Multiple health benefits of urban tree canopy: The mounting evidence for a green prescription

Ulmer, Jonathan D.; Wolf, Kathleen L.; Backman, Desiree; Tretheway, Raymond L.; Blain, Cynthia Ja; O’Neil‐Dunne, Jarlath; Frank, Lawrence D.

doi:10.1016/j.healthplace.2016.08.011

Cited by 205 publications

(108 citation statements)

References 74 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Use of greenspace varies with many local factors (Jones et al, 2009;Lin et al, 2014;McCormack et al, 2014;Veitch et al, 2015). In some cities, these are incorporated in urban planning (Gidlöf-Gunnarsson and Öhrström, 2007;Villeneuve et al, 2012;Alcock et al, 2014;Francis et al, 2015;Giles-Corti et al, 2015;Ulmer et al, 2016).…”

Section: People and Nature Experiencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In many temperate English and Spanish-speaking nations, many urban residents may see nature principally as an outdoor playground, a place to practice outdoor sports or to get a short "nature fix." In some Western nations, the use of "green prescriptions" has recently become an established part of medical practice (Swinburn et al, 1998;Maller et al, 2006;Townsend, 2006;Seltenrich, 2015;Ulmer et al, 2016). However, improvements are not universal (Saw et al, 2015;Townsend et al, 2015), and have rarely been quantified in ways which are generalizable, especially in terms of economic benefits to broad population groups.…”

Section: Mental Health Outcomesmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Economic Value of Parks via Human Mental Health: An Analytical Framework

Buckley

Brough

2017

Front. Ecol. Evol.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Exposure to nature yields a wide range of mental health benefits. Improvements in mental health have substantial economic value, through: reduced mental healthcare costs; improved workplace productivity; and reduced costs of antisocial behavior, both public, and private. These economic gains represent an unquantified ecosystem service attributable to conservation. Since most individual people, and hence most politicians and policy-makers, care more about the private good of individual health than the public good of ecosystem and biodiversity conservation, calculating the economic value of nature via its contributions to human mental health could prove influential in achieving conservation goals. Here, we review relevant literature, establish a framework for these calculations, and identify immediate information gaps and research priorities. Current estimates rely on assumptions, but are similar in scale to those from tourism and recreation, which do influence policy.

show abstract

Section: People and Nature Experiencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Mental Health Outcomesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Economic Value of Parks via Human Mental Health: An Analytical Framework

Buckley

Brough

2017

Front. Ecol. Evol.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Evidence suggests that general health benefits accrue from different types of green space exposure, including contact with parks and tree canopy [4]. However, evidence on the relationship between green space and child asthma remains mixed.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Is Neighborhood Green Space Protective against Associations between Child Asthma, Neighborhood Traffic Volume and Perceived Lack of Area Safety? Multilevel Analysis of 4447 Australian Children

Feng

Astell-Burt

2017

IJERPH

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Heavy traffic is a source of air pollution and a safety concern with important public health implications. We investigated whether green space lowers child asthma risk by buffering the effects of heavy traffic and a lack of neighborhood safety. Multilevel models were used to analyze affirmative asthma cases in nationally representative cross-sectional data from 4447 children aged 6–7 years old in Australia. Case-finding was based upon a triangulation of affirmative responses to three questions on doctor-diagnosed asthma, asthma-related medications and illness with wheezing lasting for at least 1 week within the 12 months prior. Among children considered to be exposed to high traffic volumes and areas with 0 to 20% green space quantity, the odds ratio of affirmative asthma was 1.87 (95% CI 1.37 to 2.55). However, the association between heavy traffic and asthma was significantly lower for participants living in areas with over 40% green space coverage (odds ratio for interaction 0.32, 95% CI 0.12 to 0.84). No association between affirmative asthma and green space coverage was observed for participants not exposed to heavy traffic, nor for the area safety variable. Protecting existing and investing in new green space may help to promote child respiratory health through the buffering of traffic-related air pollution.

show abstract

“…3 Map of estimated the most current UTC with forest loss, forest gain, and forest loss and gain between 2000 and 2019 for the study area negatively impacted by urban development, whereas forest cover gain had the lowest distribution in the urban city core of study area. Some researchers [28][29][30] have derived tree cover and "greenness" distribution relying on high-resolution land-cover data to provide high diversity and variation of land-cover change in urbanized areas. However, in this study, due to insufficient data and lower aerial imagery resolution of the study area, individual tree canopy cover estimates could not be calculated.…”

Section: Fig 1 Location Of the City Of Osmaniye And Its Townsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Several previous studies [5,6,31] discussed the public health benefits and social life quality of public driven by the increase in urban tree cover density. For example, Ulmer et al [30] examined the health benefits of tree cover density in urban areas and they concluded that the increase in urban tree cover density was related to lower obesity rates and better social cohesion. In another study, Troy et al [32] evaluated impacts of vegetative cover on private lands and residents in Baltimore, Maryland, and found that income and level of education were positively correlated with urban vegetation and tree cover.…”

Section: Fig 1 Location Of the City Of Osmaniye And Its Townsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Characterizing spatial structure of urban tree cover (UTC) and impervious surface cover (ISC) density using remotely sensed data in Osmaniye, Turkey

Atasoy

2020

SN Appl. Sci.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Urban trees provide a wide range of significant benefits, and their degradation can result in air pollution and floods, and can damage public health and decrease social welfare. The purpose of this research was to estimate the urban tree cover (UTC) and impervious surface cover (ISC) density and to evaluate how they influence forest gain and loss in Turkey. Accordingly, i-Tree Canopy random point sampling and remote sensing methods were applied using the most current Landsat 7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus images of Osmaniye City. The results indicate that the majority (n = 217) of random points were overlapped with buildings on aerial photograph with a percent cover estimate of 34.1 ± 1.88%. Also, the second highest number of the randomly selected points (n = 166) overlapped with road cover at estimate of 26.1 ± 1.74%. Grass cover (n = 68), ISC (n = 59), and shrub cover (n = 52) percentages were estimated as 10.7 ± 1.22%, 9.26 ± 1.15%, and 8.16 ± 1.08%, respectively. UTC (n = 41) percentage was estimated as 6.44 ± 0.97% in the urban city center. The lowest percent cover of randomly selected points was parking lots (n = 34) estimated as 5.34 ± 0.89%. Also, the forest loss intensity was unevenly distributed and reflected areas with high population density, and forest cover loss was estimated at the highest level on the east side of the city center. The findings of this research suggest that urbanization around the city center of Osmaniye has altered the local vegetative cover due to deforestation activities to create areas for building construction and new developments.Publisher's Note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

show abstract

Multiple health benefits of urban tree canopy: The mounting evidence for a green prescription

Cited by 205 publications

References 74 publications

Economic Value of Parks via Human Mental Health: An Analytical Framework

Economic Value of Parks via Human Mental Health: An Analytical Framework

Is Neighborhood Green Space Protective against Associations between Child Asthma, Neighborhood Traffic Volume and Perceived Lack of Area Safety? Multilevel Analysis of 4447 Australian Children

Characterizing spatial structure of urban tree cover (UTC) and impervious surface cover (ISC) density using remotely sensed data in Osmaniye, Turkey

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About