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Landscape Architecture Design to Promote Well-Being

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A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Urban and Rural Development".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2021) | Viewed by 26434

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Helena Nordh

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Guest Editor

Department of Urban and Rural Development, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala, 75007 Uppsala, Sweden
Interests: landscape architecture; environmental psychology; perception and use of urban green space; cultural ecosystem services

Dr. Katinka H. Evensen

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

Department of landscape architecture, The Norwegian University of Life Sciences, 1432 Ås, Norway
Interests: environmental psychology; health-promoting environments; nature and health relationships; perception and use of urban green space

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

There is an increasing body of knowledge on the importance of urban green space for health and well-being. However, there is still a lack of research focusing on the design and content of health-promoting green spaces. In this Special Issue, we welcome empirical studies, both quantitative and qualitative, that examine relationships between the design of public urban outdoor environments and well-being. The papers should define the design aspects of the environment under study and the well-being outcome. Design aspects are various aspects considered in the landscape design process, for example, size, shape, scale, material, vegetation, and choice of plant species. A broad understanding of well-being is applied for this Special Issue and includes not only studies measuring user well-being as a direct outcome, but also studies of recreational and social activity that are of importance to well-being. We also encourage discussion of how landscape architecture design can strengthen the social sustainability of cities and neighborhoods. We particularly encourage interdisciplinary studies bridging landscape architecture with other health-related disciplines.

Dr. Helena Nordh
Dr. Katinka H. Evensen
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

green space
health
public space
urban
social sustainability

Published Papers (7 papers)

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Editorial

Jump to: Research

3 pages, 171 KiB

Open AccessEditorial

Landscape Architecture Design and Well-Being—Research Challenges and Opportunities

by Helena Nordh and Katinka H. Evensen

Sustainability 2022, 14(8), 4522; https://doi.org/10.3390/su14084522 - 11 Apr 2022

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2776

Abstract

For this Special Issue (SI), we set out to gather empirical studies that examine relationships between the design of public urban outdoor environments and the well-being of users of these spaces [...] Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Landscape Architecture Design to Promote Well-Being)

Research

Jump to: Editorial

20 pages, 1950 KiB

Open AccessEditor’s ChoiceArticle

Psychological Restoration and the Effect of People in Nature and Urban Scenes: A Laboratory Experiment

by Chris Neale, Stephanie Lopez and Jenny Roe

Sustainability 2021, 13(11), 6464; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13116464 - 07 Jun 2021

Cited by 10 | Viewed by 4298

Abstract

It is well-evidenced that exposure to natural environments increases psychological restoration as compared to non-natural settings, increasing our ability to recover from stress, low mood, and mental fatigue and encouraging positive social interactions that cultivate social cohesion. However, very few studies have explored how the inclusion of people within a given environment—either urban or natural settings—affect restorative health outcomes. We present three laboratory-based studies examining, first, the effect of nature vs. urban scenes, and second, investigating nature ‘with’ vs. ‘without’ people—using static and moving imagery—on psychological restoration and social wellbeing. Our third study explores differences between urban and natural settings both with vs. without people, using video stimuli to understand potential restorative and social wellbeing effects. Outcome measures across all studies included perceived social belonging, loneliness, subjective mood, and perceived restorativeness. Studies 1 and 2 both used a within group, randomized crossover design. Study 1 (n = 45, mean age = 20.7) explored static imagery of environmental conditions without people; findings were consistent with restorative theories showing a positive effect of nature exposure on all outcome measures. Study 2 compared nature scenes with vs. without people (n = 47, mean age = 20.9) and we found no significant differences on our outcome measures between either social scenario, though both scenarios generated positive wellbeing outcomes. Study 3, conducted on Amazon Mechanical Turk, employed an independent group design with subjects randomly assigned to one of four conditions; an urban vs. nature setting, with vs. without people. We explored the effect of moving imagery on psychological restoration (n = 200, mean age = 35.7) and our findings showed no impact on belonging, loneliness, or mood between conditions, but did show that—regardless of the inclusion of people—the nature settings were more restorative than the urban. There were no differences in psychological restoration between nature conditions with vs. without people. We discuss the implications for restorative environment research exploring social-environmental interactions. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Landscape Architecture Design to Promote Well-Being)

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19 pages, 15181 KiB

Open AccessEditor’s ChoiceArticle

Perceived Sensory Dimensions of Green Areas: An Experimental Study on Stress Recovery

by Sanaz Memari, Mahdieh Pazhouhanfar and Patrik Grahn

Sustainability 2021, 13(10), 5419; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13105419 - 12 May 2021

Cited by 22 | Viewed by 4615

Abstract

Natural environments have been shown to promote health, and are, therefore, important for achieving social sustainability in cities. As cities grow and become denser, it is important to develop knowledge about the characteristics of natural environments that work to promote health. Perceived Sensory Dimensions (PSDs) is a tool that defines eight different cultural ecosystem services. They correspond to different human needs (rest, exercise, socialising, pleasure, or security) resulting in rehabilitation and health and well-being promotion. An experiment was conducted to study the potential of PSDs to restore people who experienced stressful accidents. One hundred and fifty-seven participants were recruited and asked first to watch a film clip of serious accidents, then to look at the pictures, depicting one particular type of PSDs, while listening to its respective audio recording. Their stress levels were measured before exposure to the stressor (baseline), after exposure to the stressor (pre-test), and after exposure to a particular type of PSDs (post-test). The results show that all eight PSDs effectively provide mental recovery, but there are statistical differences in their potentials. As such, it is proposed that the combined potential of the PSDs is needed, and should be used to increase the capacity and supply of health-promoting urban green areas. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Landscape Architecture Design to Promote Well-Being)

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15 pages, 8581 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperArticle

Testing the Effect of Hedge Height on Perceived Safety—A Landscape Design Intervention

by Katinka H. Evensen, Helena Nordh, Ramzi Hassan and Aslak Fyhri

Sustainability 2021, 13(9), 5063; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13095063 - 30 Apr 2021

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 3102

Abstract

Access to safe, green urban environments is important for quality of life in cities. The objective of this study is to explore the impact of a safety-enhancing landscape design measure on visitors’ experiences in an urban park. Additionally, this paper combines the use of field and virtual reality (VR) experiments, contributing methodological insights into how to evaluate safety measures in green space management and research on perceived safety. In a field experiment (n = 266), we explored whether the height of a hedge along a pathway influenced perceived safety among users. The field study showed that cutting down the hedge improved the perceived prospect of the immediate surrounding areas for female users, which again made them feel safer in the park. We developed a VR experiment for an evening scenario in the same environment (n = 19) to supplement the field study and test the effect of the intervention further. The VR experiment also found a gender effect on perceived safety, with females reporting lower perceived safety, but no effect was shown for the height of the hedge. The results in this study show that environmental attributes such as perceived prospect and concealment should be considered in the design and management of urban green spaces. Additionally, this research demonstrates an approach to conducting field experiments to test the effects of actual design interventions and then further developing these experiments using VR technology. Further research on perceived safety in outdoor spaces is needed to make use of this combined method’s potential. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Landscape Architecture Design to Promote Well-Being)

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23 pages, 2769 KiB

Open AccessArticle

From Evidence to Design Solution—On How to Handle Evidence in the Design Process of Sustainable, Accessible and Health-Promoting Landscapes

by Marie C. Gramkow, Ulrik Sidenius, Gaochao Zhang and Ulrika K. Stigsdotter

Sustainability 2021, 13(6), 3249; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13063249 - 16 Mar 2021

Cited by 11 | Viewed by 4420

Abstract

The work of landscape architects can contribute to the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals and the associated ‘Leave no one behind’ agenda by creating accessible and health-promoting green spaces (especially goals 3, 10 and 11). To ensure that the design of green space delivers accessibility and intended health outcomes, an evidence-based design process is recommended. This is a challenge, since many landscape architects are not trained in evidence-based design, and leading scholars have called for methods that can help landscape architects work in an evidence-based manner. This paper examines the implementation of a process model for evidence-based health design in landscape architecture. The model comprises four steps: ‘evidence collection’, ‘programming’, ‘designing’, and ‘evaluation’. The paper aims to demonstrate how the programming step can be implemented in the design of a health-promoting nature trail that is to offer people with mobility disabilities improved mental, physical and social health. We demonstrate how the programming step systematizes evidence into design criteria (evidence-based goals) and design solutions (how the design criteria are to be solved in the design). The results of the study are presented as a design ‘Program’, which we hope can serve as an example for landscape architects of how evidence can be translated into design. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Landscape Architecture Design to Promote Well-Being)

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37 pages, 10408 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Urban Blue Acupuncture: An Experiment on Preferences for Design Options Using Virtual Models

by Peeter Vassiljev, Simon Bell, Jekaterina Balicka and Umme Aymona Ali Amrita

Sustainability 2020, 12(24), 10656; https://doi.org/10.3390/su122410656 - 20 Dec 2020

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 3026

Abstract

Within the BlueHealth project, funded under the Horizon 2020 European Union research framework, a number of targeted experimental design interventions created in virtual reality (VR) were used to test the effect and impact of planning and design on encouraging people to use various blue spaces. A set of designs in three different coastal landscape types—a cliff/steep slope; a sandy beach and an area of reed beds—located in Tallinn, Estonia, were used as the sites for nine different intervention designs. The designs were based on a combination of the site features and inspirations from solutions found in different locations internationally. Using 3D modelling and a Virtual Reality system, a set of nine videos, one to depict each intervention, was created and shown to a quota sample of 252 Estonian residents. Respondents were asked a set of questions associated with each option. The results were analysed statistically and qualitatively. The results uncovered key preferences for designs and revealed differences among age groups and the levels of personal interconnection with nature. However, there were problems associated with the interpretation and understanding of some of the options by some of the people due to the degree of realism of the VR representations, which may have affected the results. The project shows that VR could be a useful tool for testing design ideas as part of public participation approaches but that care is needed in ensuring that viewers understand what they are assessing. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Landscape Architecture Design to Promote Well-Being)

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18 pages, 8476 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Reducing the Incidence of Skin Cancer through Landscape Architecture Design Education

by Wendy McWilliam, Andreas Wesener, Anupriya Sukumar and Robert D. Brown

Sustainability 2020, 12(22), 9402; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12229402 - 12 Nov 2020

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 2807

Abstract

There is a high and growing incidence of skin cancer associated with overexposure to the sun. Most of a person’s exposure occurs during their first eighteen years of life. While many children are taught to wear hats and sunscreen, studies indicate these are inadequate. There is a pressing need to improve the design of our landscapes to reduce exposure. Landscape architects can play a key role in driving this process, but only if they understand the factors determining sun protection behaviours among children in the landscape, and how to design for these. We introduced a systematic evidence-based teaching approach to landscape architecture students in New Zealand where the incidence of skin cancer is one of the highest in the world. In this paper, we describe the methods we used to integrate scientific information into a creative design process that included four design phases: (1) review, summary and translation of evidential theory into design guidelines; (2) inventory and analysis of existing schoolyard; (3) redesign of schoolyard; and (4) final design evaluation. We found this process was effective in developing student appreciation for the need to improve sun protection through design, for increasing their understanding of the evidential science, in addition to developing their ability to translate, often inaccessible, evidential data into its spatial form implications. Furthermore, the process led to a high degree of confidence and pride among many students as their resulting design solutions were not only supported by evidence but were often highly creative. Such evidence-based design courses are essential for preparing future landscape architects to design landscapes that significantly reduce the incidence and health effects of skin cancer. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Landscape Architecture Design to Promote Well-Being)

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