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“Being on the Walk put it Somewhere in my Body”: The Meaning of Place in Health for Indigenous Women
Relationship to place is integral to Indigenous health. A qualitative, secondary phenomenological analysis of in-depth interviews with four non-Choctaw Indigenous women participating in an outdoor, experiential tribally-specific Choctaw health leadership study uncovered culturally grounded narratives using thematic analysis as an analytic approach. Results revealed that physically being in historical trauma sites of other Indigenous groups involved a multi-faceted process that facilitated embodied stress by connecting participants with their own historical and contemporary traumas. Participants also experienced embodied resilience through connectedness to place and collective resistance. Implications point to the role of place in developing collective resistance and resilience through culturally and methodologically innovative approaches.
Read more“Otter this World”: Can a Mobile Application Promote Children’s Connectedness to Nature?
Can a mobile application encourage children to spend more time outdoors and promote their connectedness to nature? In this paper, we present results from a three-week experimental deployment study of NatureCollections, a mobile application that allows users to build, curate, and share nature photo collections. Twenty-eight children (aged 9-12) and their parents participated in the study; 15 used the NatureCollections app, and 13 used a basic Photo app. We found that the NatureCollections app significantly increased the time children spent outdoors compared to the Photo app. Children in both groups said they felt happy and excited about spending time in nature. However, children in the NatureCollections group reported that time spent outside with the app increased their curiosity about the types of species and plants they saw and photographed. Children in the NatureCollections group also engaged in nature-based conversations with their parents, and even sought to look up information online about the plants and animals they observed. In contrast, children in the basic Photo app group did not display this level of curiosity about what they saw in nature, and the photos they took were driven largely by the aesthetic qualities of nature elements. Our results suggest that NatureCollections promotes and supports children’s connectedness to nature.
Read moreAffective Reactions to Losses and Gains in Biodiversity: Testing a Prospect Theory Approach
Figure 1. Prospect theory predictions applied to reports of biodiversity change in the current studies. Recent reports have presented evidence of dramatic biodiversity declines. Despite the threat posed by such losses we know little about people’s reactions to such information, or rarer ‘bright spot’ stories of localised recovery. We explored these issues through the lens of prospect theory, testing three aspects: a) reference dependence, b) loss aversion, and c) diminishing sensitivity. Study 1 (n = 393) presented US participants with a hypothetical ecological survey reporting changes in bird species at a key site between 1996 and 2016 using a 2 (Baseline species richness: Low/high) x 2 (Change direction: Loss/gain) x 4 (Change magnitude: 5/10/15/20 species) between-participants design. Study 2 (n = 570) used the same design but focused on marine species richness among a UK sample. Responses were measured using a version of the Scale of Positive and Negative Experience. Both studies found evidence of reference dependence, but not loss aversion. In fact both studies found that reactions to biodiversity gains were stronger than equivalent losses; gains ‘loomed larger’ than losses. There was little evidence of diminishing sensitivity; scope insensitivity was the predominant pattern for losses and gains across both studies. Although those high in nature relatedness reacted more strongly to losses and gains, relatedness did not moderate any effects. Results suggest that communicators should not be surprised if reports of biodiversity declines do not have the impact they hoped, and that weaving in ‘bright spot’ stories may help people engage with the broader issues.
Read moreClosing the Gap Through Rewilding, Interacting, and Overcoming
The Research Handbook on Childhoodnature provides a compilation of research in Childhoodnature and brings together existing research themes and seminal authors in the field alongside new cutting-edge research authored by world-class researchers drawing on cross-cultural and international research data. The underlying objectives of the handbook are two-fold: Opening up spaces for Childhoodnature researchers; Consolidating Childhoodnature research into one collection that informs education. The use of the new concept ‘Childhoodnature’ reflects the editors’ and authors’ underpinning belief, and the latest innovative concepts in the field, that as children are nature this should be redefined in this integrating concept. The handbook will, therefore, critique and reject an anthropocentric view of nature. As such it will disrupt existing ways of considering children and nature and reject the view that humans are superior to nature. The chapter “Closing the gap through rewilding, interacting, and overcoming” (pages 391-394) is co-authored by Peter Kahn, a Nature and Health researcher.
Read moreFocusing Attention on Reciprocity Between Nature and Humans can be the Key to Reinvigorating Planetary Health
In industrialized and urbanized societies, medical science focuses primarily on trauma and diseases, and most environmental work attempts to remediate natural and anthropogenic degradation. This essay raises the importance of shifting individual and societal attention to preventive and precautionary measures to maintain human and ecological health. It points to the growing body of research that nature (wilderness to green and blue space) is necessary for people’s physical, mental, and emotional health. Such evidence should persuade the public and policymakers to proactively conserve ecosystems, reducing the need to rescue depleted species or repair and restore their degraded habitats. This paper also describes the creative tension between the need for evidence-based research to demonstrate the health benefits of nature, which can lead to public health policies that make nature exposure widely accessible, and the need to ensure that nature is not viewed merely as a ‘‘service provider’’ from which humans can continue to extract health benefits. The author suggests that a drastic change is needed in the prevailing attitude of dominance over nature. This essay concludes with a plea for focused attention on reciprocal healing of both nature and humans, which can occur only if our interaction with nature—be it wilderness, an urban park, or a garden—is sustained and respectful. The author suggests that the nature-and-health paradigm may be the game-changing strategy needed to sustain grassroots awareness for halting and hopefully reversing the trajectory of decline in planetary health.
Read moreNext-Generation Visitation Models using Social Media to Estimate Recreation on Public Lands
Figure 1. Locations of geotagged social media posts made by visitors to public lands in WWA and NNM. Points represent the latitude and longitude where a Flickr photograph (purple) or tweet (green) was created. For Instagram, points represent places to which images were assigned by users (blue). Larger points represent a greater number of Instagram images from the location. Study sites are contained within the management units (shaded grey). Figure created using R48 version 3.5.3. Outdoor and nature-based recreation provides countless social benefits, yet public land managers often lack information on the spatial and temporal extent of recreation activities. Social media is a promising source of data to fill information gaps because the amount of recreational use is positively correlated with social media activity. However, despite the implication that these correlations could be employed to accurately estimate visitation, there are no known transferable models parameterized for use with multiple social media data sources. This study tackles these issues by examining the relative value of multiple sources of social media in models that estimate visitation at unmonitored sites and times across multiple destinations. Using a novel dataset of over 30,000 social media posts and 286,000 observed visits from two regions in the United States, we compare multiple competing statistical models for estimating visitation. We find social media data substantially improve visitor estimates at unmonitored sites, even when a model is parameterized with data from another region. Visitation estimates are further improved when models are parameterized with on-site counts. These findings indicate that while social media do not fully substitute for on-site data, they are a powerful component of recreation research and visitor management.
Read moreOde’imin Giizis: Proposing and Piloting Gardening as an Indigenous Childhood Health Intervention
Figure 1. Gardening by the moons as digitally interpreted by RICH Postdoctoral Fellow, Dr. LaPensee, who worked with local tribal members. The Research for Indigenous Community Health Center and the American Indian Housing Organization sought to reduce obesity among Indigenous children and families in a Northern Midwestern urban community who are at risk for homelessness by piloting a gardening health intervention. This community-based participatory research, mixed-methods study examined the feasibility of gardening as an obesity intervention among a school-aged Indigenous population at risk for homelessness through using focus groups, key informant interviews, and valid health measures. The program was found highly feasible and fulfilled a critical need among Indigenous youth and their families, who reportedly suffered from food insecurity and access. This intervention increased healthy food awareness and perceptions, cultural resources, and ancestral food knowledge skills through activities, mentorship, and multigenerational engagement. This study augments the literature on the feasibility of using tribal ecological knowledge and the environment in designing culturally appropriate health interventions.
Read morePlanetary Health: Protecting Nature to Protect Ourselves
Human health depends on the health of the planet. Earth’s natural systems—the air, the water, the biodiversity, the climate—are our life support systems. Yet climate change, biodiversity loss, scarcity of land and freshwater, pollution and other threats are degrading these systems. The emerging field of planetary health aims to understand how these changes threaten our health and how to protect ourselves and the rest of the biosphere. Planetary Health: Protecting Nature to Protect Ourselves provides a readable introduction to this new paradigm. With an interdisciplinary approach, the book addresses a wide range of health impacts felt in the Anthropocene, including food and nutrition, infectious disease, non-communicable disease, dislocation and conflict, and mental health. It also presents strategies to combat environmental changes and its ill-effects, such as controlling toxic exposures, investing in clean energy, improving urban design, and more. Chapters are authored by widely recognized experts. The result is a comprehensive and optimistic overview of a growing field that is being adopted by researchers and universities around the world. Students of public health will gain a solid grounding in the new challenges their profession must confront, while those in the environmental sciences, agriculture, the design professions, and other fields will become familiar with the human consequences of planetary changes. Understanding how our changing environment affects our health is increasingly critical to a variety of disciplines and professions. Planetary Health is the definitive guide to this vital field.
Read moreProtecting Health in Dry Cities: Considerations for Policy Makers
Water has always been essential for cities to survive and thrive. The earliest cities, from 4000 BC, were founded near water sources. Conversely, water scarcity might have contributed to the demise of ancient cities such as Tikal in present day Guatemala and Angkor in present day Cambodia. Water deprivation was also used as a weapon in ancient times; when Sennacherib of Assyria ransacked Babylon in 689 BC, he destroyed the city’s water supply. Dry cities present complex challenges in a dynamic world. The supply of water in many cities will increasingly fall short of demand, with diverse and potentially severe effects on health. In a world of pervasive inequalities, water scarcity is likely to hit the most vulnerable hardest. The challenge of achieving health in dry cities is intensified in the setting of resource scarcity, state and societal fragility, and weak institutions. The inter-relation between human health and the environment needs to be central to planning and management of both water and health systems. Promoting health and wellbeing in dry cities is essential to achieving the sustainable development goals. Innovation will be key to progress; it requires foresight, strong institutions, and action from many people. Today’s global population is increasingly urban, and the world is increasingly hot, with dry regions becoming drier. Dry cities have scarce water relative to demand. An estimated 150 million people live in cities that have perennial water shortage. Some cities are dry because of their location in arid environments, with low levels of fresh water, precipitation, or both. In the year 2000 about 27% of the world’s urban area was in drylands. Many of the world’s most water stressed countries are in the Middle East and North Africa. Doha, Abu Dhabi, and Dubai in the Gulf region, and desert cities, including Cairo (Egypt) and Windhoek (Namibia), Antofagasta (Chile), Trujillo (Peru), Phoenix, and Las Vegas (United States) are widely recognized as “dry cities.” Other cities are dry because of a temporary scarcity of water, or drought, influenced by factors including local hydrology, climate, and human activities. Semi-arid regions may have dry cities if drought strikes, if demand grows much faster than supply and/or if the city cannot keep pace owing to poor governance or inadequate infrastructure. Such cities include Cape Town (South Africa) and Gaborone (Botswana). Other cities, such as São Paulo (Brazil) and Chennai (India), historically have had ample water supply, but have recently confronted scarcity. Still others, such as Los Angeles (US) and Bangalore (India), are forecast to become short of water in coming years.
Read moreRelatively Wild Urban Parks can Promote Human Resilience and Flourishing: A Case Study of Discovery Park, Seattle, Washington
Human interaction with nature is vital for physical health and mental well-being, and positions a community to be resilient to urban stressors. Yet urban development continues to put pressures on natural areas within urban boundaries. As a case in point, Seattle’s largest park, Discovery Park, of over 500 acres, is often under threat of some form of development. The central question of this study was whether the benefits to visitors of Discovery Park depend, in no small measure, on the park’s very size and relative wild landscape. Toward addressing this question, 320 participants provided written narratives (through our web portal) about the meaningful ways in which they interacted with nature at Discovery Park. Each individual narrative was then analyzed and coded using an Interaction Pattern (IP) approach, which provides characterizations of human-nature interaction that have ontogenetic and phylogenetic significance. Results revealed 520 Interaction Patterns (IPs). The most frequently occurring IPs clustered under the keystone IPs of Encountering Wildlife (27%), Following Trails (14%), Walking to Destination Spots in Nature (8%), Gazing out at the Puget Sound or Mountains (6%), Walking Along Edges of Beach or Bluffs (5%), and Walking with Dogs (4%). Results also revealed that visitors’ meaningful interactions with nature in Discovery Park depended on the park’s relative wildness. For example, (a) 77% of participants’ IPs depended on Discovery Park’s relative wildness; (b) of the participants who specified an especially meaningful experience with nature, 95% of them had an interaction that depended on Discovery Park’s relative wildness; and (c) of the participants whose IPs were linked to other aspects of the nature in the park or to their own positive mental states, 95 and 96%, respectively, had an interaction that depended on Discovery Park’s relative wildness. Discussion focuses on how human interaction with large and relatively wild urban parks helps reverse the trend of environmental generational amnesia, and a domination worldview, and thus should be prioritized in urban planning.
Read moreResearch Note: Residential Distance and Recreational Visits to Coastal and Inland Blue Spaces in Eighteen Countries
Figure 1. Given residential locations (correct to three decimal degrees) of the 15,216 respondents included in analysis. The map of Spain includes respondents resident in the autonomous city of Melilla. Respondents resident in the Canary Islands, Azores, and Madeira are not displayed. Varied categorisations of residential distance to bluespace in population health studies make comparisons difficult. Using survey data from eighteen countries, we modelled relationships between residential distance to blue spaces (coasts, lakes, and rivers), and self-reported recreational visits to these environments at least weekly, with penalised regression splines. We observed exponential declines in visit probability with increasing distance to all three environments and demonstrated the utility of derived categorisations. These categories may be broadly applicable in future research where the assumed underlying mechanism between residential distance to a blue space and a health outcome is direct recreational contact.
Read moreResults From an 18 Country Cross-Sectional Study Examining Experiences of Nature for People with Common Mental Health Disorders
Figure 1. Estimated anxiety (unstandardized coefficients, 95% Confidence Intervals) during last nature visit as a function of perceived social pressure for each CMD group. Estimates are based on models controlling for: sex, age, perceived financial strain, employment status, marital status, number of children in household, having a long-term limiting illness, smoking status, alcohol use seasonal wave and country; and visit-related factors, number of companions, presence of dog, transport mode, travel time, visit duration, and anxiety ‘yesterday’. Exposure to natural environments is associated with a lower risk of common mental health disorders (CMDs), such as depression and anxiety, but we know little about nature-related motivations, practices and experiences of those already experiencing CMDs. We used data from an 18-country survey to explore these issues (n = 18,838), taking self-reported doctor-prescribed medication for depression and/or anxiety as an indicator of a CMD (n = 2698, 14%). Intrinsic motivation for visiting nature was high for all, though slightly lower for those with CMDs. Most individuals with a CMD reported visiting nature ≥ once a week. Although perceived social pressure to visit nature was associated with higher visit likelihood, it was also associated with lower intrinsic motivation, lower visit happiness and higher visit anxiety. Individuals with CMDs seem to be using nature for self-management, but ‘green prescription’ programmes need to be sensitive, and avoid undermining intrinsic motivation and nature-based experiences.
Read moreReturning to our Roots: Tribal Health and Wellness Through Land-Based Healing
Background Settler colonialism has severely disrupted Indigenous ancestral ways of healing and being, contributing to an onslaught of health disparities. In particular, the United Houma Nation (UHN) has faced large land loss and trauma, dispossession, and marginalization. Given the paucity of research addressing health for Indigenous individuals living in Louisiana, this study sought to co-identify a United Houma Nation health framework, by co-developing a community land-based healing approach in order to inform future community-based health prevention programs. Methods This pilot tested, co-designed and implemented a land-based healing pilot study among Houma women utilizing a health promotion leadership approach and utilized semi-structured interviews among 20 UHN women to identify a UHN health framework to guide future results. Results The findings indicated that RTOR was a feasible pilot project. The initial themes were Place Environmental/land trauma Ancestors Spirituality/mindfulness Cultural continuity Environment and health The reconnection to land was deemed feasible and seen as central to renewing relationships with ancestors (aihalia asanochi taha), others, and body. This mindful, re-engagement with the land contributed to subthemes of developing stronger tribal identities, recreating ceremonies, and increased cultural continuity, and transforming narratives of trauma into hope and resilience. Based on these findings a Houma Health (Uma Hochokma) Framework was developed and presented. Conclusions Overall, this study found that land can serve as a feasible therapeutic site for healing through reconnecting Houma tribal citizens to both ancestral knowledges and stories of resilience, as well as viewing self as part of a larger collective. These findings also imply that revisiting historically traumatic places encouraged renewed commitment to cultural continuity and health behaviors—particularly when these places are approached relationally, with ceremony, and traumatic events tied to these places, including climate change and environmental/land trauma, are acknowledged along with the love the ancestors held for future generations.
Read moreSustaining Life: Human Health–Planetary Health Linkages
Our beautiful planet has been profoundly altered by human activities. Climate change, biodiversity loss, pollution, land use changes, and disrupted cycles of water, nitrogen, and phosphorus, to name several alterations, in turn have far-reaching impacts on human health, especially targeting the most vulnerable. Planetary Health approaches the health of people and the health of the planet as inextricably linked. This chapter introduces the Planetary Health framework by exploring four examples: climate change, chemical contamination, land use changes, and biodiversity loss. It concludes by considering innovative ways of thinking, and novel ethical considerations, raised by the current crisis of planetary degradation.
Read moreThe Affective Benefits of Nature Exposure: What’s Nature Got to Do with It?
Figure 1. Hypotheses & analyses overview for study 2. Nature interactions have been demonstrated to produce reliable affective benefits. While adults demonstrate strong preferences for natural environments over urban ones, it is not clear whether these affective benefits result from exposure to nature stimuli per se, or result from viewing a highly preferred stimulus. In one set of studies (Study 1 and 2), state affect before and after image viewing was examined as a function of both preference level (high, low, very high, or very low aesthetic value) and environment type (nature or urban). When aesthetic value was matched, no differences in affect change were found between environments. However, affect change was predicted by individual participants’ ratings for the images. The largest affective benefits occurred after viewing very high aesthetic nature images, but Study 2 lacked an equivalently preferred urban image set. In a second set of studies (Study 3 and 4), new sets of very highly preferred images in categories other than nature scenes (urban scenes and animals) were employed. As before, individual differences in preference for the images (but not image category) was predictive of changes in affect. In Study 5, the nature and urban images from Study 1 were rated on beauty to assess whether the stimuli’s preference ratings were capturing anything other than simple aesthetics. Results showed that beauty/aesthetics and preference (‘liking’) were nearly identical. Lastly, a replication of Study 2 (Study 6) was conducted to test whether priming preference accounted for these benefits, but this was not the case. Together, these results suggest that nature improves affective state because it is such a highly preferred environment.
Read moreUses and Limitations of Social Media to Inform Visitor Use Management in Parks and Protected Areas: A Systematic Review
Figure 1. Papers published by year (n = 58). These are papers published through April 2020, so the number of papers in 2020 only represents 4 months Social media are being increasingly used to inform visitor use management in parks and protected areas. We review the state of the scientific literature to understand the ways social media has been, and can be, used to measure visitation, spatial patterns of use, and visitors’ experiences in parks and protected areas. Geotagged social media are a good proxy for actual visitation; however, the correlations observed by previous studies between social media and other sources of visitation data vary substantially. Most studies using social media to measure visitation aggregate data across many years, with very few testing the use of social media as a visitation proxy at smaller temporal scales. No studies have tested the use of social media to estimate visitation in near real-time. Studies have used geotags and GPS tracks to understand spatial patterns of where visitors travel within parks, and how that may relate to other variables (e.g., infrastructure), or differ by visitor type. Researchers have also found the text content, photograph content, and geotags from social media posts useful to understand aspects of visitors’ experiences, such as behaviors, preferences, and sentiment. The most cited concern with using social media is that this data may not be representative of all park users. Collectively, this body of research demonstrates a broad range of applications for social media. We synthesize our findings by identifying gaps and opportunities for future research and presenting a set of best practices for using social media in parks and protected areas.
Read moreChild-Nature Interaction in a Forest Preschool
Children participating in activities at Fiddleheads Forest School. In 2012 there were only around 25 nature preschools and kindergartens in the United States; now there are well over 250. It is a national movement that is gaining momentum. It is an exciting time because in principle these schools have within them the kernels to transform the world through increasing children’s direct interaction with nature and a more wild nature than that exists in most urban children’s lives. In this paper we begin to characterize forms of child-nature interaction that occur in one specific nature preschool, Fiddleheads Forest Preschool in Seattle, Washington, USA. Based on our observational data, derived through a randomized time-sampling methodology, we modeled child-nature interaction using what we call interaction patterns: characterizations of essential ways of interacting with nature described abstractly enough such that the pattern can be instantiated in different ways, across diverse forms of nature. Specifically, we use a nature language to describe (with photographs) eight interaction patterns: leaning on and hanging from supple tree limbs, climbing high in small tree, looking at wild animals, imitating animals, imagining nature to be something other than it is, making boundaries on earth, pushing the edges of boundaries, and waiting attentively in nature. Through an interaction pattern approach, we seek to provide insight into what is actually happening on the ground at a forest preschool and how that provides a key solution to the problem of environmental generational amnesia.
Read moreNatureCollections: Can A Mobile Application Trigger Children’s Interest In Nature?
Figure 1. a. Student taking a close-up shot of a flower b. One student pointing nature element to her peers a c. Students walking and scanning their surroundings. In this study, we investigate whether and how a mobile application called NatureCollections supports children’s triggered situational interest in nature. Developed from an interest-centered design framework, NatureCollections allows children to build and curate their own customized photo collections of nature. We conducted a comparison study at an urban community garden with 57 sixth graders across 4 science classrooms. Students in two classrooms (n = 15 and 16) used the NatureCollections app, and students in another two classrooms (n = 13 and 13) used a basic Camera app. We found that NatureCollections succeeded in focusing students’ attention–an important aspect of interest development– through sensory engagement with the natural characteristics in their surroundings. Students who used NatureCollections moved slower in space while scanning their surroundings for specific elements (e.g., flowers, birds) to photograph. In contrast, students who used the basic Camera app were more drawn to aesthetic aspects (e.g., color, shape) and tended to explore their surroundings through the device screen. NatureCollections supported other dimensions of interest development, including personal relevance, social interactions, and positive experiences for continued engagement. Our findings further showed that the NatureCollections app facilitated students’ scientific discourse with their peers.
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