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A study of 905 Massachusetts middle schools between 2006 and 2012 found that schools with greener surroundings, particularly in the spring, were correlated with higher school-wide performance on standardized English...

Wu, Chih-Da, Eileen McNeely, J. G. Cedeno-Laurent, Wen-Chi Pan, Gary Adamkiewicz, Francesca Dominici, Shih-Chun Candice Lung, Huey-Jen Su, and John D. Spengler. (2014). Linking student performance in Massachusetts elementary schools with the “greenness” of school surroundings using remote sensing.

Both physical street network connectivity and visual connectivity (longer sight lines) had positive impacts on pedestrian volumes on streets in Buffalo, New York, together with job density, population density, and...

Hajrasouliha, Amir, and Li Yin. (2014). The impact of street network connectivity on pedestrian volume. Urban Studies, 0042098014544763.

Bioretention can reduce the temperature of thermally charged stormwater runoff from an asphalt surface. In a Blacksburg, Virgina study, the average thermal pollution reduction was nearly 37 MJ/m3, although the...

Long, Daniel L., and Randel L. Dymond. (2014). Thermal pollution mitigation in cold water stream watersheds using Bioretention. Journal of the American Water Resources Association, 50(4), 977-987.

Green schoolyards can reduce stress, promote resilience, build competence, and promote focusing in students aged 6-18, as shown by this ethnographic study in Maryland and Colorado. The green schoolyards included a...

Chawla, Louise, Kelly Keena, Illène Pevec, and Emily Stanley. (2014). Green schoolyards as havens from stress and resources for resilience in childhood and adolescence. Health & place, 28, 1-13.

In a study of 427 children aged 10-11 in Bristol, UK, children who spent more time outdoors after school were more likely to be physically active. For every hour spent outside playing with friends, the children...

Pearce, Matthew, Angie S. Page, Tom P. Griffin, and Ashley R. Cooper. (2014) Who children spend time with after school: Associations with objectively recorded indoor and outdoor physical activity. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity. 11(1). 45. doi:10.1186/1479-5868-11-45

A 5-year longitudinal study in Great Britain found that moving to a greener area not only improves people's mental health, but that the effect is sustained for a long time. Individuals who moved to greener areas had...

Alcock, Ian, Mathew P. White, Benedict W. Wheeler, Lora E. Fleming, and Michael H. Depledge. (2014). Longitudinal effects on mental health of moving to greener and less green urban areas. Environmental Science & Technology, 48(2), 1247-1255.

An extensive visual preference study conducted with 274 Australian office workers found that any green roof is preferred over a concrete roof and taller, flowering, and/or grassy vegetation is preferred over lower...

Lee, Kate E., Kathryn J. H. Williams, Leisa D. Sargent, Claire Farrell, and Nicholas S. Williams. (2014). Living roof preference is influenced by plant characteristics and diversity. Landscape and Urban Planning, 122, 152-159.

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.

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

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