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People living in the greenest urban neighborhoods with more natural elements had significantly fewer mental health-related outpatient hospital visits than people living in the least green neighborhoods, even after...

Makram, Omar M., Alan Pan, Jay E. Maddock, and Bita A. Kash. “Nature and Mental Health in Urban Texas: A NatureScore-Based Study.” International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 21, no. 2 (2024): 168. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph21020168

Innovative playgrounds with a variety of surface types, naturalized and planted areas, open-ended structures, and moveable equipment attracted 2.5 times more users and generated almost 3 times as much moderate-to...

Cohen, Deborah A., Meghan Talarowski, Bing Han, Deborah R. Young, Sarah Eng, and Thomas L. McKenzie. 2022. “Playground Design and Physical Activity” American Journal of Preventative Medicine 64, no. 3: 326-333. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2022.10.012

Street trees can reduce non-accidental and cardiovascular mortality. In a study of street trees planted in Portland over 30 years, planting 11.7 trees annually in each census tract was associated with 15.6 fewer non...

Donovan, Geoffrey H., Jeffrey P. Prestemon, Demetrios Gatziolis, Yvonne L. Michael, Abigail R. Kaminski, and Payam Dadvand. “The association between tree planting and mortality: A natural experiment and cost-benefit analysis.” Environment International 170 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envint.2022.107609.

Children growing up in environments with more vegetation, especially with more trees, achieved more positive early childhood development outcomes as compared to children growing in environments with more paved...

Jarvis, Ingrid, Hind Sbihi, Zoë Davis, Michael Brauer, Agatha Czekajlo, Hugh W. Davies, Sarah E. Gergel, Martin Guhn, Michael Jerrett, Mieke Koehoorn, Lorien Nesbitt, Tim F. Oberlander, Jason Su, and Matilda van den Bosch. “The influence of early-life residential exposure to different vegetation types and paved surfaces on early childhood development: A population-based birth cohort study.” Environment International 163 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envint.2022.107196

Nature-based infrastructure in cities is 42% less expensive on average than grey infrastructure and provides 36% more value when accounting for avoided costs and co-benefits like increased biodiversity, reduced air...

Bechauf, Ronja, Emma Cutler, Andrea M. Bassi, Liesbeth Casier, Michail Kapetanakis, Georg Pallaske, and Benjamin Simmons. “The Value of Incorporating Nature in Urban Infrastructure Planning.” International Institute for Sustainable Development, 2022. https://www.iisd.org/publications/report/nature-in-urban-infrastructure-planning

People living in neighborhoods with the most vegetation cover saved an estimated $374 annually in healthcare costs and had fewer ER visits and hospitalizations as compared to people in neighborhoods with the least...

Van Den Eeden, Stephen K., Matthew H.E.M. Browning, Douglas A. Becker, Jun Shan, Stacey E. Alexeeff, G. Thomas Ray, Charles P. Quesenberry, and Ming Kuo. “Association Between Residential Green Cover and Direct Healthcare Costs in Northern California: An Individual Level Analysis of 5 Million Persons.” Environment International 163 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envint.2022.107174

In a study of 13 French urban green spaces, visitors reported improved mental restoration in spaces where they perceived more mixing of vegetation like woodlands, shrubs, herbaceous areas, flower areas, water areas...

Meyer-Grandbastien, Alice, Françoise Burel, Emmanuelle Hellier, and Benjamin Bergerot. “A Step Towards Understanding the Relationship Between Species Diversity and Psychological Restoration of Visitors in Urban Green Spaces Using Landscape Heterogeneity.” Landscape and Urban Planning 195 (2020) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2019.103728

Increased bird biodiversity and greater habitat diversity in urban green spaces were associated with increased human happiness according to a study of visitors to 945 green spaces in Sheffield, United Kingdom.

Cameron, Ross W. F., Paul Brindley, Meghann Mears, Kirsten McEwan, Fiona Ferguson, David Sheffield, Anna Jorgensen, Julie Riley, Jon Goodrick, Liz Ballard, and Miles Richardson. “Where the wild things are! Do urban green spaces with greater avian biodiversity promote more positive emotions in humans?” Urban Ecosystems, 23 (2020): 301–317. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11252-020-00929-z

A cross-sectional study of almost 47,000 Australian residents showed that higher percentage of tree cover within one mile of their residence was associated with lower prevalence of diabetes, hypertension, and...

Thomas Astell-Burt, and Feng, Xiaoqi. “Urban green space, tree canopy and prevention of cardiometabolic diseases: a multilevel longitudinal study of 46,786 Australians.” International Journal of Epidemiology 49, Issue 3 (2020): 926–933. https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyz239.

A study of 9,354 children from 62 schools in northeastern China found that attending a school with higher levels of greenness was associated with lower blood pressure. The beneficial effects were stronger for...

Xiao, Xiang, Bo-Yi Yang, Li-Wen Hu, Iana Markevych, Michael S. Bloom, Shyamali C. Dharmage, Bin Jalaludin, et al. “Greenness around Schools Associated with Lower Risk of Hypertension among Children: Findings from the Seven Northeastern Cities Study in China.” Environmental Pollution 256 (2020): 113422. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2019.113422

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