Did you know?

Daily moderate activity by individuals decreases the incidence of such chronic diseases as heart disease, diabetes and high blood pressure. Improved health generates significant savings in health care costs.1

A series of studies of inner-city neighborhoods finds that green spaces with trees contribute to healthier, more supportive patterns of interrelations among residents, including greater sharing of resources.2

Human Well-being

Plants and natural elements provide many environmental benefits and improve our quality of life and well being.  Sites can use natural elements in designs that provide human benefits as well as benefits to the environment.

Current Landscape Practices

Site design sometimes ignores the human benefits of healthy, green environments and fails to provide opportunities for physical activity, restorative and aesthetic experiences and social interaction.  In site design, natural elements are often viewed only as a way to beautify structures or the built environment.  However, research indicates that vegetation plays a much more important role in human health and well-being

Examples of Sustainable Human Well-being Practices

Provide spaces for physical activities.  More active lifestyles combat obesity, improve cardiovascular health and increase longevity.3  Site design can provide the space and facilities for greater physical activity.

Support on-site food production.  Urban gardens and orchards provide multiple benefits. Community gardens are sources of fresh produce often not readily available in inner-city markets and can be a particular benefit to underserved populations.  Local gardens also reduce dependence on food supply chains that can be easily disrupted. Finally, gardening promotes greater stewardship of the land and a better connection to the environment.

Provide spaces for social interaction.  Green spaces around homes provide outdoor settings where people gather, interact and build relationships.4 Shared green spaces, particularly those with trees, help strengthen social ties among neighbors.

[1] Wolf, K. 2005. Civic Nature Valuation: Assessments of Human Functioning and Well-Being in Cities. In: Forging Solutions: Applying Ecological Economics to Current Problems, Proceedings of the 3rd Biennial Conference of the US Society for Ecological Economics (July 20-23,2005). Tacoma, WA: Earth Economics.
[2] Kuo, F.E. 2003. The role of arboriculture in a healthy social ecology. Journal of Arboriculture 29, 3:148-155.
[3] Transportation Research Board (TRB). Does the Built Environment Influence Physical Activity?: Examining the Evidence. TRB Special Report 282. Committee on Physical Activity, Health, Transportation, and Land e, TRB, National Research Council, Washington, D.C., 2005.
[4] Sullivan, W.C., F.E. Kuo, and S. DePooter. 2004. The fruit of urban nature: Vital neigborhood spaces. Environment and Behavior.  36, 9: 678-700.