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Innovative playgrounds with a variety of surface types, naturalized and planted areas, open-ended structures, and moveable equipment attracted 2.5 times more users and generated almost 3 times as much moderate-to...

Cohen, Deborah A., Meghan Talarowski, Bing Han, Deborah R. Young, Sarah Eng, and Thomas L. McKenzie. 2022. “Playground Design and Physical Activity” American Journal of Preventative Medicine 64, no. 3: 326-333. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2022.10.012

Street trees can reduce non-accidental and cardiovascular mortality. In a study of street trees planted in Portland over 30 years, planting 11.7 trees annually in each census tract was associated with 15.6 fewer non...

Donovan, Geoffrey H., Jeffrey P. Prestemon, Demetrios Gatziolis, Yvonne L. Michael, Abigail R. Kaminski, and Payam Dadvand. “The association between tree planting and mortality: A natural experiment and cost-benefit analysis.” Environment International 170 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envint.2022.107609.

A cross-sectional study of almost 47,000 Australian residents showed that higher percentage of tree cover within one mile of their residence was associated with lower prevalence of diabetes, hypertension, and...

Thomas Astell-Burt, and Feng, Xiaoqi. “Urban green space, tree canopy and prevention of cardiometabolic diseases: a multilevel longitudinal study of 46,786 Australians.” International Journal of Epidemiology 49, Issue 3 (2020): 926–933. https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyz239.

A study of 9,354 children from 62 schools in northeastern China found that attending a school with higher levels of greenness was associated with lower blood pressure. The beneficial effects were stronger for...

Xiao, Xiang, Bo-Yi Yang, Li-Wen Hu, Iana Markevych, Michael S. Bloom, Shyamali C. Dharmage, Bin Jalaludin, et al. “Greenness around Schools Associated with Lower Risk of Hypertension among Children: Findings from the Seven Northeastern Cities Study in China.” Environmental Pollution 256 (2020): 113422. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2019.113422

Level of residential neighborhood greenness is associated with less problematic behavior in children, particularly aggressive behaviors and attention problems, according to a study of 1,817 South Korean...

Lee, Mihye, Suejin Kim, and Mina Ha. “Community greenness and neurobehavioral health in children and adolescents” Science of The Total Environment 672 (2019): 381-388. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.03.454.

A study of 9,186 U.S. nursing homes found that increased tree canopy cover is associated with fewer depressive symptoms. This association did not vary by race or socioeconomic status of nursing home residents.

Browning, Matthew H.E.M., Kangjae Lee, and Kathleen L. Wolf. “Tree cover shows an inverse relationship with depressive symptoms in elderly residents living in U.S. nursing homes.” Urban Forestry & Urban Greening 41 (2019): 23-32. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ufug.2019.03.002

According to a Michigan study based on salivary biomarkers, the greatest stress reduction benefit is achieved with 20 to 30 minutes of exposure to urban nature. Participants taking a "nature pill" of 20 to 30...

Hunter, MaryCarol R., Brenda W. Gillespie, and Sophie Yu-Pu Chen. (April 2019). Urban Nature Experiences Reduce Stress in the Context of Daily Life Based on Salivary Biomarkers. Frontiers in Psychology 10: 722. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00722

A nationwide Danish study of over 900,000 people indicates that children who grew up with the most green space surrounding their residence had up to 55% lower risk of developing a psychiatric disorder, independent...

Engemann, Kristine, Carsten Bøcker Pedersen, Lars Arge, Constantinos Tsirogiannis, Preben Bo Mortensen, and Jens-Christian Svenning. “Residential Green Space in Childhood Is Associated with Lower Risk of Psychiatric Disorders from Adolescence into Adulthood.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 116, no. 11 (2019): 5188–93. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1807504116

Sites with inexpensive community-driven design interventions like colorful crosswalks and greenery in concrete lanes may be associated with higher levels of happiness, more trust in strangers, and greater sense of...

Negami, Hanna R., Robin Mazumder, Mitchell Reardon, and Colin G. Ellard. “Field Analysis of Psychological Effects of Urban Design: a Case Study in Vancouver.” Cities & Health 2, no. 2 (2018): 106–15. https://doi.org/10.1080/23748834.2018.1548257

A study of data provided by 575 Australian mothers with a child between the ages of 2 and 5 indicated that outdoor play time was positively associated with cooperative and easy-going social skills along with...

Hinkley T, Brown H, Carson V, Teychenne M (2018) Cross sectional associations of screen time and outdoor play with social skills in preschool children. PLoS ONE 13(4): e0193700. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0193700

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