Your local city park may improve your health, according to a new study.
The research shows how access to nature in cities increases physical activity and, therefore, overall health.
Lack of physical activity in the United States results in $117 billion per year in related health care costs and leads to 3.2 million deaths globally every year. It may seem like an intuitive connection, but the new research closes an important gap in understanding how building nature into cities can support overall human wellbeing.
“We want to help city planners understand where green spaces might best support people’s health, so everyone can receive nature’s benefits.”
Nature Has Many Health Benefits
For the study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers combined decades of public health research with information on nature’s benefits to people in cities.In Amsterdam, city planners are currently implementing a new green infrastructure plan. Using the city as a hypothetical case study, the researchers applied their framework to understand how Amsterdam’s plans to build or improve new parks might affect physical activity for everyone in the city. The researchers also looked at the effects on different sub-populations, like youth, the elderly, and low-income groups. This example illustrates how the city could invest in urban nature to have the greatest physical activity benefits for human health.
“Nature experience boosts memory, attention, and creativity as well as happiness, social engagement, and a sense of meaning in life,” senior author Gretchen Daily, faculty director of the Stanford Natural Capital Project, said.
Where Urban Nature Is Missing
As our world becomes more urbanized and city-centric, the ability to easily access outdoor natural spaces becomes increasingly challenging, especially for overburdened communities.Identifying where urban nature is missing in such communities—then working to fill those gaps—could provide people with valuable new opportunities to improve their health. Researchers hope the new study will equip urban planners with a more complete understanding of the benefits nature can provide their communities.
“Our ultimate goal is to create more healthy, equitable, and sustainable cities,” said co-author Anne Guerry, chief strategy officer at the Natural Capital Project. “This research is actionable—and gets us one big step closer.”
Additional coauthors are from Stanford; Leiden University; the University of Washington; RMIT University; Nanyang Technological University, the Chinese Academy of Sciences; Harvard Medical School, the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute, and the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health; the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and Stockholm Resilience Centre; the City University of Hong Kong; Maastricht University; Australian Catholic University; the University of Southern Denmark; Wageningen University; and the University of Exeter.
Funding for this research came, in part, from the Marianne and Marcus Wallenberg Foundation, the Winslow Foundation, the LuEsther Mertz Charitable Trust, John Miller, and individual supporters of the Natural Capital Project.