Abstract
Urban environments are expanding globally, and by 2050 nearly 70% of the world’s population will live in towns and cities, where opportunities to experience nature are more limited than in rural areas. This transition could have important implications for health and wellbeing given the diversity of benefits that nature delivers. Despite these issues, there is a lack of information on whether or how the experience of nature changes as green space becomes less available. We explore this question for residents of two case study cities of varying urban designs, sprawling (Brisbane, Australia) and compact (three English towns, U.K). Second, we examine how people’s feelings of connection to nature (measured using the Nature Relatedness scale) vary across this same gradient of nature availability. Despite climatic and cultural differences we found substantial similarities between the two locations. Lower levels of neighbourhood tree cover were associated with a reduced frequency of visits to private and public green spaces, and a similar pattern was found for the duration of time spent in private and public green spaces for Brisbane. Residents of both urban areas showed similar levels of nature relatedness, and there was a weak but positive association between tree cover and Nature Relatedness. These results suggest that regardless of the style of urban design, maintaining the availability of nature close to home is a critical step to protect people’s experiences of nature and their desire to seek out those experiences.
Highlights
With nearly 70% of the global population predicted to live in cities by 2050 (United Nations, 2014), there is growing concern thatD.F
Lower levels of neighbourhood tree cover were associated with a reduced frequency of visits to private and public green spaces, and a similar pattern was found for the duration of time spent in private and public green spaces for Brisbane
We scrutinise whether people’s levels of connection to nature vary across that same gradient. We address these questions for two case-study locations of contrasting urban design; Brisbane, Australia, with sprawling urban development around a central business district, and the ‘Cranfield Triangle’, U.K., which is a cluster of three compact urban centres
Summary
With nearly 70% of the global population predicted to live in cities by 2050 (United Nations, 2014), there is growing concern thatD.F. Characteristics of urban form, such as whether a city is sprawling or compact could influence nature interactions (Gaston, Warren, Thompson, & Smith, 2005; Lin et al, in preparation). Exploration of these potential patterns warrants considerable attention. Whether or not people alter their behaviour to compensate for a lower availability of nature in their living environment will have important implications for how cities are designed to accommodate the rapidly growing urban population
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