Journal papers

We need places with diverse and abundant nature in places where we live. This study showed that, for those living in urban areas, experiences of nature, such as encounters with birdlife, seeing trees and other plants, and seeing or hearing water, provided mental wellbeing benefits - and, the greater the diversity of the nature experienced, the greater and longer-lasting were the benefits for mental wellbeing.

We need a weekly dose of nature for our health. This study identifies a threshold effect suggesting that 120 minutes per week in nature is necessary for health and wellbeing benefits - and remarkably this provides an effect similar in magnitude to doing the recommended levels of physical activity, and other well known predictors of health.

A great summary of the scope and evidence of health and wellbeing benefits of nature such as lowering blood pressure, better sleep, greater happiness, and benefits for children's cognitive and motor development.

Living in close proximity to nature can increase you life expectancy and reduce your risk of dying from cancer and respiratory illness. This study analysed data from a cohort of 108,630 women in the U.S.-based Nurses' Health Study and found that those living within 250 metres of green areas had a 12% lower rate of all-cause non-accidental mortality, with the greatest protective effects for those with the most cumulative time living near green areas.

Land and Rayner scan the history of public health and argue for the need for an ecological model of public health and that “…public health professions today need to think and act ecologically if they are to help reshape the conditions that enable good health to flourish”

Possibly the first study to describe the direct health benefit of nature and a landmark study for biophilic design in architecture, surgical patients who had a view of nature from their hospital window, were found to need less analgesia post-operatively, recovered more quickly and were discharged sooner.