Walk on the wild side: urban green spaces increase well-being

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2022-07-26 10:07

New Zealand; International

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Urban green spaces are the major point of contact with nature for many people. Researchers from New Zealand and Germany compared the effects of walking in two different natural settings, an urban forest and a landscape park, and found that both spaces increased people's wellbeing similarly. They also found that when people perceived their surroundings as more wild, their feeling of being connected to nature increased. The authors say that individual perceptions of the natural environment can influence the extent to which being in nature increases people's well-being, and this should be taken into account when designing green spaces to benefit both the environment and people.