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Results of a study of 200 schools in South Carolina's Lowcountry showed that students ages 5 to 15 are four times more likely to walk to schools built before 1983 than to those built more recently.

Kouri, Christopher. Wait for the Bus: How Lowcountry School Site Selection and Design Deter Walking to School and Contribute to Urban Sprawl. A Report Prepared for the South Carolina Coastal Conservation League. Terry Sanford Institute of Public Policy, Duke University (November 1999). https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED451681. 

Residents at a Chicago public housing development living in buildings with more trees and grass reported that they knew their neighbors better, socialized with them more often, had stronger feelings of community...

Kuo, Frances E., William C. Sullivan, Rebekah Levine Coley, and Liesette Brunson. (1998). Fertile ground for community: Inner-city neighborhood common spaces. American Journal of Community Psychology, 26(6), 823-851.

A Sacramento County study found that city-wide maximum mid-day air temperature reductions due to the shading and evapotranspiration of trees are in the range of 0.04°C to 0.2°C per percent canopy cover increase.

Simpson, James R. (1998). Urban forest impacts on regional cooling and heating energy use: Sacramento County case study. Journal of Arboriculture, 24, 201-214.

An experiment with 160 college student participants suggested that driving through forested scenery may help reduce stress from previous stressors and reduce stress response to subsequent stressors.

Parsons, Russ, Louis G. Tassinary, Roger S. Ulrich, Michelle R. Hebl, and Michele Grossman-Alexander. (1998). The view from the road: Implications for stress recovery and immunization. Journal of Environmental Psychology 18(2), 113–140.

Simulations of the impact of tree shade on residential air conditioning in California showed that three shade trees (two on the west, one on the east side) could reduce a home's annual energy use for cooling by 10...

Simpson, James R., and E. Gregory McPherson. (1996). Potential of tree shade for reducing residential energy use in California. Journal of Arboriculture, 22(1), 10-18.

Children with access to unsupervised outdoor play opportunities have more developed motor skills, social behavior, independence, and conflict resolution skills than children without access to these opportunities.

Marco Hüttenmoser. (1995). Children and their living surroundings: Empirical investigation into the significance of living surroundings for the everyday life and development of children. Children’s Environments, 12, 403–413.

A review of studies in environmental psychology and neuroscience suggests that natural environments contain many of the necessary ingredients for restoring individuals fatigued from prolonged, focused mental effort...

Kaplan, Stephen. (1995). The restorative benefits of nature: Toward an integrative framework. Journal of Environmental Psychology. 15(3): 169-182.

Carbon sequestration rates are up to 90 times greater for healthy large trees than healthy small trees. In Chicago's urban forest, a typical 3-in diameter tree sequesters approximately 2.3 lbs annually, which is...

McPherson, Gregory E., David J. Nowak, Rowan A. Rowntree. (1994). Chicago’s Urban Forest Ecosystem: Results of the Chicago Urban Forest Climate Project. USDA Forest Service Northeastern Forest Experiment Station General Technical Report NE-186, 63-81.

Findings from monitoring and computer simulations suggest that a single 25-ft tall shade tree can reduce annual heating and cooling costs of a typical residence by 8-12% ($10-25).

McPherson, E. Gregory, and Rowan A. Rowntree. (1993). Energy conservation potential of urban tree planting. Journal of Arboriculture 19(6), 321-331.

Regular use of gardens reduced instances of aggressive behavior in dementia patients, according to a study that compared incident reports for facilities with various landscapes and exterior environments.

Mooney, Patrick. and P. Lenore Nicell. (1992). The Importance of Exterior Environment for Alzheimer Residents: Effective Care and Risk Management. Healthcare Management Forum 5, 2: 23-29.

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