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According to a 2013 study of lawns in the Los Angeles metropolitan area, low-density plantings of trees on irrigated lawns can significantly reduce turfgrass evapotranspiration through partial shading and serve as a...

Litvak, Elizaveta, Neeta S. Bijoor, and Diane E. Pataki. (November 2013). Adding trees to irrigated turfgrass lawns may be a water-saving measure in semi-arid environments. Ecohydrology 7(5): 1314-1330. https://doi.org/10.1002/eco.1458

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

Bird abundance in England was studied on and around green walls versus bare control walls to determine habitat value. Birds used the upper half of green walls for nesting, food, and shelter, but were never found on...

Chiquet, Caroline, John W. Dover, and Paul Mitchell. (2013). Birds and the urban environment: the value of green walls. Urban Ecosystems, 16(3), 453-462.

Sunflowers removed more lead and copper from the soil than amaranth and Indian mustard in this Malaysian study. Sunflowers also removed significantly more lead (50-54%) and copper (34-34%) from contaminated...

Rahman, Motior M., Sofian M. Azirun, and Amru N. Boyce. (2013). Enhanced accumulation of copper and lead in amaranth (Amaranthus paniculatus), Indian mustard (Brassica Juncea) and sunflower (Helianthus annuus). PLOS ONE 8(5): e62941. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0062941

Protecting undeveloped land within floodplains significantly reduces property damage caused by flooding events, as shown by an eleven-year nationwide study of 450 communities. Communities protecting open space under...

Brody, Samuel D., and Wesley E. Highfield. (2013). Open space protection and flood mitigation: A national study. Land Use Policy, 32, 89-95.

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

A study of 13 road safety measures in New York City installed between 1998 and 2008 found that road diets (reducing travel lanes and adding bike lanes) reduced crashes by 67%. High-visibility crosswalks reduced...

Chen, Li, Cynthia Chen, Reid Ewing, Claire E. McKnight, Raghavan Srinivasan, and Matthew Roe. (2013). Safety countermeasures and crash reduction in New York City—Experience and lessons learned. Accident Analysis & Prevention, 50, 312-322.

Non-steep berms, particularly with flat tops, were more effective at shielding road noise than noise walls of the same height due to wind effects. Berms with a forest-floor type cover reduced sound by 0.9 to 2.7...

Van Renterghem, Timothy, and Dick Botteldooren. (2012). On the choice between walls and berms for road traffic noise shielding including wind effects. Landscape and Urban Planning, 105(3), 199-210.

Four days of immersion in nature, and the corresponding disconnection from multi-media and technology, increases performance on a creativity problem-solving task by a full 50%.

Atchley Ruth A., Strayer David L., Atchley Paul. (2012) Creativity in the Wild: Improving Creative Reasoning through Immersion in Natural Settings. PLoS ONE 7(12): e51474. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0051474

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