tracks, we found that salivary cortisol was significantly reduced when hikers walked through riparian areas. Hiker cortisol also decreased after recreating in areas they perceived as aesthetically pleasing. Aesthetic quality influenced hiker spatial movement, with hikers choosing to recreate in high-aesthetic high-wildlife observance riparian areas. Though hiker movement and stress were not related to the intensity of visitor use, wildlife vi observations decreased with greater recreational utilization. Hikers, however, did not perceive any negative impact from their recreational activities. Despite the different forms of recreational activity, outdoor recreation has potential to benefit human wellbeing. In addition, managing recreational land for ecosystem health and wildlife may enhance well-being benefits, as well as serving a role in the conservation of wildlands.

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