Experiences of the Urban Green Local Environment as a Factor for Well-Being among Adults: An Exploratory Qualitative Study in Southern Sweden

Emerging trends and knowledge domain of research on urban green open spaces and wellbeing: A scientometric review

Green Open Spaces (GOS) and its linkages to human health and wellbeing have received growing attention in the field of urban planning. In spite of increase in number of studies in this field, there is lack of scientometric perspective pertaining to this research domain. The purpose of the study is to map the research status and key research directions in the interdisciplinary domain: Green open spaces, public health and urban planning, using Citespace. Scientometric analysis (co-author, co-citation, co-word and cluster analysis) is conducted for 451 peer reviewed publications, primarily published in last two decades (2000-2021) in the web of science database. The study assessed influential authors, journals and documents to identify the intellectual structure and network of co-authorship and countries to understand research collaborations of this domain. As a result of this review, five emerging research trends in this domain are identified - Emerging data sources, Study areas at various spatial scales, Type of study, Assessment of urban GOS benefits and Urban planning contribution in the research area. In addition, critical review of these trends is conducted to understand corresponding challenges and opportunities. The critical analysis highlighted the need of generating evidence base appropriate for assessing GOS use and user perception, especially in developing nations capturing socio-demographic diversity. The use of Citespace for scientometric analysis facilitated the systematic understanding of this research area by visualizing and analyzing various patterns and trends. This study provides an intensive understanding of present research status and emerging trends of this research domain. Findings in this study are envisioned to provide practitioners, decision makers and researchers with promising future research directions.

Perceptions of and interactions with green neighbourhood environment - A qualitative study

BACKGROUND

Green environments have been shown to be important for health, although less is known about what, in the environment and the individual, leads to interaction and promotes engagement in activities.

AIM

To explore some individuals' perceptions of their green neighbourhood environment and how the interaction with it promotes engagement in activities.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

A qualitative approach was used comprising eight semi-structured interviews and directed content analysis based on the Model of Human Occupation.

RESULTS

The green neigbourhood environment (GNE) offered opportunities to challenge the participants' performance capacity, develop habits and engage in activities. The GNE also gave stress relief and helped the participants experience balance. Experiences of interacting with green environments earlier in life and the cultural context seemed to be the main reason why the participants interacted with the GNE.Conclusions and significance: Norms and values from the childhood, previous experiences and interests were of particular importance for interaction with the GNE. Green environments gave perspective, a sense of being part of something larger and helped individuals achieve balance. Based on this knowledge, occupational therapists can enable individuals to interact with the green environment.

Psychophysiological Responses of College Students to Audio-Visual Forest Trail Landscapes

Forest trails provide urban residents with contact with nature that improves health and well-being. Vision and hearing are important forms of environmental perception, and visual and auditory stimuli should not be overlooked in forest trail landscapes. This study focused on the health benefits of the audio-visual perception of forest trail landscapes. Forest density (FD) and forest sounds (FS) in forest trail landscapes were examined as visual and auditory variables, respectively. FD was divided into three levels: high (Hd), medium (Md), and low density (Ld). FS were divided into four levels: quiet natural and anthropogenic sounds (QnQa), quiet natural and loud anthropogenic sounds (QnLa), loud natural and quiet anthropogenic sounds (LnQa), and loud natural and loud anthropogenic sounds (LnLa). The levels of these two variables were combined to create 12 conditions. A total of 360 college students were randomly assigned to 12 groups (mapping onto the 12 conditions; N=30 per group). All subjects performed the same 5-min high-pressure task indoors, followed by a 5-min recovery period of experiencing a simulated forest trail landscape (viewing pictures and listening to sounds). Brain waves, blood pressure, blood oxygen saturation (SpO2, measured with a finger monitor), the pulse rate, and mood indicators were collected to analyse the physiological and psychological responses to the audio-visual forest trail landscapes. The results indicated that higher FD and lower FS improved health benefits. The interaction between FD and FS revealed a pattern of combinations that facilitated stress reduction and positive mood recovery. These results are of theoretical value in that they indicate important audio-visual characteristics of forest trail landscapes. In terms of practical applications, these findings support the construction of urban forest trails to provide health benefits.

Urban spaces as a positive catalyst during pandemics: Assessing the community’s well-being by using artificial intelligence techniques

Amid the Covid-19 pandemic, lifestyles changed completely. This new normality damages human psychology and mental health. Hence, new approaches must be considered while shaping public spaces to accommodate the pandemic life. This paper aims to show the importance of exploiting outdoor spaces to save people’s mental health. Accordingly, an online survey is conducted and analyzed by Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) for more precise answers. Afterward, the most important public spaces during the pandemic are extracted; consequently, another questionnaire has been held to validate these items. The last one has been run through a machine learning technique to classify and categorize the users’ different preferences in three situations only. It was found that 85,17% of the sample declared the importance of outdoor public spaces. However, future research is needed to rethink urban spaces’ design and to relocate the activities done within indoor public spaces to the outdoors to maintain human mental health.

A systematic review for a highly accessible green roof for Malaysian public institution buildings

Purpose

Despite its worldwide reputation as an effective solution to sustainable building development and energy efficiency, green roofs in Malaysian cities are rarely accessible. The architecture of the building primarily influences public accessibility, crime watch and safety level and events that encourage the public's engagement, which is evident in crowd density. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the social potential of highly accessible Malaysian green roofs as public space, initiated by the lack of local published material discussing on this topic.

Design/methodology/approach

This study reviews the current issues concerning limited public accessibility on Malaysian public institution green roofs by systematic literature review and thematic analysis by comparing the effectiveness of applicable public space strategies on the green roof.

Findings

The criteria that have been identified and considered as study parameters include architecture, safety and surveillance, and active functions. Through systematic review of available literature, these characteristics contribute positively to public participation within the public realm.

Social implications

The exploration of the social potential would establish a green roof as a thriving public space that welcomes the public from all ages and backgrounds, addressing the general public accessibility towards outdoor recreational areas, especially within dense urbanisation with diminishing green spaces.

Originality/value

This research highlights the key characteristics of the highly functional public space that could be applied in developing a guideline for designing future green roofs with high accessibility potential for the public in the city area, in parallel with the anticipated future growth in demand for green roofs infrastructure surrounding public buildings.

A Qualitative Analysis of UK Wetland Visitor Centres as a Health Resource

The health benefits associated with spending time in natural environments have been highlighted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Lockdowns and restrictions to safeguard public health have exacerbated the pre-existing mental health crisis and rise of non-communicable diseases. Thus, the importance of nature as a health resource has been elevated, hastening calls for a better understanding of how health benefits might differ across user groups and nature provisions. In this regard, urban green spaces have become the greatest research focus; however, blue spaces, especially inland freshwater (e.g., wetlands), remain less studied. First-hand user experiences are also under-represented. This exploratory study examines the motivations and benefits of active wetland centre users in the UK, both during and after visits. Responses to three open-ended questions were collated online from 385 participants, and a qualitative content analysis was conducted based on an existing taxonomy from users of urban green spaces. The results showed strong motivations to visit due to the biodiversity at the site (mainly the birdlife), while less tangible nature (e.g., fresh air) and amenities were also important. In contrast to other studies on natural environments, physical activity was a less influential motivation. Salient derived effects included positive and intensely positive emotions, relaxation and mental restoration. After visits to wetland centres, feelings of vitality and satisfaction were the most prominent effects that emerged. For decision-makers looking to leverage inland blue spaces for public health benefit, our results highlight the broad range and relative prominence of the reasons for use and the associated perceived health benefits derived by users of UK wetland centres. They highlight how biodiversity, abiotic nature and good amenities are important qualities to consider when planning, managing and encouraging people to use natural environments for health benefit, qualities that may also provide important environmental co-benefits.

Life Course Nature Exposure and Mental Health Outcomes: A Systematic Review and Future Directions

Recently, an emerging body of literature has examined the relationships between early life nature exposure and mental health in later life; however, no critical synthesis yet exists regarding the extent and strength of these relationships. This study presents the first systematic review of studies in this growing area. Following the PRISMA framework, we searched six databases (i.e., Scopus, Web of Science, MEDLINE, Embase, PsycINFO, and CINAHL); conducted identification, screening, eligibility, and inclusion analyses; and identified a final set of 29 articles. The review set comprises primarily longitudinal studies, with several cross-sectional studies using retrospective measures of childhood nature exposure. The majority of included studies were published between 2016 and 2020 and conducted in Europe and North America. Five domains of mental health outcomes are associated with early-life nature exposure: incidence of mental disorders, psychiatric symptoms and emotions, conduct problems in children, cognitive function, and subjective well-being. The evidence lends support to an overall beneficial role of early nature exposure on mental health, although inconsistencies are reported. Taken together, the evidence does not suggest that exposure at any given life stage is more saliently associated with mental health outcomes than at others. We discuss the validity concerns and methodological remedies and offer directions for future research.

Becoming One with Nature: A Nature Intervention for Individuals Living with Cancer Participating in a Ten-Week Group Exercise and Wellness Program

Positive outcomes for psychological and physiological health have resulted from a nature experience. However, evidence is limited for nature-based interventions and their effect on a cancer population. The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to determine if incorporating the One Nature Challenge (ONC) into a ten-week group exercise program (WE-Can) for individuals living with cancer could offer additional psychological and/or physiological benefits to those previously observed in WE-Can. For this study, two separate ONCs were implemented throughout two seasons (summer and winter) to formulate a ONC group (n = 18; 60 ± 12yrs). Previous WE-Can graduates were used as a control group (n = 160; 59 ± 11yrs) for this study. Psychological and physiological assessments were administered in a pre- and post-test. In addition, nature relatedness (NR; ones' relationship with nature) was measured at the beginning, middle, and end of WE-Can. Following five weeks, the ONC began and participants tracked the days they experienced nature for at least thirty-minutes (24 ± 6 days), for a thirty-day period. The ONC finished concurrently with WE-Can where post-evaluations and focus groups were administered immediately following. No additional gain in overall health was found between groups. However, aerobic fitness and fatigue significantly improved for the ONC group. This was supported by frequent activities and self-reported restoration of the mind while experiencing nature. In conclusion, the lack of overall improvement could be limited by sample size and the high level of NR prior to ONC, indicating participants were already 'one with nature.'

Hotels' Eco-Friendly Physical Environment as Nature-Based Solutions for Decreasing Burnout and Increasing Job Satisfaction and Performance

This study investigates the effect of the hotel’s nature-friendly environment on burnout, job satisfaction and job performance of hotel employees. A total of 11 hypotheses were set up to achieve the purpose of this study, and an empirical analysis was conducted based on 309 surveys collected from hotel employees. A total of 11 hypotheses were set to achieve the research goals, and an empirical analysis was conducted based on a total of 309 pieces of data collected from 320 hotel employees who are currently working in 11 hotels in South Korea. As a result, eight hypotheses were accepted and three were rejected. Specifically, it was found that the hotel’s nature-friendly environment reduced burnout in employees, and indirectly had a significant effect on job satisfaction and job performance. Therefore, the relationship between the variables presented was clearly demonstrated through the research results, and the purpose of this study was satisfactorily explained. The results are expected to be of great help to hotel employees and researchers in developing strategies to efficiently manage hotel employees through nature-based solutions (NBSs). Based on the results, the proposed theoretical and practical implications are discussed in detail in the discussion section.

Vitality of Urban Parks and Its Influencing Factors from the Perspective of Recreational Service Supply, Demand, and Spatial Links

Urban parks provide multiple non-material benefits to human health and well-being; measuring these “intangible” benefits mainly co-produced by the spatial interactivity between dwellers and urban parks is vital for urban green space management. This paper introduced “vitality” to measure the intangible benefits of urban parks and constructed a straightforward and spatially explicit approach to assess the park vitality based on visiting intensity and recreational satisfaction rate. Freely available data of check-in comments on parks, points-of-interest (POIs), and other multi-source data from Beijing were used to assess the urban park vitality and explore the factors influencing it from the perspectives of recreational service supply, demand, and spatial linking characteristics. We found that the urban park vitalities decreased along the urban–rural gradient. The presence of water and facility density in the parks have significant positive impacts on park vitality, and high population density nearby was a positive factor. Moreover, the external higher levels of the POI-based urban function mix and density, as well as developed public transportation, were strongly associated with greater park vitality. Our research proposed a feasible and effective method to assess the park vitality, and the findings from this study have significant implications for optimizing the spatial configuration of urban parks.

Leisure Participation Behavior and Psychological Well-Being of Elderly Adults: An Empirical Study of Tai Chi Chuan in China

Theoretical explanation concerning the psychological well-being of elderly adults as they participate in a particular leisure activity has been rare. Based on the theory of planned behavior and the technology acceptance model, this study sought to understand the Tai Chi Chuan (TCC) participation influence factors, process, and psychological well-being of Chinese people. A self-developed questionnaire was developed to test the hypotheses of this study. Applying structural equation models, a survey of 769 TCC participations were used to test the theoretical model. The results indicated that perceived usefulness significantly and positively affect respondent attitude, family members' influences significantly and positively affect participants' subjective norm, and resource facilitating conditions significantly and positively affect perceived behavioral control. Perceived behavioral control, attitude, and subjective norm significantly and positively affect TCC participants. The study lends support to the notion that leisure activity participation is vital for elderly adults and their well-being, and it develops a theoretical reference model for better understanding the leisure participation perceptual reasoning processes of elderly adults. Furthermore, the results offer important implications for health policy makers, clinical prevention, and interventions using participation behavior relationships to develop well-constructed leisure programs to attract and inspire participation and, hence, improve the psychological well-being of elderly adults.