Fast Fact Library

Coastal wetlands provide significant cost avoidance during extreme storm events. A regional study across 12 affected states showed that during Hurricane Sandy in 2012, wetlands avoided $625 million in direct flood...

Narayan, Siddharth, Michael W. Beck, Paul Wilson, Christopher J. Thomas, Alexandra Guerrero, Christine C. Shepard, Borja G. Reguero, Guillermo Franco, Jane Carter Ingram, and Dania Trespalacios. “The value of coastal wetlands for flood damage reduction in the northeastern USA.” Scientific reports 7, no. 1 (2017): 9463. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-09269-z

Community gardens can increase civic engagement in nearby residents. In a survey of 5,188 people from 26 communities across the United States, respondents who had a community garden within a 10-minute walk of their...

Center for Active Design. “The Assembly Civic Engagement Survey: Key Findings and Design Implications.” (2017): 28. https://centerforactivedesign.org/assembly-civic-engagement-survey.

An in-depth analysis assessing urban tree cover and its impact on residential building energy use in the coterminous United States estimates a reduction of 38.8. million MWh or $4.7 billion in electricity use and...

Nowak, David J., Nathaniel Appleton, Alexis Ellis, and Eric Greenfield. (2017). Residential building energy conservation and avoided power plant emissions by urban and community trees in the United States. Urban Forestry & Urban Greening 21: 158-165. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ufug.2016.12.004

A review of 66 studies on the built environment and quality of life at residential health care centers found that nature-based design features like outdoor gardens provide a variety of positive outcomes for...

Joseph, Anjali, Young-Seon Choi, and Xiaobo Quan. “Impact of the Physical Environment of Residential Health, Care and Support Facilities (RHCSF) on Staff and Residents:  A Systematic Review of the Literature.” Environment and Behavior, 48.10 (December 2016) 1203-1241.