The Influence of Urban Natural and Built Environments on Physiological and Psychological Measures of Stress— A Pilot Study

Abstract

Environments shape health and well-being, yet little research has investigated how different real-world environmental settings influence the well-known determinant of health known as stress. Using a cross-over experimental design; this pilot study investigated the effect of four urban environments on physiological and psychological stress measures. Participants (N = 15) were exposed on separate days to one of the four settings for 20 min. These settings were designated as Very Natural; Mostly Natural; Mostly Built and Very Built. Visitation order to the four settings was individually randomized. Salivary cortisol and alpha-amylase; as well as self-report measures of stress; were collected before and after exposure to each setting. Gender was included as a variable in analysis; and additional data about environmental self-identity, pre-existing stress, and perceived restorativeness of settings were collected as measures of covariance. Differences between environmental settings showed greater benefit from exposure to natural settings relative to built settings; as measured by pre-to-post changes in salivary amylase and self-reported stress; differences were more significant for females than for males. Inclusion of covariates in a regression analysis demonstrated significant predictive value of perceived restorativeness on these stress measures, suggesting some potential level of mediation. These data suggest that exposure to natural environments may warrant further investigation as a health promotion method for reducing stress.

Effects of Urban Green Space on Environmental Health, Equity and Resilience

“…Using diurnal cortisol patterns was an innovative approach applied in the United Kingdom to demonstrate that exposure to green space reduced chronic stress in adults living in deprived urban neighbourhoods Ward Thompson et al 2012;Beil and Hanes 2013). Similar relationships between green space and stress reduction have been shown using hair cortisol as a biomarker of chronic stress (Honold et al 2015;Gidlow et al 2016b).…”

The influence of indirect nature experience on human system

“…Contact with nature has been evidenced to enhance psycho-physiological effect positively (Shin et al 2012;Beil and Hanes 2013;Bang et al 2017;Lee 2017). The present study was performed to compare the psycho-physiological effects of direct and indirect nature experience.…”

A Review of the Parametric Characteristics of Urban Environment and it's Influence to the Urban Quality of Life

“…Urbanization processes in Malaysia have become an integral part of the various parametric matrix confronted by rapid growth. The essential parameters and factors need to be parametrized in order to design a futuristic urban location on the stressed situation (Burton 1990;Beil and Hanes 2013), is a recent overwhelming growth of urbanization. Figure 2 Illustrate the characterize the causes of Urban stress and their influence to the QoL.…”

“…Management and finance  Income revenue  Tax collected  Cash flow ratio as compared to emoluments  Urban development expenditure per capita  Ratio of administration and professionals  % of expenditure as compared to overall revenue (Source: Ibrahim, 2015) (Source: Beil et al 2013) Urbanization processes in Malaysia (Ibrahim, 2015) have become an integral part of the various parametric matrix confronted by rapid structural growth that influence the life pattern of urban dwellers at large. Table 1 shows selected indicators in Malaysian perspective and contribute to this research.…”