Enhance Satisfaction/Quality of Life

Living near greenspace makes it less likely that people will experience postpartum depression (PPD).  Sun and colleagues found that “A reduced risk for PPD was associated with total green space exposure based on street-view measure [500 m buffer. . .], but not NDVI [normalized difference vegetation index], land-cover greenness, or proximity to a park. Compared to other types of green space, tree coverage showed stronger protective effects. . . . Street view-based green space and tree coverage were associated with a decreased risk of PPD.

Swartjes and Berkers studied designing spaces for festivals; their findings have implications for the development of all sorts of public areas.  The investigators found after interviewing festival organizers that “Spaces with varied rhythms of movement, such as parks and streets, provide the opportunity for encounters as people engage in activities of lingering, people-watching and playing. . . . if one can see the whole route at once before starting to walk, it will feel as a ‘tiring length.’ . . .

 Research by Phillips and colleagues verifies the value of having access to nature.  The team reports on experiences during the COVID pandemic: “we examine which types of nature engagement (i.e. with nearby nature, through nature excursions and media-based) are more strongly associated with well-being. . . . Overall, nature engagement was a consistent predictor of well-being, but different types of activities predicted varying outcomes. . . .

Recent research by a Gawryluk-lead team argues for keeping air clean.  The investigators “performed the first controlled human exposure study using functional MRI with an efficient order-randomized double-blind crossover study of diesel exhaust (DE) and control (filtered air; FA) in 25 healthy adults. . . . All 25 adults went through the exposures and functional MRI imaging were collected. Exposure to DE yielded a decrease in functional connectivity compared to exposure to FA, shown through the comparison of DE and FA in post-exposure measurement of functional connectivity.

Turunen and colleagues researched links between green and blue spaces and quality-of-life.  More specifically: “associations of the amounts of residential green and blue spaces within 1 km radius around the respondent’s home (based on the Urban Atlas 2012), green and blue views from home and green space visits with self-reported use of psychotropic (anxiolytics, hypnotics and antidepressants), antihypertensive and asthma medication were examined. . . . Amounts of residential green and blue spaces or green and blue views from home were not associated with medications.