Fast Fact Library

The greening of three middle school schoolyards in Austria reduced students’ physiological stress levels and enhanced their psychological well-being. Students perceived the schoolyard to be more restorative...

Kelz, Christina, Gary W. Evans, and Kathrin Röderer. (2013). The restorative effects of redesigning the schoolyard: A multi-methodological, quasi-experimental study in rural Austrian middle schools. Environment and Behavior, 47(2), 119-139.

People place more value on the future after exposure to nature. The results of three studies—two laboratory experiments and a field study—reveal future discount rates 10-16% lower after nature exposure than after...

van der Wal, Arianne J., Hannah M. Schade, Lydia Krabbendam, and Mark van Vugt. (2013). Do natural landscapes reduce future discounting in humans? Proceedings of the Royal Society of Biological Sciences, 280(1773). doi: 10.1098/rspb.2013.2295

Data collected from 1990 to 2007 suggests that loss of trees to the emerald ash borer increased human mortality related to cardiovascular and lower-respiratory-tract illness. Across the 15 states in the study area...

Donovan, Geoffrey H., David T. Butry, Yvonne L. Michael, Jeffrey P. Prestemon, Andrew M. Liebhold, Demetrios Gatziolis, and Megan Y. Mao. (2013). The relationship between trees and human health: Evidence from the spread of the Emerald Ash Borer. American Journal of Public Health 44(2), 139-145.

Exposure to green space can be associated with stress reduction and increased meditation as indicated by a 2013 Edinburgh study that used portable electroencephalograms (EEGs) to analyze brain wave patterns. Each...

Aspinall, Peter, Richard Coyne, Panagiotis Mavros, and Jenny Roe. (2013). The urban brain: Analysing outdoor physical activity with mobile EEG. British Journal of Sports Medicine.  https://doi.org/10.1136/bjsports-2012-091877

An analysis of the impact of greening 4,436 vacant lots in Philadelphia from 1999 to 2008 found that vacant lot greening was associated with residents' reporting significantly less stress and more exercise in select...

Branas, Charles C., Rose A. Cheney, John M. Macdonald, Vicky W. Tam, Tara D. Jackson, and Thomas R. Ten Have. “A Difference-in-Differences Analysis of Health, Safety, and Greening Vacant Urban Space.” American Journal of Epidemiology 174, no. 11 (November 2011): 1296–1306. https://doi.org/10.1093/aje/kwr273.

An eight-year longitudinal study of 3,173 children from 12 communities in Southern California suggests that if all children had commensurate access to parkland and recreation programs near their homes, over 9.5% of...

Berhane, Kiros, Brady, Kirby, Chang, Roger, Dahmann, Nicholas, Gilliland, Frank, Jerrett, Michael, McConnell, Rob, Reynolds, Kim, Su, Jason G., Wolch, Jennifer. (2011) Childhood obesity and proximity to urban parks and recreational resources: A longitudinal cohort study. Health & Place 17, 207-214.

In a study conducted in a Chicago public housing development, women who lived in apartment buildings with trees and grass immediately outside reported greater effectiveness and less procrastination in dealing with...

Kuo, Frances E. (2001). Coping with poverty: Impacts of environment and attention in the inner city. Environment & Behavior, 33(1), 5-34.

High school students with views of green or natural landscapes showed consistently higher standardized test scores and graduation rates, with fewer occurrences of criminal behavior. This 2010 study focused on 101...

Matusoka, Rodney H. (2010). Student Performance and High School Landscapes: Examining the Links. Landscape and Urban Planning 97, 4: 273-282.

Memorial design can have an impact on war veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). A study surveyed 62 Vietnam War combat veterans with PTSD before and after visiting Maya Lin’s famous memorial. Veterans...

Watkins, Nicholas, Frances Cole, and Sue Weidemann. (2010). The war memorial as healing environment: The psychological effect of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial on Vietnam War combat veterans’ posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms. Environment and Behavior 42(3), 351-375.