The effect of urban nature exposure on mental health-a case study of Guangzhou

JOURNAL OF CLEANER PRODUCTION

卷:304

Article

Liu, Hongxiao^1,2  Ren, Hai¹  Remme, Roy P.^3,4  Nong, Huifu^5,6  Sui, Chunhua⁷ 

[1] Chinese Acad Sci, CAS Engn Lab Vegetat Ecosystem Restorat Islands &, South China Bot Garden, Guangzhou 510650, Peoples R China

[2] Southern Marine Sci & Engn Guangdong Lab Guangzho, Guangzhou 511458, Peoples R China

[3] Leiden Univ, Inst Environm Sci CML, Einsteinweg 2, NL-2333 CC Leiden, Netherlands

[4] Stanford Univ, Dept Biol & Woods, Nat Capital Project, Inst Environm, Stanford, CA 94305 USA

[5] Guangdong Univ Finance, Sch Finance & Investment, Guangzhou 510521, Peoples R China

[6] Sun Yat Sen Univ, Dept Econ, Guangzhou 510275, Peoples R China

[7] Shaoguan Univ, Tourism Dept, Shaoguan 512005, Peoples R China

关键词: Greenspace;    Subjective well-being;    Blue space;    Mental health;    Built environment;    Public health;   

DOI  :  10.1016/j.jclepro.2021.127100

来源: Elsevier

【 摘 要 】

There is considerable evidence concerning the salutary effects of nature on mental health in developed countries. However, these benefits are less examined and recognized in Chinese cities where 11%-15% of the population are facing increasing mental health issues. To provide more comprehensive evidence concerning nature's benefits on multiple components of mental health in Chinese cities, we address two poorly resolved questions: i) does exposure to urban park and blue space have equivalent associations with multiple components of mental health? ii) do these associations vary across gender and socioeconomic groups? We conducted two waves of cross-sectional surveys in Guangzhou and investigated 1,274 respondents' (933 from online survey and 341 from face-to-face survey) depression risk and four aspects of subjective well-being (SWB) including life satisfaction, worthwhileness, happy yesterday, and anxious yesterday. The results suggest that both park and blue space exposure mitigate depression risk and negative affect well-being, however their associations vary with evaluative, eudemonic, and positive affect well-being. Achieving SWB across all its components needs access to both park and blue space. One-hectare increase in accessible water is associated with an improvement up to 0.45% anxious yesterday scores indicating blue space a potential public health resource. We observed a clear gender and socioeconomic differences: nearby nature has stronger protective effects for female, lower educated and low-to-median income population groups than their counterpart. Although the heterogeneities need to be confirmed in other urban settings, our findings suggest that effective actions need to consider gender-and socioeconomic differences to target potential beneficiaries and maximize the returns of investments and policy interventions. (c) 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

【 授权许可】

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