The articles in the database below represent a curated selection from our NHA (full) members and Executive Committee. Rather than being a comprehensive database, like what you would find on a mainstream database, this is a limited and curated list of articles gathered by our member. To be included, these peer-reviewed articles and resources must meet specific criteria, ensuring a foundation of quality. Articles included cover a diverse array of study types—experiments, qualitative research, and meta-analyses—all exploring the intricate relationship between nature and well-being. Priority is accorded to works addressing DEIJ matters or fostering consensus on vital topics. If you would like to submit an article to be featured in the database, please email manager@naturehealthalliance.org.
Authors:Erin House, Caitlyn Bay O'Connor, Kathleen L. Wolf, Jessie Israel and Tashina Reynolds |
We are pleased and honored to introduce this milestone report from The Nature Conservancy. The authors have worked carefully to present a comprehensive analysis of current evidence on how our human communities need nature in and around them to thrive. This report presents a panoramic view of how our cities and towns benefit from nature—on the streets, next to schools and hospitals, outside our windows; everywhere people are, we can benefit from nature.
How can we promote improved health and wellness for elders? For older adults, generally defined here as people who are 60 or older, the health benefits of being near urban green spaces can play a meaningful role in wellness and quality of life.
This report is designed to introduce vocabulary, understanding, and research evidence that supports the idea of small ‘s’, or civic sacred in communities.
Authors:Gregory N. Bratman, J. Paul Hamilton, Gretchen C. Daily and James J. Gross |
| Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS) | Volume 112, Number 28: 8567-8572
Urbanization has many benefits, but it also is associated with increased levels of mental illness, including depression. It has been suggested that decreased nature experience may help to explain the link between urbanization and mental illness.
Authors:Gregory N. Bratman, Gretchen C. Daily, Benjamin Levy and James J. Gross |
| Landscape and Urban Planning | Volume 138: 41-50
This study investigated the impact of nature experience on affect and cognition. We randomly assigned sixty participants to a 50-min walk in either a natural or an urban environment in and around Stanford, California. Before and after their walk, participants completed a series of psychological assessments of affective and cognitive functioning.
Authors:Kathleen L. Wolf and Alicia S. T. Robbins |
| Environmental Health Perspectives | Volume 123, Issue 5: 390-398
Nearly 40 years of research provides an extensive body of evidence about human health, well-being, and improved function benefits associated with experiences of nearby nature in cities.
Every person, regardless of race, ethnicity, income, or age, is entitled to live in a home, neighborhood, and city that supports wellness and good health.
Environmental institutions have been working on diversity efforts for the better part of five decades. This report discusses the findings of a study of three types of environmental institutions: 191 conservation and preservation organizations, 74 government environmental agencies, and 28 environmental grantmaking foundations.
Stress has become a constant for many city residents. Tragic or traumatic situations and events may disrupt people’s lives, but are no longer the most common sources of stress.
Authors:Gregory N. Bratman, J. Paul Hamilton and Gretchen C. Daily |
| Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences | Volume 1249, Issue 1: 118-136
Scholars spanning a variety of disciplines have studied the ways in which contact with natural environments may impact human well-being. We review the effects of such nature experience on human cognitive function and mental health, synthesizing work from environmental psychology, urban planning, the medical literature, and landscape aesthetics.