Health Benefits Of Green Space Research Articles

Does gentrification precede and follow greening? Evidence about the green gentrification cycle in Los Angeles and Chicago

The health benefits of green space have led to calls for equitable access to parks. When new green spaces are built in low-income communities, however, gentrification often ensues. The “green gentrification” literature has paid little attention to gentrification that might occur before greening. In this paper, we explore whether and under which circumstances gentrification might precede and follow greening, a process known as the “green gentrification cycle.” Focusing on Los Angeles and Chicago, we build hedonic models focused on single-family homes sold in 2010–2021 and run post-hoc pairwise comparison tests to assess price changes over time for homes within a half-mile of new parks (treatment) and farther (control). When considering all new parks, we find that gentrification is associated with subsequent greening and, to some extent, that greening is associated with ensuing gentrification in Los Angeles. In Chicago, gentrification is associated with subsequent greening, but new parks are not associated with ensuing gentrification. Models distinguishing larger regional from smaller non-regional parks show evidence of gentrification before and after non-regional parks were built in Los Angeles, but not for regional parks. In Los Angeles, we identify stronger evidence of gentrification preceding greening farther from downtown than closer to downtown, and signals of gentrification after greening near downtown but not farther away. Models focusing on new parks built near transit stations show inconclusive results. Despite methodological limitations (e.g., examining a single measure of gentrification and different park types together), our findings shed light on the complex spatiotemporal relationships between greening and gentrification.

Leveraging and exercising caution with ChatGPT and other generative artificial intelligence tools in environmental psychology research.

Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI) is an emerging and disruptive technology that has attracted considerable interest from researchers and educators across various disciplines. We discuss the relevance and concerns of ChatGPT and other GAI tools in environmental psychology research. We propose three use categories for GAI tools: integrated and contextualized understanding, practical and flexible implementation, and two-way external communication. These categories are exemplified by topics such as the health benefits of green space, theory building, visual simulation, and identifying practical relevance. However, we also highlight the balance of productivity with ethical issues, as well as the need for ethical guidelines, professional training, and changes in the academic performance evaluation systems. We hope this perspective can foster constructive dialogue and responsible practice of GAI tools.

Public perceptions of the health benefits of green spaces in urban Ghana

ABSTRACT Recent years have witnessed a growth in research on urban green spaces given their significance to human wellbeing and environmental management. This paper explores the perceived health benefits of urban green areas by drawing on the experiences of 95 participants sampled from three urban communities in the Kumasi Metropolis of Ghana. It is a qualitative study employing a cross-sectional design. The paper argues that participants’ perceptions straddle physical and non-physical dimensions of health. From the physical perspective, the participants revealed that green spaces improved physical activity and reduced incidence of cardiovascular diseases and high blood pressure. The non-physical health benefits included improved attention, reduced stress and positive emotions such as happiness. The findings of this paper call for broad-based multi-sectoral approach to managing green spaces in urban Ghana.

Green Spaces with Fewer People Improve Self-Reported Affective Experience and Mood.

Calm and quiet green spaces provide health benefits for urban residents. Yet as cities become more densely populated, increasing public users to green spaces may reduce or moderate these benefits. We examine how increased pedestrian density in a green street changes self-reported wellbeing. We use a between subject experimental design that added public users as confederates in randomly selected periods over three weeks. We collect data on mood and affective response from pedestrians moving through the green street (n = 504), with and without our public user treatment in randomly selected periods. Mood and affective response are improved when experiencing the green street with fewer people. We find that an increased number of public users in the green space has a negative effect on mood, especially among women. We provide experimental evidence that self-reported wellbeing in urban green spaces depends on social context, and that there are gender inequities associated with changes in affective response. Although we only measure immediate impacts, our results imply that the health benefits of green spaces may be limited by the total number of users. This research contributes additional evidence that greener cities are also healthier cities, but that the benefits may not be equally shared between women and men and will depend on the social context of use.

Investigation on sociodemographic and health inequity of greenspace using different greenspace indicators in 3 US urban communities

BACKGROUND AND AIM Study results are inconclusive regarding how greenspace exposure differs by sociodemographic status potentially due to lack of consideration of varying dimensions of greenspace. We investigated the inequity of greenspace and its health effects by sociodemographic status comparing various greenspace metrics. METHODS We used five metrics: vegetation levels measured by Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI), percent greenspace, percent tree cover, percent tree cover along walkable roads, and percent people living <500m of a park entrance (park accessibility). We used data for 2008–2013 in Census block groups in 3 US regions: New Haven, Connecticut; Baltimore, Maryland; Durham, North Carolina. We examined associations between each greenspace metric and indicators of income, education, linguistic isolation, race/ethnicity, and age. Logistic regressions examined associations between these greenspace metrics and age-standardized mortality controlling for sociodemographic indicators. RESULTS The region with the highest greenspace differed across metrics. Average percent greenspace was highest in Durham and lowest in Baltimore. Average percent people living <500m of a park entrance and percent tree cover along walkable roads were highest in New Haven. An interquartile range (64.7%) increase in people of color was associated with a 6.2% (95%CI: 3.1–9.3) increase in park accessibility, whereas it was associated with 0.03–7.3% decreases in other greenspace metrics. A 15.5% increase in the lower-education population was associated with a 2.1% increase (95%CI: -0.3%–4.6%) in park accessibility but decreases with other greenspace metrics (0.02–5.0%). The odds ratios of having an all-cause standardized mortality rate ≥75th percentile were inversely associated with all greenspace metrics except for park accessibility (OR=1.40, 95% CI: 0.52–3.75). CONCLUSIONS Environmental justice concerns and health benefits of greenspace can differ by form of greenspace and socioeconomic status within communities. Comparisons of greenspace between different greenspace metrics should be incorporated in decision-making. KEYWORDS Environmental justice, greenspace, health inequity.

Exploring the Mediating Effect of Physical Activities on Built Environment and Obesity for Elderly People: Evidence From Shanghai, China.

There is still a scarcity of literature on the specific mechanisms of the linkage between the built environment and obesity. As a result, this study investigated whether and how physical activities mediate the associations between the objective built environment and the BMI of elderly people. To investigate the effect of the duration and intensity of physical activity on the effect of the built environment, the study made use of the bootstrap method. In general, we discovered that physical activity duration has a huge mediating effect on the elderly people in Shanghai, especially with respect to the density and accessibility of facilities (gyms, parks, fast-food restaurants) that can greatly stimulate physical activity in elderly people to reduce their BMI. There were both direct and indirect effects on their BMI, which means that the health benefits of green spaces for older people may be more complicated than first thought.

Green areas and students’ academic performance in the Federal District, Brazil: An assessment of three greenness metrics

Most of the epidemiological investigations looking at the health benefits of green spaces have measured the level of green areas by using only one approach, mainly the Normalized Difference Index – NDVI (a satellite-derived indicator). We hypothesized a difference in the association between health and green space depending on the metric used to measure green exposure. This study considers students' academic performance as a proxy of cognitive abilities (a health indicator). We estimated the relationship between green areas and students' academic performance in the Federal District (FD), Brazil, with three different greenness metrics: NDVI, distance to green spaces (m) - obtained from land use data, and quantity of green spaces (m2) - also from land use data. We assessed student-level academic performance data provided by the Department of the Education in the FD. The data includes students from the public schools in the FD for 256 schools (all the public schools in the FD) and 344,175 students (all the students enrolled in the public schools in the FD in 2017–2020).). For the first metric represented by the distance to green spaces, we estimated the straight-line distance between each school and the nearest green area. For NDVI and quantity of green spaces, we estimated the area of all green spaces within buffers of 500 m, 750 m, and 1 km around the schools. We applied a cross-sectional study design using mixed-effects regression models to analyze the association exposure to green areas around schools and student-level academic performance. Our results confirmed our hypothesis showing that the impact of green areas on students' performance varied significantly depending on the type of green metric. After adjustments for the covariates, we estimated that NDVI is positively associated with school-level academic performance, with an estimated coefficient of 0.91 (95%CI: 0.83; 0.99) for NDVI values at a school's centroid. Distance to green areas was negatively associated with academic performance [-2.09 × 10−5 (95CI: 3.91 × 10−5; −2.84 × 10−6]. The quantity of green areas was estimated with mixed results (direction of the association), depending on the buffer size. Results from this paper suggest that epidemiological investigations must consider the different effects of greenness measures when looking at the association between green space and academic performance. More studies on residual confounding from this association with a different study design are needed to promote public health by making schools healthier.

Is green space associated with opioid-related mortality? An ecological study at the U.S. county level

Opioid consumption, both legal and illicit, has risen precipitously in the U.S. over the past few decades, as has the number of deaths due to the use and misuse of opioids. Exposure to green spaces may help to alleviate the problematic levels of opioid use. Such exposure has been tied to health benefits relevant to opioid use. To explore the potential influence of green space on opioid-related health outcomes, we analyzed the association between tree canopy cover and mortality attributable to opioid use and abuse using 2008–2018 death rate data on a county level (n = 3087) across the contiguous U. S. We fitted spatial general additive model while controlling for socioeconomic factors, healthcare access measures, opioid prescription rates, and particulate air pollution. Contrary to expectations, canopy cover was positively associated with opioid mortality. A sensitivity analysis with forest land cover showed similar results while a sensitivity analysis with total greenness (NDVI) was nonsignificant. Stratified models by urbanicity level suggested suburban and rural counties drove the positive associations observed in the nationwide models. The findings for forest and canopy cover are unexpected, given the myriad health benefits of green spaces, yet might be explained by heavily forested areas (i.e., Appalachia) being home to injury-prone natural resource extraction employment sectors. The steady decline of these industries has created poor socioeconomic conditions that exacerbate the already elevated risk of opioid use and misuse. Alternatively, the magnitude of the protective effects of greenspace on pain reduction are insufficient to counter opioid demand. Further research is warranted, especially in studies with individual-level data. Entities with responsibility or interest in reducing the incidence of deaths from opioids are cautioned that green spaces might not be a viable option for reducing opioid mortality.

Effects of Urban Green Space on Cardiovascular and Respiratory Biomarkers in Chinese Adults: Panel Study Using Digital Tracking Devices.

BackgroundThe health benefits of urban green space have been widely reported in the literature; however, the biological mechanisms remain unexplored, and a causal relationship cannot be established between green space exposure and cardiorespiratory health.ObjectiveOur aim was to conduct a panel study using personal tracking devices to continuously collect individual exposure data from healthy Chinese adults aged 50 to 64 years living in Hong Kong.MethodsA panel of cardiorespiratory biomarkers was tested each week for a period of 5 consecutive weeks. Data on weekly exposure to green space, air pollution, and the physical activities of individual participants were collected by personal tracking devices. The effects of green space exposure measured by the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) at buffer zones of 100, 250, and 500 meters on a panel of cardiorespiratory biomarkers were estimated by a generalized linear mixed-effects model, with adjustment for confounding variables of sociodemographic characteristics, exposure to air pollutants and noise, exercise, and nutrient intake.ResultsA total of 39 participants (mean age 56.4 years, range 50-63 years) were recruited and followed up for 5 consecutive weeks. After adjustment for sex, income, occupation, physical activities, dietary intake, noise, and air pollution, significant negative associations with the NDVI for the 250-meter buffer zone were found in total cholesterol (–21.6% per IQR increase in NDVI, 95% CI –32.7% to –10.6%), low-density lipoprotein (–14.9%, 95% CI –23.4% to –6.4%), glucose (–11.2%, 95% CI –21.9% to –0.5%), and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (–41.3%, 95% CI –81.7% to –0.9%). Similar effect estimates were found for the 100-meter and 250-meter buffer zones. After adjustment for multiple testing, the effect estimates of glucose and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein were no longer significant.ConclusionsThe health benefits of green space can be found in some metabolic and inflammatory biomarkers. Further studies are warranted to establish the causal relationship between green space and cardiorespiratory health.

Neighbourhood green space and health disparities in the global South: Evidence from Cali, Colombia

Increasing attention has been given to the role of green space in reducing health disparities. However, robust evidence to support decision making is lacking in the global South. We investigate the relationship between green space and health as well as its underlying mechanism in Cali, Colombia. Results indicate that neighbourhood greenness is associated with enhanced self-rated 'good' health and reduced physical and mental distress. The health benefits of green space appear to be stronger for people living in wealthier neighbourhoods than those in poor neighbourhoods. Results highlight the importance of considering health disparities for future green infrastructure planning in the global South context.

Greenspace programmes for mental health: A survey study to test what works, for whom, and in what circumstances.

The health benefits of greenspace are widely acknowledged. Greenspace programmes, defined as health programmes undertaken in outside green areas such as parks, gardens, hills, and forests, are becoming more commonplace. However, there is still limited understanding of the mechanisms by which greenspace programmes are effective. This makes future development and implementation very difficult. We recently developed and published a novel framework for greenspace programmes for mental health showing what works, for whom, and in what circumstances (Masterton et al., 2020). In this current study, the accuracy of the proposed framework was tested for the first time using primary data from greenspace organisations in Scotland. Given the link between mental health and substance use, the applicability of the framework to programmes that support people with problem substance use was also tested. A survey was designed to test the contexts, mechanisms, and outcomes identified within the previously proposed framework. The survey was completed by 64 participants to provide a general overview of the framework's applicability for programmes that support mental health, as well as for programmes that support people with problem substance use. Overall, respondents agreed with all survey statements. This suggests that the framework does effectively represent the underlying context, mechanism, outcome configurations of greenspace programmes for mental health. Furthermore, there were no differences between responses from organisations that support people with problem substance use, and organisations that do not support this client group. This shows that the framework has the potential to be applicable to both greenspace programmes for mental health and greenspace programmes for people with problem substance use. This is a novel finding as, to our knowledge, there is currently no framework looking to explain the contexts, mechanisms, and outcomes necessary for greenspace programmes to be successful for people with problem substance use.

The Impact of Green Urban Open Spaces on Enhancing Mental Health

Scarcity of green public spaces not only could impair the livability and sustainability of cities but also would affect the public health, while there is potential benefit of green environments on mental health, it could be one of the great reasons of reducing depression and stress, many studies conducted during the last decade suggest the mental health benefits of green spaces , According to the World Health Organization, mental health promotion should include actions that create environments that support mental health and allow people to maintain healthy lifestyles, Given the increase in mental health problems and the ongoing massive urbanization, especially in developing countries, Evidence is growing for the beneficial impacts of natural outdoor environments on health. The general disproportion of urban development and the socio-economic crisis in Egypt followed by a number of acute and chronic stressors, as well as years of accumulated trauma, prevented the parallel physical, mental and social adaptation of society, in addition to a whole and continuous contraction of public green spaces in Cairo certainly affected the quality of mental health, increasing the absolute number of people with depression, stress and psychosomatic disorders.This paper aims to explore and document the development process of Merryland Park, Heliopolis, Cairo, Egypt with specific reference to the conflict between urban development, and mental health.

Is green space exposure beneficial in a developing country?

Previous studies have confirmed the beneficial effects of green space exposure on depressive disorders, but the majority of them were conducted in developed countries. Given the difference in utilization of green spaces in countries with agriculturally heavy economies such as Indonesia, the effects of green space remain unknown. This study aimed to investigate the association between green space exposure and depressive disorders, focusing on Indonesia. Depressive disorders data provided by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation was used. Exposure to the green space was based on the normalized difference vegetation index (MODIS-NDVI) and green land-cover data provided by the Geospatial Information Agency of Indonesia. A generalized additive mixed model was conducted, followed by a sensitivity test and positive-negative control analysis, to evaluate the association. Stratified analysis was employed to assess the effects of green space on depressive disorders in areas with different levels of urbanization. Exposure to green space significantly reduced the risk of depressive disorders by up to 5% per interquartile unit increment of NDVI. Moreover, there was a 12.4% reduced risk of depressive disorders coinciding with an 8.4% increase in the proportion of forest and total vegetation. In high-urbanization areas, the results of sensitivity analysis illustrated that green spaces reduced the risk of depressive disorders by 10%. Exposure to green spaces was confirmed to be associated with a reduced risk of depressive disorders in Indonesia. Findings of this ecological study could serve as references for urban planning, considering the health benefits of green spaces in developing countries.

Association between residential greenness and oxidative stress in AIRLESS study in Beijing, China

BACKGROUND AND AIM: Greenness has been associated with lower risks of cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, cancer, and mortality among urban residents. Under the biophilia hypothesis, nature confers health benefits, but the underlying biological mechanisms need to be better elucidated. METHODS: This study investigates the associations between contemporary Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and urinary oxidative stress in participants residing in an urban district (Haidian) and a peri-urban district (Pinggu) of Beijing (N=251). Our outcome measurements are urinary creatinine-normalized concentrations of three oxidative stress biomarkers (free, total MDA, and 8-OHdG). Due to right skew of biomarkers data, they were ln-transformed. We calculated contemporaneous greenness level of winter 2016 and summer 2017 by the average daily satellite-derived NDVI in the zone with 500m*500m grids through Google Earth Engine (GEE). Linear mixed-effects models adjusted for demographic characteristics, morbidity, and environment covariates were used to explore associations of NDVI and the biomarkers. RESULTS:Baseline mean free MDA, total MDA and 8-OHdG were 1600.11 ng/ml, 11126.16 ng/ml, and 4.68 ng/ml, respectively. Individuals who live in greener areas tended to have lower levels of oxidative stress. Compared to the participants in the lowest NDVI tertile (0.11-0.25), those in the highest tertile (0.36-0.83) had significantly lower free and total MDA levels, with the decreased mean (95%CI) percentage of -21.32% (-38.91%, -2.38%) and -20.06% (-35.06%, -3.92%), respectively, (p = 0.020). In the urban participants, we found significant negative associations of NDVI with free MDA (p = 0.003), total MDA (p = 0.005), 8-OHdG (p = 0.020), but not in the peri-urban participants. CONCLUSIONS:Even within the same city, the protective effects of greenness on oxidative stress were more evident for urban residents. Considering that oxidative stress is a pathophysiologic risk factor for many diseases and natural aging, this research provides mechanistic insights on health benefits of green space in built environment and urban planning process. KEYWORDS: Greenness, oxidative stress, Malondialdehyde(MDA), 8-hydroxy-2 deoxyguanosine(8-OHdG)

Residential Green and Blue Spaces and Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus: A Population-Based Health Study in China.

Evidence on the health benefits of green space in residential environments is still limited, and few studies have investigated the potential association between blue space and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) prevalence. This study included 39,019 participants who had completed the baseline survey from the Henan Rural Cohort Study, 2015–2017. The Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) were employed to characterize the residential green space, and the distance from the participant’s residential address to the nearest water body was considered to represent the residential blue space. Mixed effect models were applied to evaluate the associations of the residential environment with T2DM and fasting blood glucose (FBG) levels. An interquartile range (IQR) increase in NDVI and EVI was significantly associated with a 13.4% (odds ratio (OR): 0.866, 95% Confidence interval (CI): 0.830,0.903) and 14.2% (OR: 0.858, 95% CI: 0.817,0.901) decreased risk of T2DM, respectively. The residential green space was associated with lower fasting blood glucose levels in men (%change, −2.060 in men vs. −0.972 in women) and the elderly (%change, −1.696 in elderly vs. −1.268 in young people). Additionally, people who lived more than 5 km from the water body had a 15.7% lower risk of T2DM (OR: 0.843, 95% CI: 0.770,0.923) and 1.829% lower fasting blood glucose levels (95% CI: −2.335%,−1.320%) than those who lived closer to the blue space. Our findings suggest that residential green space was beneficially associated with T2DM and fasting blood glucose levels. However, further research is needed to explore more comprehensively the relationship between residential blue space and public health.

Public Urban Green Spaces’ Visiting Habits and Perception Regarding Their Health Benefits in Addis Ababa City, Ethiopia

Physical structure and activities undertaken at green spaces provide substantial health, social, environmental, psychological, and economic benefits to residents of an urban area. Study regarding the health benefits of green spaces in developing countries is very limited. Addis Ababa is the capital and the largest city in Ethiopia and not many studies on green spaces are available. Thus, this community-based cross-sectional study was conducted among 204 residents of Addis Ababa city. A multistage sampling technique was used, the sample size was allocated proportionally and selected by a simple random sampling technique. Data were coded and entered into Epi Info ™ 7 and exported to SPSS version 25 for cleaning and analysis. Results showed that only 30% of the respondents visited green spaces in the last 12 months. The common reasons for the visit were to adore nature (30.4%), refresh mind (25%), and “breathe quality air” (20.6%). Although most study participants were aware of the appealing psychological benefits of green spaces, only 55.9% of them had a positive perception regarding the health benefits of green spaces. Compared with the negative perception those with positive perception were more than twice more likely to visit green spaces (AOR: 2.51; 95% CI: 1.33-4.77). The study concluded that in addition to expanding the green spaces efforts have to be directed to solving challenges that discourage visits, increasing awareness, and improving the perception of the community regarding added health benefits of green spaces.

Green Infrastructure and Health.

The health benefits of green space are well known, but the health effects of green infrastructure less so. Green infrastructure goes well beyond the presence of green space and refers more to a strategically planned network of natural and seminatural areas, with other environmental features designed and managed to deliver a wide range of ecosystem services and possibly to improve human health. In this narrative review, we found that small green infrastructure, such as green roofs and walls, has the potential to mitigate urban flooding, attenuate indoor temperatures and heat islands, improve air quality, and muffle noise, among other benefits, but these effects have not been linked directly to health. Larger green infrastructure has been associated with reduced temperatures, air pollution, and crimes and violence, but less so with health, although some evidence suggests that it may be beneficial for health (e.g., good health, decreased mortality). Finally, parks and street trees show many health benefits, but it is not clear if they can always be considered green infrastructure.

The Association between Residential Green Space in Childhood and Development of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: A Population-Based Cohort Study.

Background:Access to green space has been hypothesized to have a beneficial impact on children’s mental well-being and cognitive development. The underlying mechanisms of the mental health benefits of green space are not fully understood, but different pathways have been suggested, such as the psychologically restoring capacities of green space, the ability to facilitate physical activity and social cohesion, and the mitigation of exposure to air pollution.Objectives:In this nationwide cohort study, we investigated associations between residential green space in early childhood and a clinical diagnosis of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).Methods:The cohort included individuals, who were born in Denmark between 1992 and 2007 () and followed for a diagnosis of ADHD from age 5, during the period 1997–2016. We used the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) as a measure of vegetation greenness surrounding each residential address in a quadratic area of in which the residence was located in the center of the quadrate. Individual exposure to green space was calculated as the average of NDVI surrounding each individual’s residential address (or addresses if more than one) between birth and the fifth birthday. Multilevel modeling was used to estimate the incidence rate ratios (IRRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) for ADHD, according to exposure level and adjusted for calendar time, age, sex, parental socioeconomic status, neighborhood level socioeconomic status, and urbanicity.Results:Individuals living in areas defined by sparse green vegetation (lowest decile of NDVI) had an increased risk of developing ADHD, compared with individuals living in areas within the highest decile of NDVI (; 95% CI: 1.46, 1.65). Adjusting for the known confounders attenuated the result, but the association remained (; 95% CI: 1.13, 1.28).Conclusion:Our findings suggest that lower levels of green space in residential surroundings, during early childhood, may be associated with a higher risk of developing ADHD. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP6729

The health benefits of green spaces that will be useful to future society, as considered in the COVID-19 disaster

The health benefits of green spaces that will be useful to future society, as considered in the COVID-19 disaster

Association of urban green space with general health and wellbeing in adults from Greece

Association of urban green space with general health and wellbeing in adults from GreeceKanelli, Argyro Anna1, Kalantzi, Olga-Ioanna11 Department of Environment, University of the Aegean, Mytilene, 81100, GreeceBackground: Despite the mounting evidence of health benefits of green spaces, their quantitative and qualitative attributes in the way they influence health responses are poorly understood. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the short-term changes in physiological and psychological responses upon exposure to an urban green space, and explore the mediators that affect exposure.Methods: Twenty-four participants were exposed to an urban (downtown Athens) and a green space (Tatoi forest) in November 2019. Systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), pulse rate (PR), salivary cortisol (SC) and Profile of Mood States (POMS) were measured before and after a 60-minute walk. Post intervention, the participants filled an open-ended question of their sensory experience, and their positive or negative emotions/reactions. A multiple linear regression analysis was performed to assess the correlation between the health outcomes and moderators of exposure.Results: Green space exposure significantly reduced all physiological responses (SBP: p<0.01, DBP: p<0.05, PR: p<0.01, SC: p<0.01), while urban exposure only reduced salivary cortisol levels (p<0.01). Green space exposure resulted in a significant decrease of all negative POMS subscales and the Total Mood Disturbance (TMD), and an increase in all positive subscales. Post intervention results between the urban and green space showed a significant decrease for PR (p<0.05), SC (p<0.05), and TMD (p<0.01), in favor of the natural environment. All five senses were engaged in the forest, provoking positive reactions, in comparison to the city where four senses were reported, causing mostly negative feelings.Conclusions: Exposure to green spaces can alleviate stress and improve overall mood, while helping individuals experience their surroundings with all senses, compared to urban areas.