Urban Mind: Using Smartphone Technologies to Investigate the Impact of Nature on Mental Well-Being in Real Time

Bakolis, Ioannis; Hammoud, Ryan; Smythe, Michael; Gibbons, Johanna; Davidson, Neil; Tognin, Stefania; Mechelli, Andrea

doi:10.1093/biosci/bix149

Cited by 90 publications

(91 citation statements)

References 48 publications

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“…This does not take into account the diversity of effects that plants have on other organisms, for instance as interaction partners in mutualistic relationships, as habitat, or even for ecosystem services, e.g. related to tourism (Grünewald et al 2016, Arbieu et al 2017 or human well-being (Lindemann-Matthies et al 2010, Bakolis et al 2018). The framework introduced in this article offers a methodological base for these new kinds of analyses that complement the existingalready very advanced -fields of FD research.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bringing the Eltonian niche into functional diversity

Dehling

Stouffer

2018

Oikos

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Studies of functional diversity (FD) have gained immense interest because they promise a more mechanistic understanding of the relationship between diversity and ecosystem functioning. However, the concept of FD is currently not used to its full potential because of several biases and shortcomings. For instance, while the analysis of traits related to species’ Grinnellian niches, i.e. traits influencing species’ fitness under different environmental conditions, is well‐advanced, there is a lack of studies on the functional diversity related to species’ Eltonian niches, i.e. species’ functional roles in ecological processes and their effects on other species, a discrepancy known as the Eltonian Shortfall. Most importantly, the current indirect approach of measuring FD via species traits restricts analyses to species with similar traits, usually a taxon. Consequently, FD is generally measured for only one taxon but across different ecological processes, when it would ideally be measured for one ecological process but across all taxa that contribute to that process. These discrepancies hinder advances of our understanding of the relationship between diversity and ecosystem functions and services. We introduce a new approach to measuring functional diversity that is designed to overcome these shortcomings by bridging research on networks, species niches, and functional traits. Instead of characterizing functional roles indirectly via species’ traits, we propose to characterize functional roles directly via the traits of species’ resources and interaction partners in a given ecological process. Critically, this shift in perspective for the first time allows comparisons of the functional roles of all taxa that participate in an ecological process regardless of their own morphology. We illustrate our new approach with a study on functional roles of frugivores in seed‐dispersal systems. Our approach is an important addition to existing approaches to studying FD, and it facilitates new studies in a vastly unexplored field of functional diversity research.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bringing the Eltonian niche into functional diversity

Dehling

Stouffer

2018

Oikos

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“…[17] found that participants were happier outdoors in blue and green areas of all habitat types compared with inland bare ground and continuous urban areas. [18] found greater wellbeing in natural environments, with particular benefit to participants who scored high on trait impulsivity. Despite being happier outdoors, participants only spent 7.48% of their time outdoors each day [17].…”

Section: Current Wellbeing/nature Apps Available and Limitationsmentioning

confidence: 93%

“…To date, there have been two published studies which have used an app to assess the link between green and urban spaces and wellbeing ('Mappiness' [17] & 'Urban Mind' [18]). The Mappiness app sent prompts to participants at random times during the day (participants chose the number of prompts) asking them to self-report their wellbeing whilst tracking their location using GPS.…”

Section: Current Wellbeing/nature Apps Available and Limitationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The Mappiness app sent prompts to participants at random times during the day (participants chose the number of prompts) asking them to self-report their wellbeing whilst tracking their location using GPS. There is also a recently developed app called Urban Mind [18] which again prompts people randomly 7 times per day to assess wellbeing in urban areas, with different sets of questions if the participant responds stating that they are indoors or outdoors. Both the Mappiness and Urban Mind apps were downloaded by the authors and along with discussions with some of their developers and researchers, were used to gain insight into how Shmapped might be optimised.…”

Section: Current Wellbeing/nature Apps Available and Limitationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Given more time we would have dedicated longer periods to piloting the app to conduct further bug-fixes and to refine the app to be more engaging and intuitive. We note that similar apps such as Urban Mind [18] have done this and conducted their studies in a pilot phase and rollout phase. One persistent bug which users contacted us about was that Shmapped opened and displayed as a full screen every time Android users neared a geofence.…”

Section: Future Directions and Limitationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Shmapped: development of an app to record and promote the well-being benefits of noticing urban nature

McEwan

Richardson

Brindley

et al. 2019

Translational Behavioral Medicine

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Background: The majority of research to date on the links between wellbeing and green spaces comes from cross-sectional studies. Purpose: Shmapped is an app which allows for the collection of wellbeing and location data live in the field and acts as a novel dual data collection tool and wellbeing intervention which prompts users to notice the good things about their surroundings. Methods: We describe the process of developing Shmapped from storyboarding, budgeting and timescales, selecting a developer, drawing up data protection plans, collaborating with developers and end-user testers to ultimately publishing Shmapped. Results and Conclusions: The development process and end-user testing resulted in a highly functional app. Limitations and future uses of such novel dual data collection and intervention apps are discussed and recommendations made for prospective developers and researchers.

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Visitors to urban greenspace have higher sentiment and lower negativity on Twitter

et al. 2019

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With more people living in cities, we are witnessing a decline in exposure to nature. A growing body of research has demonstrated an association between nature contact and improved mood. Here, we used Twitter and the Hedonometer, a world analysis tool, to investigate how sentiment, or the estimated happiness of the words people write, varied before, during, and after visits to San Francisco's urban park system. We found that sentiment was substantially higher during park visits and remained elevated for several hours following the visit. Leveraging differences in vegetative cover across park types, we explored how different types of outdoor public spaces may contribute to subjective well‐being. Tweets during visits to Regional Parks, which are greener and have greater vegetative cover, exhibited larger increases in sentiment than tweets during visits to Civic Plazas and Squares. Finally, we analysed word frequencies to explore several mechanisms theorized to link nature exposure with mental and cognitive benefits. Negation words such as ‘no’, ‘not’, and ‘don't’ decreased in frequency during visits to urban parks. These results can be used by urban planners and public health officials to better target nature contact recommendations for growing urban populations. A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article.

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Urban Mind: Using Smartphone Technologies to Investigate the Impact of Nature on Mental Well-Being in Real Time

Cited by 90 publications

References 48 publications

Bringing the Eltonian niche into functional diversity

Bringing the Eltonian niche into functional diversity

Shmapped: development of an app to record and promote the well-being benefits of noticing urban nature

Visitors to urban greenspace have higher sentiment and lower negativity on Twitter

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