The Power of Green Space
When buying homes, one of the most important considerations people make is whether the neighborhood is connected to some form of green space — a trail, a park, or even a designated wetland. People are intrinsically attracted to nature, and it shows in our veneration of natural landscapes and obsession with placing bushes and trees in front of buildings. Accessing nature, however, is rather difficult to do when residing in an urban area. In these cases, many people must travel to public parks and other natural spaces in order to get their dose of green. According to the National Recreation and Park association, Americans visit their local park about 29 times a year, or about every twelve to thirteen days. That is a substantial number that should alert authorities to the importance of setting aside land for green space when attempting to craft an attractive, thriving city. In this article, I intend to investigate the role that urban green spaces play in enhancing people’s lives and emotional wellbeing.
The first question to consider is why people place such a high value on these urban green spaces. Research indicates that people visit parks for a variety of reasons, including exercise, community gatherings, and for stress relief (Mozur, 2016). Out of those possibilities, the last one has a substantive amount of supporting research. Although it has been established that green space promotes better mental health for a long time, it wasn’t until 2013 that a study was conducted to prove that the presence of green space in people’s normal lives can measurably lower their stress levels. During the study, researchers measured the level of stress hormone in the participant’s saliva in correlation to how much green space was found near their living area at different times during the day (Roe, 2013). They found that there was a significant relationship between higher green space levels and lower stress levels. People living in neighborhoods with low amounts of green space reported being more stressed than those living in dense green-space neighborhoods. As the study was performed in mostly nature deprived, urban neighborhoods, it is likely that the differences in stress levels measured were due to access and usage of green space, rather than to outside socioeconomic factors.
Another study featuring 11,238 participants measured the relationship between proximity to green space to health. The study collected data on eight different dimensions of health in addition to self-reported stress. The study found that Danes living over a kilometer away from green spaces have poorer health than those living closer. Additionally, it was found that those living far away from green spaces have 1.42 times higher odds of experiencing stress in comparison to those living close to green spaces (Stigsdotter, 2010). In the article, the researchers noted that study participants reported experiencing stress were more likely to use green spaces to reduce their stress levels.
I found it interesting that stress correlated so closely with green space proximity. With this article in mind, I decided to do some small scale research in my own community. First, I surveyed UT Austin students about their experiences with green space. In the survey, 66.7% of surveyed students said they utilized green spaces twice a month or more. An overwhelming majority also reported that they believed that their usage of green space had an impact in reducing their stress levels through activities such as exercise, quiet contemplation, and general self-care.
One student reported that “[green space] provides a time and place to…put life back in perspective”, while another student, Miriam, stated that green space gives her a “much needed break” in a “city as large as Austin”. They were among the 83.3% of students who reported that green space had positively impacted their mental health.
Not surprisingly, respondents also reported that proximity to green space was the most important factors when determining if they utilized a green space or not. This may explain why green space proximity was so closely correlated with different health outcomes in both research papers.
After seeing these results, I ran a small experiment to see if green space usage made a measurable difference in my own stress levels. Over the course of two weeks, I tracked my “stress level” for each day from a scale of 0 to 8. During the first week, I deliberately avoided green spaces. During the second week, I visited a green space for at least 15 minutes every day. I spent those 15 minutes looking at nature, reflecting on my day, or simply relaxing.
“[green space] provides a time and place to…put life back in perspective” — UT Austin student
At the end of the two weeks, I found that spending time in green space had a noticeable effect on my stress levels, moving me from a peak of a “5” rating to a “4”, and even reducing my average weekly stress level from a “3” to a “2.7”. In other words, those 15 minutes brought me from “quite stressed; coping methods at the limit” to “moderately stressed” on my roughest days. Although there were other forces in my life that may have contributed to the difference in stress levels during the experiment, the initial results were promising.
The correlation between stress and proximity to green space is particularly important when it comes to improving public health. Stress is known to interact with heart disease risk factors and increase the chance of fatal incidents. By implementing more green spaces in city planning, the city could alleviate the stress levels of its residents and help them live longer, healthier lives.
Green spaces have also been an emerging topic in the medical field. In recent years, more hospitals and care centers have begun installing “healing gardens” with the goal of improving patient recovery time and/or maintaining health. For example, there is a substantial amount of research that has been done to examine the impact of outdoor gardens on the wellbeing of dementia patients. What has been discovered so far is promising — many report that the gardens seem to calm residents and improve their quality of life (Whear, 2014). No matter where, it seems like green spaces have the power to calm and resettle us, thereby reducing stress, relieving our minds, and by extension improving our health.
However, public access to green space is inequitable and limited. Most green spaces disproportionately benefit affluent neighborhoods, resulting in limited access for lower income and minority communities (Wolch, 2014). Although many cities have taken measures to reduce this environmental gap, the results are often mixed due to increased gentrification. Re-greening empty lots, for example, may improve the overall health of the neighborhood. However, the presence of green space often drives up housing costs and can price out the original inhabitants, thereby displacing the communities that need it the most.
However, public access to green space is inequitable and limited. Most green spaces disproportionately benefit affluent neighborhoods, resulting in limited access for lower income and minority communities (Wolch, 2014). Although many cities have taken measures to reduce this environmental gap, the results are often mixed due to increased gentrification. Re-greening empty lots, for example, may improve the overall health of the neighborhood. However, the presence of green space often drives up housing costs and can price out the original inhabitants, thereby displacing the communities that need it the most.
One potential solution to this problem uses the “just green enough” approach, which partners locals and gentrifiers together to restore environmental spaces in a way that is uniquely adapted to benefit locals (Wolch, 2014). On example of this would be Greenpoint, a community where the two groups collaborated to restore waterways while maintaining local industrial usage — a tactic that preserved local working-class jobs and avoided creating the typical “parks, cafes, and a riverwalk” infrastructure that tends to encourage gentrification (Curran & Hamilton, 2012). This strategy gave control to the locals, who are in the best position to know what kind of interventions would actually benefit the community in the long run.
With these issues in mind, it becomes more evident that more research into green spaces is necessary to better understand how their benefits can be implemented on a wider scale. While green spaces clearly have a positive effect on stress and mental health, the question remains on what aspect of the spaces provide those benefits. Only then will we be able to properly plan out ecological interventions that preserve the existing communities, uplift their health, and bring about a better, thriving city.
REFERENCES
Peer Reviewed:
Curran, W., & Hamilton, T. (2012). Just green enough: Contesting environmental gentrification in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Local Environment, 17, 1027–1042.
Roe, J., Thompson, C., Aspinall, P., Brewer, M., Duff, E., Miller, D. & Mitchell, R., Clow, A. (2013). Green Space and Stress: Evidence from Crotisol Measures in Deprived Urban Communities. Environmental Research and Public Health, 10, 4086–4103.
Stigsdotter, U. Ekholm, O., Schipperijin, J., Toftager, M., Kamper-Jorgensen, F., & Randrup, T. (2010). Health promoting outdoor environments — Associations between green space, and health, health-related quality of life and stress based on a Danish national representative survey. Scandinavian Journal of Public Health, 38, 11–417
Whear, R., Abbott, R., Coon, JT., Bethel, A., Stahl-Timmins, W. & Stein, K. & Garside, R. (2014). What is the impact of using outdoor spaces such as gardens on the physical and mental well-being of those with dementia? A systematic review of quantitative and qualitative evidence. Journal of Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine, 10, 697–705.
Wolch, R., Byrne, J., & Newell, J. (2014). Urban green space, public health, and environmental justice: The challenge of making cities ‘just green enough’. Landscape and Urban Planning, 125, 234–244.
Other References:
Espada, D. (2016, December 8). 29: Number of Times Americans Visit Their Local Parks Annually. Retrieved from: https://www.nrpa.org/blog/29-number-of-times-americans-visit-their-local-parks-annually/
Mozur, T. (2016, August 22). 6 Reasons Why Parks Matter. Retrieved from: https://www.rwjf.org/en/blog/2016/08/6_reasons_why_parks.html
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