Abstract
Evidence that urban green-space promotes health and well-being of urban residents is increasing. The role of biodiversity is unclear: perceived biodiversity may be important, but how accurately it is perceived and the factors influencing this accuracy are poorly understood. We use experimental perennial urban meadows in southern England to investigate the impact of creating biodiverse habitats on green-space users’ i) physical and mental health, psychological well-being, ii) factors moderating health and well-being outcomes (site satisfaction and nature connectedness), and iii) perceived biodiversity. We explore whether ‘nature dose’ (time spent at a site) influences these relationships. We then assess whether green-space users can estimate botanical diversity accurately across meadow treatments differing in plant species richness and vegetation structure, and determine the environmental cues and personal characteristics associated with these estimates. Sites with experimental meadows did not increase respondents’ perceptions of site level biodiversity, their self-rated physical and mental health or psychological well-being relative to control sites lacking meadows. However, there were significant associations between perceived site level biodiversity per se, and site satisfaction and feeling connected to nature. Moreover, we observed a positive association between nature dose and self-estimated mental health. We found that actual and perceived botanical richness in individual meadow plots were strongly positively correlated. Perceived richness was positively associated with vegetation height, evenness, and colourfulness suggesting that these are cues for estimating species richness. The accuracy of estimates varied, but respondents with higher levels of eco-centricity were more accurate than people who were less connected to nature.
Highlights
Whilst patterns of urbanisation range from sprawl to compaction, many cities around the globe are becoming denser, creating pressure on their green spaces (World Bank, 2015)
To explore relationships between health and well-being and the establishment of the meadow plots at the site level we modelled each respondent’s self-estimated physical health and mental health scores, psychological well-being, moderating factors of well-being and perceived species richness as a function of treatment
Our methodology was different focusing on analyses at the respondent level rather than site level. This methodological difference may partly contribute to the difference in results as we found a positive correlation between continuity with the past and perceived richness at the site level (r = 0.28; n = 8), but other correlations were much weaker or negative
Summary
Whilst patterns of urbanisation range from sprawl to compaction, many cities around the globe are becoming denser, creating pressure on their green spaces (World Bank, 2015). Implementation of multifunctional ‘nature based solutions’ (van den Bosch & Ode Sang, 2017; Shanahan et al, 2015) helps to deliver these benefits Such solutions typically increase biodiversity through habitat creation or ecological restoration schemes, whilst simultaneously providing additional benefits such as flood control, mitigation of urban heat islands (Bolund & Hunhammar, 1999) and atmospheric particulates and pollutants (Janhall, 2015), whilst providing spaces for recreation and leisure (Chiesura, 2004). These nature based solutions can provide multiple benefits, including enhancements to human health, here broadly defined (following WHO, 2014) as ‘a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity’. Health includes psychological well-being which includes hedonic (feeling) and eudaimonic (meaning) dimensions (Ryff 1989; Ryff & Keyes, 1995; Dodge, Daly, Huyton, & Sanders, 2012; WHO, 2014)
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