Fast Fact Library

A Melbourne study assessing bat, bird, and insect presence in urban habitats found that increasing volume of understory vegetation and percentage of native vegetation had positive effects on populations. A 30%-120%...

Threlfall, Caragh G., Luis Mata, Jessica A. Mackie, Amy K. Hahs, Nigel E. Stork, Nicholas S. G. Williams, and Stephen J. Livesley. Increasing biodiversity in urban green spaces through simple vegetation interventions. Journal of Applied Ecology, 54 (2017): 1874-1883. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2664.12876.

A study of 174 parks in 25 U.S. cities found that parks with walking loops had 90% higher levels of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity in park users as compared to parks without walking loops. Parks with walking...

Cohen, Deborah A., Bing Han, Kelly R. Evenson, Catherine Nagel, Thomas L. Mckenzie, Terry Marsh, Stephanie Williamson, and Peter Harnik. “The Prevalence and Use of Walking Loops in Neighborhood Parks: A National Study.” Environmental Health Perspectives 125, no. 2 (2017): 170–74. https://doi.org/10.1289/ehp293.

More time spent outdoors reduces the onset of nearsightedness (or myopia) in children and adolescents, according to a systematic review and meta-analysis of research on the association between time spent outdoors...

Xiong, Shuyu et al. “Time spent in outdoor activities in relation to myopia prevention and control: a meta-analysis and systematic review.” Acta ophthalmologica vol. 95,6 (2017): 551-566. https://doi.org/10.1111/aos.13403.

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.

A study of tree cover in and around the California residences of 7,910 participants suggests that increased tree cover in a neighborhood is related to better overall health, particularly lower rates of obesity and...

Ulmer, Jared M, Kathleen L. Wolf, Desiree R. Backman, Raymond L. Tretheway, Cynthia JA Blain, Jarlath PM O’Neil-Dunne, and Lawrence D. Frank. (November 2016). Multiple health benefits of urban tree canopy: The mounting evidence for a green prescription. Health & Place 42: 54-62. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.healthplace.2016.08.011

A global meta-analysis of 221 landscapes found that forest restoration enhanced biodiversity by 15-84% and vegetation structure by 36-77% as compared to degraded ecosystems. While restoration did not fully recover...

Crouzeilles, Renato, Michael Curran, Mariana S. Ferreira, David B. Lindenmayer, Carlos E. V. Grelle, and José M. Rey Benayas. A global meta-analysis on the ecological drivers of forest restoration success. Nature Communications 7, 11666 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms11666