Shades of Green: Measuring the Ecology of Urban Green Space in the Context of Human Health and Well-Being
Shades of Green: Measuring the Ecology of Urban Green Space in the Context of Human Health and Well-Being
Anna Jorgensen and Paul H. Gobster
ABSTRACT
In this paper we review and analyze the recent research literature on urban green space and human health and well-being, with an emphasis on studies that attempt to measure biodiversity and other green space concepts relevant to urban ecological restoration. We first conduct a broad scale assessment of the literature to identify typologies of urban green space and human health and well-being measures, and use a research mapping exercise to detect research priorities and gaps. We then provide a more in-depth assessment of selected studies that use diverse and innovative approaches to measuring the more ecological aspects of urban green space and we evaluate the utility of these approaches in developing urban restoration principles and practices that are responsive to both human and ecological values.
KEYWORDS
biodiversity, green infrastructure, proxy measures, research mapping, scenario manipulation, urban ecological restoration
Western ideas about the benefits of nature to human health and wellbeing go back at least two centuries, but until the emergence of landscape perception and assessment research in the 1960s these benefits were considered too subjective to measure. Kaplan et al. (1972) were among the first to measure people’s preferences for natural over urban scenes, and before long investigators were developing models to predict green space preferences based upon the biophysical, psychological, and artistic properties of vegetation and other landscape elements (Daniel 2001). These included psycho-evolutionary models that suggested that humans prefer savanna-like landscapes characterized by open glades with smooth ground texture, framed by clumps of mature trees (e.g., Ulrich 1986), and that vegetation types associated with more biodiverse landscapes such as rough ground cover, woodland edge, or
Anna Jorgensen and Paul H. Gobster
ABSTRACT
In this paper we review and analyze the recent research literature on urban green space and human health and well-being, with an emphasis on studies that attempt to measure biodiversity and other green space concepts relevant to urban ecological restoration. We first conduct a broad scale assessment of the literature to identify typologies of urban green space and human health and well-being measures, and use a research mapping exercise to detect research priorities and gaps. We then provide a more in-depth assessment of selected studies that use diverse and innovative approaches to measuring the more ecological aspects of urban green space and we evaluate the utility of these approaches in developing urban restoration principles and practices that are responsive to both human and ecological values.
KEYWORDS
biodiversity, green infrastructure, proxy measures, research mapping, scenario manipulation, urban ecological restoration
Western ideas about the benefits of nature to human health and wellbeing go back at least two centuries, but until the emergence of landscape perception and assessment research in the 1960s these benefits were considered too subjective to measure. Kaplan et al. (1972) were among the first to measure people’s preferences for natural over urban scenes, and before long investigators were developing models to predict green space preferences based upon the biophysical, psychological, and artistic properties of vegetation and other landscape elements (Daniel 2001). These included psycho-evolutionary models that suggested that humans prefer savanna-like landscapes characterized by open glades with smooth ground texture, framed by clumps of mature trees (e.g., Ulrich 1986), and that vegetation types associated with more biodiverse landscapes such as rough ground cover, woodland edge, or