thesis urban green space

Urban green spaces and social cohesion

• Architecture

Research output : Thesis › Doctoral Thesis

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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• Greater Manchester Computer Science 100%
• Personal Characteristic Computer Science 100%
• Group Discussion Computer Science 100%
• Secondary Data Computer Science 100%
• Geographical Information Computer Science 100%
• Physical Access Computer Science 100%
• Ecological Functioning Computer Science 100%
• Case Study Computer Science 100%

T1 - Urban green spaces and social cohesion

AU - Kazmierczak, A.

N2 - Green spaces provide numerous environmental, economic and social benefits to residents of urban areas. One particular notion is that green spaces contribute to social cohesion of urban communities. However, the extant evidence for this contribution is patchy and the mechanisms connecting social cohesion to green spaces are not well recognised. The aim of this thesis is to provide a conceptual framework linking urban green spaces and social cohesion. The critical literature review identified three hypothetical mechanisms that link green spaces to social cohesion: their role as free and accessible amenities; as social arenas enabling interactions between people; and as places relieving stress and aggression by providing contact with nature. These functions were investigated in a multi-method manner with the use of Geographical Information Systems, ecological surveys, questionnaire surveys, focus group discussions and statistical analysis of secondary data. Greater Manchester, UK, was used as a case study area. The results suggest that while green spaces were abundant in the area investigated, their accessibility was limited by unequal geographic distribution, problems with physical access and perceptions of their usability. They functioned as social arenas but this role was dependant on the presence of recreational facilities, qualities of the neighbouring area and personal characteristics of visitors. While contact with nature was valued by users, it was not seen as a priority and intensely managed settings were preferred by respondents. In conclusion, the research identified that a number of criteria need to be met for urban green spaces to contribute to social cohesion. The results have been combined into a conceptual framework of interrelated social and environmental factors affecting the potential of green spaces to provide this contribution. The thesis includes suggestions for further investigations into the socio-ecological functioning of urban green spaces and provides recommendations for green space planning and management.

AB - Green spaces provide numerous environmental, economic and social benefits to residents of urban areas. One particular notion is that green spaces contribute to social cohesion of urban communities. However, the extant evidence for this contribution is patchy and the mechanisms connecting social cohesion to green spaces are not well recognised. The aim of this thesis is to provide a conceptual framework linking urban green spaces and social cohesion. The critical literature review identified three hypothetical mechanisms that link green spaces to social cohesion: their role as free and accessible amenities; as social arenas enabling interactions between people; and as places relieving stress and aggression by providing contact with nature. These functions were investigated in a multi-method manner with the use of Geographical Information Systems, ecological surveys, questionnaire surveys, focus group discussions and statistical analysis of secondary data. Greater Manchester, UK, was used as a case study area. The results suggest that while green spaces were abundant in the area investigated, their accessibility was limited by unequal geographic distribution, problems with physical access and perceptions of their usability. They functioned as social arenas but this role was dependant on the presence of recreational facilities, qualities of the neighbouring area and personal characteristics of visitors. While contact with nature was valued by users, it was not seen as a priority and intensely managed settings were preferred by respondents. In conclusion, the research identified that a number of criteria need to be met for urban green spaces to contribute to social cohesion. The results have been combined into a conceptual framework of interrelated social and environmental factors affecting the potential of green spaces to provide this contribution. The thesis includes suggestions for further investigations into the socio-ecological functioning of urban green spaces and provides recommendations for green space planning and management.

M3 - Doctoral Thesis

PB - University of Salford

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Influence of urban green spaces on quality of life and health with smart city design.

1. Introduction

• How does living urban greenery affect city dwellers’ quality of life and physical and psychological health, and what qualitative functions does green space have?
• How do green spaces differ regarding environmental and social justice and sustainability, and what contributions can they make to the neighborhood?
• How are different stakeholders involved in the development and improvement of urban green spaces?

2. Materials and Methods

2.1. smart city construction site, 2.1.1. science tower and helmut-list halle, 2.1.2. smart center, 2.1.3. school campus and cool city, 2.1.4. northern construction site, 2.1.5. central construction area, 2.1.6. public space, 2.2. principles of the smart city.

• City of short distances: all basic needs should be achieved through a mix of services that can be covered within a neighborhood, such as housing, work, education, local supply, leisure, health facilities, and gastronomy.
• Priority for soft mobility: public transportation at regular intervals, connection to a cycle path network, e-mobility and sharing options, parking spaces, and multimodal nodes for reaching objectives outside of the area.
• Careful and economical use of resources: Meaningful densification and conversion of existing areas. The energy supply should be CO-free, and renewable energy should be used.
• A new attitude towards life and a high quality of life: attractive outdoor space design through numerous green spaces, thoroughfares, offers for sports and games, information, and engagement for citizens.
• Affordable housing: Housing and operating costs should remain reasonable. Mixed-use and different-sized apartment floor plans allow the costs to vary [ 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 ].

3. Smart City Investigation Area

3.1. green laboratory, 3.2. stadtlabor project.

• Long-term partnerships between actors: The transformation of a place happens over a longer period. This requires mutual trust, cooperation at eye level, and a common vision.
• Alternative places of action: whenever possible, at project sites, places in which interdisciplinary cooperation is facilitated are created with a low threshold of accessibility.
• Trying out and quickly sharing knowledge: There are usually several approaches to a topic or problem. Their solutions are tested in real life, making the changes more visible.
• The sustainable city as a goal: The city of the future is resource-saving, energy-efficient, compact, mixed, inclusive, resilient, and above all, livable. StadtLABOR currently employs twelve people, in addition to interns. They come from the fields of architecture, spatial planning, economics, communication, social work, etc. This interdisciplinarity structure is experienced as a great strength.

3.3. Key Interview Criteria

• Keeping the questionnaire short so that the respondents did not spend too much time answering it.
• The questions needed to be formulated in such a way that they were easy to answer.
• Open questions were preferred, as they encouraged detailed answers.
• There were some questions with yes/no answers, and no leading questions were to be asked. The answers needed to reflect the personal attitudes of the respondents [ 27 ].
• The guides of semi-structured interviews are commonly divided into two categories: main questions and follow-up questions. The main questions address the research topics but can also be opening questions. Follow-up questions serve to delve deeper into the subject matter. One must be somewhat prepared with the main questions but can also be spontaneous during the interview.
• The interviews were partially standardized. For the resident interviews, all respondents were asked the same questions. However, these were answered differently in terms of their details, and some questions were always preferred, while some were left out.
• The experts also received the same questions, but intermediate questions were repeatedly asked depending on the topic.
• In the lead-up to an interview, it was also necessary to consider when and where it should occur, i.e., the time, place, and influence of the interview. It made sense to start the interviews directly at the place of investigation or the workplace of the interviewees, as this provided a further impetus and could even encourage observation. It was observed that for the audio recordings, a quiet place needed to be selected for the interviews [ 28 , 29 , 30 ].

3.4. Software Interpretation of the Interview Results

3.5. evaluation of graz’s green spaces, 4. qualitative and quantitative interviews, 5. conclusions.

• How does lively urban greenery affect city dwellers’ quality of life and physical and mental health, and what functions does it include for quality green space?

Data Availability Statement

Acknowledgments, conflicts of interest.

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Addas, A. Influence of Urban Green Spaces on Quality of Life and Health with Smart City Design. Land 2023 , 12 , 960. https://doi.org/10.3390/land12050960

Addas A. Influence of Urban Green Spaces on Quality of Life and Health with Smart City Design. Land . 2023; 12(5):960. https://doi.org/10.3390/land12050960

Addas, Abdullah. 2023. "Influence of Urban Green Spaces on Quality of Life and Health with Smart City Design" Land 12, no. 5: 960. https://doi.org/10.3390/land12050960

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• Open access
• Published: 21 March 2023

Geospatial assessment of urban green space using multi-criteria decision analysis in Debre Markos City, Ethiopia

• Mihret Bizuye Anteneh 1 ,
• Desta Solomon Damte 2 ,
• Simeneh Gedefaw Abate 2 &
• Abebaw Andarge Gedefaw 3  

Environmental Systems Research volume  12 , Article number:  7 ( 2023 ) Cite this article

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Urban green space (UGS) serves as a lung for city dwellers to breathe and is critical for fostering the sustainable growth of urban ecology and improving residents’ quality of life. Debre Markos City (DMC) lacks natural recreational areas such as lakes and artificial green spaces. A notable UGS study utilizing multiple contributing factors integrated with remote sensing and GIS has a significant advantage in making residents more comfortable. This study, therefore, aimed to assess the conventional methods (existing and proposed UGS) against remote sensing and GIS-based, and to identify, quantify and allocate the proper suitable site for UGS development.. Hence, ten UGS influencing factors were selected. Each criterion was analyzed with the use of its proper algorithm. Multicriteria decision-making (MCDM) analysis integrated with Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) method and Remote Sensing and GIS were applied. The weighted sum overlay analysis method of spatial analysis was implemented based on the criteria weight of each factor. A 90.6% and 0.8855 accuracy assessment and kappa coefficient were recorded for land use/land cover classification, respectively. The value of the consistency ratio was 0.043, which is < 1 and acceptable. Results revealed that 13.12% (2201 ha), 25.47% (4271.7 ha), 30.89% (5180.8 ha), 22.49% (3772.7 ha), and 8.2% (1345.8 ha) of the total area coverage had very high , highly , moderately , poorly and unsuitable for UGS development activity at DMC, respectively. In this study, a resident can access UGS with less than 1 km radius distance, closer to the national standard of Ethiopia (i.e. 500 m). However, in the existing UGS, a person is forced to walk or travel more than 8.4 km to get the service. In conclusion, remote sensing and GIS can make life easy to access UGS in the study area with minimum distance, cost, and a short period. It is recommended that policymakers, planners, and executive bodies in Ethiopia consider the future urban demand of dwellers with proper studies earlier to establish other urban infrastructures.

Introduction

Urban green space (UGS) refers to vegetation found in urban environments such as parks, squares, open spaces, residential gardens, or street trees (Kabisch and Haase 2013 ). As a highly demanded public resource, UGS plays an important role in improving citizens’ quality of life (Shekhar and Aryal 2019 ; Ahn et al. 2020 ). Hence, UGS helps to protect urban ecology (Ziter et al. 2019 ) such as reducing the impact of the urban heat island (Ke et al. 2021 ; Dong et al. 2022 ), air purification in urban (Teixeira et al. 2021 ), lowering surface runoff (Mugiraneza et al. 2022 ), enhancing biodiversity (La Sorte et al. 2020 ), enhancing carbon storage (Barber et al. 2021 ; Zhang et al. 2022 ) as well as maintaining ecological balance (Pecina et al. 2021 ; Teixeira et al. 2021 ). As for the inhabitants, UGS serves as an urban metabolism center and a lung for city and town dwellers because it provides a core service to improve urban quality of life, and recreational places, which is a necessary component for urban planning and development and carbon sequestration (Assaye et al. 2017 ; Amorim et al. 2021 ; Gelan 2021 ).

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goal 11 aims to make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable (Emas 2015 ). Policymakers around the world are addressing urbanization and unplanned urban growth ( Vargas-Hernández et al. 2017 ; Jarah et.al. 2019 ). It has been discovered that urban planning fails in practice in some developing countries because planning is frequently overambitious, especially in light of the administrative system's ability to enforce their implementation (Akanbang et al. 2018 ; Jarah et.al. 2019 ). Urban greenspaces in Africa are still hardly recognized in policymaking (Roberts et al. 2012 ). There is a scarcity of green infrastructure approaches that integrate well into city planning and governance systems (Turok 2014 ; Herslund et al. 2018 ). The basic principles of connectivity, multi-functionality, and social inclusiveness must be considered during planning to achieve the development of green spaces that provide environmental, economic, and social benefits (Girma et al. 2019 ). Green spaces should be prioritized on the development agendas of urban planning authorities and the allied institutions that manage greenspaces (Adjei Mensah 2015 ). Therefore, UGS planning, development, and management are key issues for accelerating urbanization. These spaces offer significant benefits to urban dwellers (James et al. 2009 ; Anguluri and Narayanan 2017 ) and also provide important habitats for wildlife (Goddard et al. 2017 ). Well-planned, managed, and funded cities are strongly committed to creating economic, social, environmental, and other non-quantifiable values that can significantly improve the quality of life for all (Habitat 2020 ).

In the 1960s and 2014, the world's urban population was 34% and 54% of the whole population, respectively. However, by 2050, the proportion of people living in urban areas is expected to reach 66% (UNDESA 2014 ). Similarly, the fastest global urban population is expected to grow by 2.5 billion city dwellers between 2018 and 2050, with nearly 2.25 billion (90%) of this increase concentrated particularly in low- and middle-income nations of Asia and Africa (Cilluffo and Ruiz 2019 ). In contrast, urban spatial planning and effective land-use management and development practices in sub-Saharan Africa continue to receive little attention, as in Ethiopia, especially in regional towns such as Debre Markos (Habitat 2016 ).

Ethiopia, a low-income country that has experienced rapid urbanization, emerged to create great challenges for planning and development decisions of UGS in cities. As a result, UGS planning and development without a detailed analysis of considering multiple factors made mistakes and could not fulfill citizens’ right to access UGS. Thus, this fast urbanization has postured more noteworthy weight on characteristic assets and the environment (Ramachandra and Kumar 2009 ) and the extent of land used for infrastructure and building development has enlarged at the expenditure of UGS (Sandström 2002 ). In Ethiopia, UGS is not well planned, allocated, and managed yet in most urban cities such as DMC.

Rapid urbanization and anticipated human advancement will soon necessitate the need for very attractive and sizable UGS sites. Except for the Yeraba natural forest, which is found in the city’s southeast, DMC lacked natural attractions like lakes, river beaches, caves, and other green spaces. Moreover, due to the city's oldness, most roads are very narrow and are not designed for a modern way of life. In addition, UGS was mostly planned by only considering its location for its proximity to urban residents.

DMC recently expanded dramatically by incorporating free cultivated lands, grasslands, forest lands, and other open spaces land use types from surrounding rural districts for urban development. This opportunity will provide many benefits for UGS development in terms of better structural planning and opportunities to review past problems. Hence, unplanned (poorly managed) urban expansion can jeopardize sustainability through urban sprawl, pollution, and environmental degradation. As a result, determining and assessing appropriate spatial analysis for UGS is the primary responsibility of improving the urban ecological environment while taking into account several factors, such as physical and mental health (Braubach et al. 2017 ; Marques da Costa and Kállay 2020 ). However, according to DMC ( 2021 ), structural plan, residents enforced to travel more than 8.4 km (16.8times) and 5.4 km (10.8times) farther than the standard set of the country in the existing UGS and the recently proposed UGS designed by the city, respectively to get the service. Moreover, UGS infrastructure standard of Ethiopia proposes a 500 m radius of public green open spaces within city boundaries (Eshetu et al. 2021 ).

Globally, many researchers used remote sensing-based UGS site suitability analysis integrated with the AHP method in different cities (Piran et al. 2013 ; Rasli et al. 2016 ; Saeedavi et al. 2017 ; Li 2018a ). However, in Ethiopia, even though, MCDM with AHP analysis is applied for many suitability analyses such as cropland suitability (Kahsay et al. 2018 ; Debesa et al. 2020 ), environmental pollution (Worqlul et al. 2017 ; Dawit et al. 2020 ) and irrigation potential (Mussa and Suryabhagavan 2021; Balew et al. 2022 ) and groundwater potential assessment (Kassahun and Mohamed 2018 ; Markos et al. 2021 ; Abate et al. 2022 ; Guduru and Jilo 2022 ; Kabeto et al. 2022 ). Land suitability mapping methods and GIS have been used to assist urban green space planners in developed countries in recent decades; however, their application and practices for UGS assessment are limited in developing countries such as Ethiopia. Only a few recent researches have been conducted in this area, such as suitable site selection for UGS development using GIS and RS based on multi-criterion analysis (Hailemariam 2021 ), urban green space development using GIS-based multi-criteria analysis in Addis Ababa metropolis (Abebe and Megento 2017 )and urban green spaces planning in Sululta town, Ethiopia (Gelan 2021 ). So, previous studies only showed selecting potential sites for green spaces However, in this study therefore aimed to fill the existing research gap by investigating the importance of locating, planning, and developing UGS sites with reasonable scientific justifications before their establishment. And the study is exceptional with its descriptive statistical comparison by distance (proximity) method of three scenarios (existing, proposed, and remote sensing and GIS-based scientific studies) distance to travel to get UGS services for residents who contribute to the effective planning of green spaces in a sustainable manner. In addition, no scientific study has previously been conducted in the study area using the joined frame of Remote Sensing and GIS methods. Because it uses remotely sensed geographical data, it saves time, effort, and money. Remote sensing, with its benefits of data availability such as spatial data, spectral data, and temporal data coverage of enormous unreachable areas in a short time, has become a practical tool in the assessment, monitoring, and conservation of UGS (Cetin 2015 ). Therefore, this study aimed to assess the conventional methods of existing and proposed UGS versus remote sensing and GIS-based, and to identify, quantify and allocate the proper suitable site for UGS development in Debre Markos City.

Research methods

Description of the study area.

DMC, earlier named Menkorer, is the prior capital of Gojjam Province and is a regiopolitan city in northwestern Ethiopia (Fig.  1 ). The city was named Debre Markos after its main church, which was founded in 1869 and dedicated to St. Marco. It is located in the East Gojjam administrative area of the Amhara National Regional State. It has Latitude 10° 19′ 60″ North, Longitude 37° 43′ 0″ East. DMC has located 300 km to the North Western part of Addis Ababa City, the capital city of Ethiopia and 265 km Southeast of Bahir Dar, the capital of the Amhara National Regional State. The study area has relatively sloppy topography. The city has an elevation of 2, 446 m.a.s.l from the average MSL. It is also located at the foothill of Choke Mountain, which is also known as the water tower of the Upper Blue Nile River, in the East Gojjam Administrative Zone. The most common land cover types in the study area include settlement/residence, agricultural land, grassland, forestland, urban open space, and a very small amount of water bodies. Basalt, Sandstone and Chert are the dominant lithogical units in the study area.

Location map of DMC

According to the National Meteorological Agency (NMA), DMC has a temperate and warm climate typical of the elevated portions of Ethiopia. The climate is classified subtropical highland (koppen: cwb), despite the proximity to the Equator. The minimum and maximum temperatures average between 14 and 20 °C. The mean annual air temperature is 17.3 °C. March and April are the warmest months with average temperature of 19.8.1 °C. July and August are the coldest months with average temperatures of 15.7 °C. The average annual temperature is 17.5 °C. The average rain fall is considerably irregular going from 15 mm in January to 433 mm in July, being therefore still the main differentiator of the seasons of the year (NMA 2022 ).According to 1994, national census report DMC has a total population of 49,297 with 9,617 homes, of whom 22,745 were male and 26,552 were female. Based on the 2007 national census result directed by the Central Statistical Agency of Ethiopia, DMC’s population was 62469, with 29,901 male and 32,568 female, while, in 2012 the total estimated population of Debre Markos city projected in 2008 by CSA was 262,497, of whom 129,921 were male and 132,576 female (Central Statistical Agency 2007 ).

Data source

The primary data of the study, like Ground control points (GCP), were collected with the help of GPS. While secondary data were collected from websites, mapping agencies, rainfall stations and DMC data source archives such as DMC plan institutions (see Table 1 ).

Multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA) integrated with Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) was applied to determine an ideal place for UGS. There was no universally agreed factor for urban green space organization (Jabir and DasS 2014 ). As a result, by analyzing a review of the literature, expert opinions, personal experiences, and previous research on this topic done by different researchers (Manlun 2003 ; Uy and Nakagoshi 2008 ; Chandio et al. 2011 ; Pareta 2013 ; Tahmasebi et al. 2014 ; Abebe and Megento 2017 ; Dağıstanlı et al. 2018 ; Li 2018b ; Ustaoglu and Aydınoglu 2020 ; Gelan 2021 ) Ten UGS determinant factors namely slope, elevation, proximity to the resident (settlement), existing land use, proximity to water sources, proximity to the marketplace, proximity to the road, proximity to the religious institution, flood-prone vulnerability and vegetation coverage (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) were identified. Finally, all these factors were analyzed with the ArcGIS environment with the application of the weighted sum overlay analysis method.

Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) in sentinel 2A data can be defined as the proportion of the alteration between band 8 (near infrared, NIR) and band 4 (red, R), to the sum of band 8 (near infrared, NIR) and band 4 (red, R). It is calculated as follows in Eq.  1 below:

DEM data was the decisive source of elevation and slope thematic maps of the study area, obtained from USGS/Copernicus Sentinel 2A. Proximity to settlement, proximity to the road, proximity to water sources, proximity to the marketplace, and proximity to religious institutions were computed using the Euclidian distance spatial analysis tool. The flood susceptibility map was developed from the sum of four main factors: slope, rainfall, distance to rivers, and land use/land cover data. These data were computed and overlaid with the different weighted values (Table 2 ).

Analysis of land use/land cover

Land use/ land cover classification analysis of the study was conducted using a supervised classification algorithm by ERDAS Imagine software. Accuracy assessment evaluation was analyzed with Ground Control Points (GCP) gathered from both Google Earth Pro and Global Positioning System (GPS). A total of one hundred twenty-eight GCPs were collected (forty-six from GPS data collection and eighty-two from Google Earth pro). The study’s land use/ land cover map was analyzed with satellite image classification and its validation was done with GCPs. A land use/land cover map was established and checked with an overall accuracy equation and the kappa coefficient of image classification algorithm, as presented below. According to (Congalton 2001 ), the overall accuracy of UGS (O a UGS) and kappa coefficient (K) is computed as follows in Eq.  2 and Eq.  3 , respectively;

where; O a UGS, Overall Accuracy of UGS, ΣX c , the summation of an accurately classified diagonal matrix, and GCP, the total number of GCP collected.

where; TN —total number of observations, f - number of rows in the matrix, P jj is the number of observations in the row j , and the column j , P j + is the marginal totals of the row j and P + j the marginal totals of the column j .

Multicriteria decision analysis

The weights of all numerous UGS contribution items detected in the thematic map layers would have a different value. Accordingly, a method of MCDA designed by (Malczewski 1999 ) in combination with an analytical hierarchy process (AHP) of Saaty was applied (Saaty 1980 ). Biases in the decision-making process can be reduced by using AHP which helps to capture objective assessment measures and offers an appreciated method for confirming consistency (Ishizaka and Lusti 2003 ). To determine the relative importance or weight of each decision criteria of factor, AHP used a pairwise comparison matrix involved in three steps, namely; (1) design a comparison matrix at each level of the hierarchy, commencing at the top (2) compute the comparative importance or weight of each factor and (3) valuation of consistency ratio (C.R). To end with, weighted sum overlay analysis was functional to find the appropriate site rating of UGS.

The inconsistency assessment of criteria weighting can be assured through the computation of pairwise comparison matrix value of consistency ratio (C.R). Therefore, C.R is the measure of how much a matrix diverges from its consistency, and C.R. value should be less than 0.1 (10%) to be reflected as acceptable (Saaty 1980 ).

Given a positive reciprocal comparison matrix UGS (n x n) = (a ij ), the Eigenvector (EV) method obtains the priority vector by

where, λ max (UGS)—maximum eigenvalue of the pairwise comparison matrix of UGS.

Consistency Index (C.I.) is computed the ratio of the difference between λ max and the number of criteria/factors (C) as in Eq.  5 below:

The C.R. value is calculated by the ratio of CI of the pairwise comparison matrix divided by RI in the hierarchy as follows in Eq.  6 :

C is the number of factors /criteria used, λ max is the maximum eigenvalue, R.I is the Random Index, and C.R is the consistency ratio. However, the RI is the mean consistency index of a randomly produced comparison matrix. As shown in Table 3 below, Saaty's ratio index is not practical for C less than two factors /criteria. For instance, take 1.49 RI value when the numbers of criteria/factors are ten under Saaty's RI generation.

Lastly, each criterion's thematic map layers were examined using weighted sum overlay analysis toolbox in the ArcGIS 10.8.2 software according to their computed weight.

where, UGS i , Urban Green Space identification, fw i , factor weight/Weight of criteria in the matrix, Ap i , assigned normalization score of pixel value C , number of input factors/criteria that contribute for UGS i .

Conceptual design

The overall conceptual design for the proposed UGS environmental assessment would be designed as follows below in Fig.  2 .

Conceptual design of UGS in DMC

Result and discussion

Slope of the land.

The slope of DMC was derived from DEM data obtained from USGS/SRTM. As the slope is very steep, greening the land is difficult because it needs some landscape modifications such as reshaping, and vice versa (Lo and Jim 2010 ). On the other hand, several studies have demonstrated that low-slope areas are highly suitable for developing urban green areas (Piran et al. 2013 ; Mahdavi and Niknejad 2014 ; Pramanik 2016 ; Abebe and Megento 2017 ; Dağıstanlı et al. 2018 ). The slope of DMC ranges from 0 degrees (flat/gentle slope) to 70 degrees (steep slope). As a result, this study deemed lower slope land to be more suitable than higher slope land, and areas with slopes of 0–4 degrees, 4–8 degrees, 8–12 degrees, 12–22 degrees, and 22–70 degrees were deemed very highly suitable, highly suitable, moderately suitable, poorly suitable, and unsuitable, respectively, for identifying suitable sites for urban green space development (Table 4 ). However, land slopes approaching to seventy degrees indicate that the study area consists of steep slopes, making urban greening difficult to establish and requiring huge investment costs (Newburn et al. 2006 ). According to (Pokhrel 2019 ), earlier studies on UGS geospatial analysis show that areas with flat to gentle slopes are very highly suitable for developing urban green space, particularly green parks. Moreover, the landscapes of the area determine the cost and design of the construction of UGS (Zhu 2018 ).

Proximity to the road

One of the fundamental elements that makes UGS more convenient for users is the availability of road infrastructure, such as road proximity and road width, which is important in supplying feasible routes to the local population to access urban green areas in their surroundings (Bunruamkaew and Murayama 2011 ; Kienast et al. 2012 ; Morckel 2017 ). The green space site is also preferred if it is located reasonably far from roads so that access to transportation is possible (Chandio et al. 2011 ; Tahmasebi et al. 2014 ). By calculating Euclidian distances, the primary road (60 m,40 m) radius of the road network has been considered as very highly suitable, the secondary road (30 m, 25 m) radius was found to be highly suitable, and the tertiary road (20 m,16 m) radius was considered as moderately suitable. Furthermore, the Quaternary road (12 m,10 m) has been deemed unsuitable, and the Quinary road (8 m) from the road network has considered as unsuitable (Table 4 ). Main roads contribute a lot for this purpose because they reduce traffic flow and serve as parking at the edge. Findings have also revealed that the choice of appropriate urban green spaces is influenced by the types of roads (Gül et al. 2006 ). Previous studies have also shown that greater consideration should be given to developing urban green spaces in areas with access to major roads than in areas with only local roads (Gül et al. 2006 ; Chandio et al. 2011 ). As shown in Figs.  3 , 4 , 5 (i) below, DMC has proposed as well as existing roads that range from very wide to narrow road widths, including 60 m, 40 m, 30 m, 25 m, 20 m, 16 m, 12 m, 10 m, and 8 m width. All values on the maps indicated how far a given area from the roads is. For example, in Fig.  3 (a) the value of 5025.58 m showed that the area is very far from the 60 m width main road.

Proximity to road maps a 60 m b 40 m c 30 m d 25 m

Proximity to road maps e 20 m f 16 m g 12 m h 10 m

Proximity to road distance i 8 m j NDVI k the minimum and maximum value of digital elevation model (DEM) l distance to the religious institution

The most widely available road type in DMC is the 16 m width with a maximum distance 1130 m in all direction shown in Fig.  4 (f). The second mostly accessible road type was the 20 m width road with a maximum distance of 1605 m far from a given direction also shown in Fig.  4 (e) below. However, a 25 m width road was not accessible for all areas with having 8982 m far for the northern part of the city dwellers (Fig.  3 d) above.

Normalized difference vegetation index

The most important factor for UGS is the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), which shows the overall coverage of vegetation (Gül et al. 2006 ; Mahmoud and El-Sayed 2011 ; Dağıstanlı et al. 2018 ; Li 2018a ). Results revealed that the NDVI value of sentinel 2A data ranges from − 1 to + 1 in the study area. The negative sign indicates less / no vegetation, while the positive sign shows dense vegetation found in an area. However, its result was within the range of -0.999173 to + 0.999728 (Fig.  5 and Table 4 ). Therefore, a magnificent amount of dense forest vegetation was recorded at DMC. Previous research has also found that as the NDVI vegetation prominence of a given environment increases or becomes greater, so does the adaptability of urban green space, with the NDVI value approaching + 1. (Wu et al. 2021 ). Moreover, as (Li et al. 2018a , b ), for UGS development, the calculated NDVI value should be greater than 0.1, representing grasslands and shrubs.

As indicated in Fig.  5 (k, l) above, the elevation of the study area ranges from 2206 to 2548 m, and its religious distance from 0 to 3753 m, respectively. The slope ranges from 0 to 70 degrees. It shows that the study area (DMC) also had a very steep slope aligned in the southern and northwestern regions of the city (Fig.  6 q). However, the maximum distance of its market proximity in any direction is 2853 m. The farthest location was obtained to the southern direction of the city as shown in Fig.  6 (r) below (Fig. 7 ).

Thematic maps of DMC m slope in degrees n proximity to marketplace o streams p land use /land cover map

q proximity to settlement r flood susceptibility map

Proximity to market place

Marketplaces are mostly the source of environmental pollution for UGS in developing countries such as Ethiopia. Therefore, UGS suitability assessment and development should be far from such areas to protect them from pollution and make them very clean, attractive, and visitable by the residents. Therefore, in this study, the distance from the marketplace is between 1705 and 2854 m considered to be highly suitable, and between 1055 and 1705 m is considered highly suitable in this study. Moreover, distances between 580 and 1055 m and 220 m to 580 m are moderately suitable and poorly suitable for urban green spaces, respectively. Whereas distances less than 220 m are considered unsuitable (Table 4 ). Also, as shown in Fig.  8 (n), proximity to marketplaces ranges from 0 to 2853.56 m distance, the nearest area is affected by pollution from marketing and is not suitable for GS.

reclassified maps of i proximity to the religious institution ii NDVI iii proximity to settlement iv Proximity to marketplace

Proximity to the water source

Water source is one of the key factors that regulate and make UGS development works easily because it is the heart of the growth and development of green plants. Owing to, the above fact any UGS should be sited near water source areas. Studies highlight that lands near rivers, lakes, and reservoirs are highly suitable for developing green space (Manlun 2003 ; Pareta 2013 ; Piran et al. 2013 ; Abebe and Megento 2017 ). Therefore, in this study, a distance less than 217.8 m from the river is considered highly suitable, and between 217.8 m and 435.7 m is considered highly suitable. Moreover, distances between 435.7 m and 653.5 m and 653.5 m to 871 m are considered moderately suitable and poorly suitable for urban green spaces, respectively. Whereas distances between 871 m and 1089.15 m are relatively considered unsuitable (Table 4 ). However, the land should be out of flood risk since streams are usually obtained at the lower relative elevation point in a given location. The source of water determines urban green space water consumption, such as from blue water resources (that is groundwater or surface water) to irrigate those (Nouri et al. 2019 ; Guo et al. 2021 ). In this study, therefore, seasonal and permanent streams are used as an alternative/supporting mechanism to replace or support groundwater sources of the city to irrigate UGS.

Proximity to religious institutions

Places closer to religious sites, and cultural and historical spaces are highly suitable for the good physical shape and spiritual lifestyles as related to places far away from these spaces (Pokhrel 2019 ). As a result, in this study, distances less than 500 m from religious institutions are classified as very highly suitable, and distances between 500 and 1000 m are classified as highly suitable. Furthermore, distances 1000 m to 1700 m and 1700 m to 2500 m are considered moderately and poorly suitable for urban green spaces, respectively. Distances between 2500 and 3753 m are regarded as unsuitable for the development of UGS. (Table 4 ).

Proximity to residential/settlement areas

Given their numerous ecological, social, and economic advantages, green spaces must be accessible to settlement areas in urban areas (Zhang et al. 2013 ; Malmir et al. 2016 ; Ustaoglu and Aydınoglu 2020 ). Scholars contended that a significant distance between settlement areas and green spaces harmed users and that green spaces such as playgrounds, parks, and sports fields closest to settlement areas were the most popular (Hörnsten and Fredman 2000 ). Globally, different countries have set their own UGS accessibility legal frameworks for the citizens based on their context of development and environmental policy. In Europe, for instance, the European Environment Agency (EEA), in outlining the urban green space provision goal, maintains that every person should have the right to use a green space within 15 min ( t ) of their dwelling and a maximum walking distance of approximately 900–1000 m (Stanners and Bourdeau 1995 ). In Ethiopia, however, according to the National Urban Green Infrastructure standard offers 15 m 2 per capita public urban green open spaces within the frontiers of the city, and every dweller living in the interior of 500 m distance from public urban open green spaces (should have at least 3000m 2 area in size) (Eshetu et al. 2021 ). As a result, the distance between green spaces and the settlement area is critical to consider. The proximity of the settlement area was used as a criterion in this study. Based on this, areas identified within 200 m of the settlement area were deemed highly suitable by using Euclidian distances, and areas ranging from 200 to 500 m were deemed highly suitable. Furthermore, the areas 500 m to 1000 m, 1000 m to 1600 m, and 1600 m to 2750 m from the settlement area were deemed moderately appropriate, poorly suited, and unsuitable for developing urban green spaces, respectively (Table 4 ).

Elevation of land surface

Elevation data was also obtained from DEM data. Elevation plays an important role in selecting suitable sites for urban green spaces and should be considered as a major factor (Gül et al. 2006 ; Mahmoud and El-Sayed 2011 ; Dağıstanlı et al. 2018 ; Li 2018b ). In this study, the elevations between 2204 and 2284 m, 2284 m − 2354 m, 2354 m − 2409 m, and 2409 m − 2451 m were considered very highly suitable, highly suitable, moderately suitable, and poorly suitable, respectively. Areas with elevations between 2451 and 2548 m were considered unsuitable for developing urban green spaces (Table 4 ). Previous research has shown that as the elevation of the land increases, so does its suitability for UGS development. The lower the elevation associated with flat slope land areas, the less human intervention is required for design and construction, the better the place for biological habitats to live, and the more advanced the suitability of UGS (Wu et al. 2021 ).

Land use/land cover type

DMC's land use/land cover data were categorized into six main classes: cultivation land, grassland, forestland, settlement/ resident, water bodies, and urban open space/ bare land (Fig.  9 ). In this study, grassland, forestland, and urban open space/bare land were considered very highly suitable, cultivation land was considered highly suitable, water bodies were moderately suitable, and settlement areas were poorly suitable for urban green space development (Table 4 ). Research conducted by (Li et al. 2018a , b ) confirmed that based on their suitability rating, a forest plantation, grassland, and open space are categorized under the very high suitability class; while cultivation/urban agriculture, water bodies, and settlement/construction area are categorized under high, moderate, and poor suitability classes for UGS site selection, respectively.

Reclassified maps of v slope, vi flood susceptibility, vii proximity to the water source and viii elevation ix land use land cover map x proximity to the road

Accuracy assessment is the precision and error matrix measurement applied for land use /land cover supervised classification analysis. Therefore, an overall accuracy assessment and kappa coefficient of urban green space assessment recorded for land use /land cover analysis were 90.6% and 0.8855, respectively as shown in Table 5 below.

Flood susceptibility

Flood susceptibility mapping development includes a slope, rainfall, distance to the river, and an area's land use /land cover conditions. Flood-susceptibility mapping has also been used as a parameter for UGS suitability study in DMC. According to research studies, places with lower flood susceptibility are more suitable for UGSs assessment than places with higher flood susceptibility, and urban green spaces should be as far away from flood susceptibility areas as possible (Piran et al. 2013 ; Peng et al. 2016 ; Fotovatikhah et al. 2018 ; Zhao et al. 2019 ). In this study, high flood-risk areas were unsuitable for developing urban green spaces, whereas low and medium flood-risk areas were deemed very highly and highly suitable (Table 4 ).

Criteria and sub-criteria for suitability analysis

All the selected causative input factors/criteria of the UGS assessment pairwise comparison matrix have been indicated in Table 6 below. As specified in the column of the weight of criteria (CW) value in Table 6 demonstrated that proximity to the settlement, proximity to the road, the slope of the landscape, existing land use land cover condition, and vegetation cover of DMC ranks from one to fifth, respectively. On the other hand, the remaining elevation, proximity to the water source, proximity to the religious area, flood susceptibility, and proximity to the marketplace ranks from sixth to tenth, respectively.

The computed criteria weight (CW) of all factors of UGS is indicated in Table 6 . Accordingly, the calculated λ max, (biggest eigenvalue) and the Consistency Index (CI) value were 10.577 and 0.064, respectively. Since the input contributing factor (C) for the suitability of UGS is ten its Random Index (RI) is 1.49. Therefore, a calculated Consistency Ratio (CR) value of 0.043 was obtained, which is less than 0.1, and deemed acceptable.

UGS spatial analysis

The most central part of DMC has very high and highly suitable UGS due to its proximity to the settlement, proximity to main roads, nature of the gentle slope, less susceptibility to flooding, and other factors set in the pairwise comparison matrix, criteria weight (Table 6 ). However, in contrast, the most periphery of the city is poorly suitable and unsuitable for urban green spacing because of flood susceptibility, very far places for roads, less proximity to water access, bare to less vegetation coverage, and far from residents for recreation purposes, very steep slope, and other related factors. The other main constraints of poorly suitable and unsuitable sites for UGS development, these areas are recently included under the city sprawl (expansion) program. Therefore, they have very little access to many economic, social, and infrastructural activities, and most lands are used for crop cultivation and have less productivity.

One can find very beautiful and attractive urban green spaces around the small streams of the Wuseta and Wutren rivers margins as indicated in the final UGS map Fig.  10 above. Most areas in the city had a maximum of 1.1 km distance from seasonal and permanent flow streams. Within the center of the city too, there are areas suitable for UGS development activity as shown in Fig.  11 above .

UGS suitability map of DMC

Final UGS suitability sites of DMC based on main roads, religious and settlement proximity

As the statistical data obtained shown in Table 7 below, approximately one-third of the area coverage of DMC has moderately suitable land for the development of urban greening with a low cost of investment. Moreover, 70 percent of the total land has been within the range of very high suitable to moderate suitability. Therefore, DMC can be changed to favorable greening sites if good emphasis, attention, and proper planning structure are given or designed for UGS development and implementation. Furthermore, most very high and highly suitable urban green spaces are found within a fair distance from the downtown /center of DMC (Fig.  11 ). Thus, the residents/ dwellers of the city can address these areas with minimum cost, less exertion, and a short time for entertainment.

Based on area coverage, very high suitable, high suitable, moderately suitable, poor suitable, and unsuitable ratings account for about 13.12%, 25.47%, 30.89%, 22.49%, and 8% of the total DMC area coverage, respectively as shown in Table 7 above. More than 92% of DMC ranged from very high to poorly suitable for UGS development activity. However, the residual 8% of the landscape needs a very high investment to make it suitable for urban greening due to slope steepness, the very far site from a resident, inaccessible to the road, the inadequacy of a water source, and other associated factors.

Existing and proposed UGS of DMC

The existing UGS of the city is very limited in scope and space. For example, the iconic UGS of the city is obtained at the Square of Negus Tekele Haimanot, where most people can address it from different directions. Other green spaces do not have vast space (accounts for only 28.5 hectares of the total land) and less attraction for entertainment. According to the DMC data, stadiums (asphalt cover and grass cover lands), open spaces, and grass and forest plantation sites on various squares reserve most of the existing recreational sites (also considered UGS) of the DMC. However, the newly proposed UGS designed by DMC has 424.36 hectares of land, which accounts for 2.5 percent of the total area coverage, and can be achieved by the city's past (2012) projected population.

Though the newly proposed UGS design has many advantages as compared to that of the existing UGS, the newly proposed (designed) UGS has also some problems. These are (1) there is no scientific study conducted on UGS planning and development that was officially released on websites or international and national journals by DMC, (2) if the city planners per se conduct the study, the factors of suitability (except proximity to resident) for UGS consideration also unknown clearly, (3) often it only considered the location of urban residents or settlements, which will face problems during developmental implementation, (4) the slope classes that are not suitable for urban green spacing are also included as part of the proposed UGS, (5) it did not fulfill the National Urban Green Infrastructure standard offered by the country (Ethiopia) 15 m 2 per capita public urban green open spaces in the interior of city frontiers, with every dweller living within 500 m distance from public urban open green spaces (should have at least 3000m 2 area in size) (Eshetu et al. 2021 ). Based on the 2012 population prediction of Central Statistical Agency ( 2007 ), the population of DMC (262,497), the proposed UGS may fate the national standard of every citizen should get 15m 2 per capita. However, this number increased beyond this after ten consecutive year's population. In addition, a resident enforced to travel or walk more than 8.4 km in the existing UGS and more than 5.4 km in the proposed UGS to get the service as shown in Fig.  11 above. As shown in Table 8 below, on average, the dwellers should travel 4.213 km to get the existing UGS service for their entertainment within the city (Fig. 12 ).

Existing and Proposed UGS distance

In this geospatial analysis of the UGS study, the maximum distance to UGS in any direction to get a very high and highly suitable UGS was lowered to 1.3 km. Moreover, the maximum distance to reach moderately and poorly suitable UGS is 675 m only (Fig.  13 above and Table 8 below). The average distance to access UGS in this geospatial analysis study was 656 m and 337.5 m from very high to a highly suitable area and moderate to a poor suitable area, respectively (as shown in Table 8 below). Overall, wherever UGS development activity doing in any corner of the city, a resident can access it within a maximum distance of a 1 km radius, which is very close to the national standard.

Distance from Very high- to high and Moderate to poor UGS area

The study has a profound benefit for the fastest expansion of DMC. UGS assessment should include many factors as input into consideration because it needs safety placed ahead of its establishment. The application of Remote sensing and GIS can save time and cost of study for the assessment of recreational areas such as UGS at DMC. It also contributes input to the high demand for UGS assessment results for planners and decision-makers in the city.

In conclusion, 13.12% and 25.47% of the city land are highly and highly suitable for UGS, respectively. In the study, the average distance to get UGS service was lowered to 656 m from very high to highly suitable and 337 m for moderate to poor UGS suitable areas. However, due to the city’s undulating nature of the topography and other constraints, about 30.5% of its land is poorly suitable and unsuitable for urban green spacing activities. However, this does not mean that these areas are not completely rejected for an urban green spacing development program, but it needs high investment cost and special design for development. The city's concern for UGS planning development is very low under the proposed plan. It could not properly consider future urbanization and urban population with scientific study.

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Anteneh, M.B., Damte, D.S., Abate, S.G. et al. Geospatial assessment of urban green space using multi-criteria decision analysis in Debre Markos City, Ethiopia. Environ Syst Res 12 , 7 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40068-023-00291-x

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How Does Urban Green Space Impact Residents’ Mental Health: A Literature Review of Mediators

1 School of Economics and Management, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing 100083, China; nc.ude.ufjb@iliaknehc (K.C.); nc.ude.ufjb@zt_hz (T.Z.); nc.ude.ufjb@0202yfl (F.L.)

2 National Academy of Economics and Trade for Forestry and Grassland, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing 100083, China

Tianzheng Zhang

Fangyuan liu, yingjie zhang.

3 The Department of City and Regional Planning, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA; ude.cnu.liame@sy

Associated Data

In recent years, the interest in the relationship between urban green space and residents’ mental health has gradually risen. A number of researchers have investigated the causal relationship and possible mediators between the two, although few have summarized these mediators. For this reason, we searched for relevant studies and filtered them by criteria and quality score, and analyzed the mediators and paths of the impact of urban green space on residents’ mental health. The mediators can be divided into environmental factors, outdoor activity, and social cohesion. From the perspective of heterogeneity, both individual characteristics (e.g., age and gender) and group characteristics (e.g., level of urban development and urban density) of residents are considered to be the cause of various mediating effects. Types of urban green space tend to affect residents’ mental health through different paths. Furthermore, this review discusses the details of each part under the influence paths. Finally, the policy implications for urban green space planning from three mediator levels are put forward based on an analysis of the situation in different countries.

1. Introduction

In recent years, the built environment and human mental health have attracted extensive attention from the international community. The World Health Organization has pointed out that the Healthy Cities movement has become a pioneer in urban development and transformation, providing an impetus to the creation of a healthier and friendlier urban environment as well as maintaining human mental health and well-being [ 1 , 2 ]. As an important part of urban built environment, urban green space has long been recognized in the fields of promoting residents’ mental health.

In general, certain theoretical achievements have been made in the research on the correlation between urban green space and residents’ mental health. A series of studies have confirmed that urban green space is closely related to the mental health of residents. Lee et al. [ 3 ] pointed out there is a causal link between various indicators of mental health and urban green space, according to the meta-analysis. Urban green space can improve residents’ mental health by stabilizing emotions and releasing stress [ 4 ]. Using the national representative longitudinal samples of British residents, White et al. [ 5 ] found that residents living in urban areas with a relatively high greening level have a lower average mental stress and higher life satisfaction. Volker et al. [ 6 ] also obtained similar results on this topic in Germany.

Based on the benefits of urban green space on mental health, it is of great significance to clarify the mechanism of urban green space on mental health. The main challenges that still need to be addressed in this research field are the causes and mediators of green space’s beneficial effects [ 7 , 8 ]. However, the mediators of this relationship are not clearly defined, and many of the mediators currently proposed are likely to overlap conceptually with measures of urban green space or mental health (such as green space quality and stress). Therefore, this paper aims to summarize the current mediators and identify the impact paths of different mediators. Furthermore, this article specifically analyzes the heterogeneous effects of the above-mentioned influences, considering not only different types of green spaces, but also residents with different socioeconomic characteristics. These findings should make an important contribution to the field of causality analysis between urban green space and residents’ mental health, as well as demand-oriented urban green space planning and management.

The structure of the remainder of this article is as follows: First, we summarize the possible mediating factors and their influencing paths between urban green space and residents’ mental health by searching for relevant studies around the world. Literature search and selection are carried out in Section 2 . Next, a comprehensive analysis and discussion of the limitations associated with each part under the influence paths is provided in Section 3 and Section 4 . Finally, based on an analysis of the situation in other countries, we put forward some policy implications at different mediator levels from the perspective of urban administrators in Section 5 .

2. Materials and Methods

In order to carefully evaluate the existing literature, this review referred to the selection process and filter criteria of other review articles, and conducted quality analysis on the selected articles. We listed the search strategy and filter criteria and then screened the literature by specification ( Figure 1 ).

Article selection process.

Additionally, there are many different definitions of urban green space and mental health [ 9 ]. In order to clarify the range of this paper, it is very important to explain the definitions of the two in advance. Urban green space refers to “land that is partly or completely covered with grass, trees, shrubs, or other vegetation” [ 2 ], which has the function of improving the urban environment and providing a variety of places for recreation and entertainment. Urban green space also includes places with “natural surfaces” or “natural environments”, such as urban forests and parks [ 3 , 8 , 10 ]. Similarly, it is not sufficient to simply define mental health from the perspective of psychiatrists, that is, as the absence of mental illness [ 11 , 12 ]. In this paper, mental health is more broadly understood as a normal state of mind. For example, having a better mood and less stress and anxiety can be regarded as having a healthier mental state [ 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 ].

2.1. Search Strategy and Filter Criteria

We searched Web of Science and Scopus in December 2020. For the purposes of this review, the search terms for urban green space included “green space” OR “open space” OR “urban space” OR “urban forest” OR “forest therapy”. The search terms for mental health included “mental health” OR “psychological relaxation” OR “psychological health”. In order to avoid missing the articles that illustrate the relationship between mental health and urban green space from the perspective of human well-being, the combination term, restore OR restoration AND “human well-being”, was also considered. All these terms were searched in titles, key words, and abstracts. Combinations of the search terms were also run in these databases.

We included (a) empirical studies and research designs from around the world and made no restrictions relating to gender, age, nationality, region, or race, and (b) both descriptive and observational studies were included. Among them, (c) either cross-sectional or longitudinal designs, randomized controlled trials or intervention trials were acceptable. The cross-sectional study is good at identifying and measuring the strength of the relationship between green space and mental health [ 17 ]. The longitudinal design can provide a timeline which can satisfy the study requirement relating to causation [ 18 ]. (d) The articles must include possible mechanisms or mediators between green space and mental health. (e) Green space was analyzed empirically, either by objective methods based upon geographic information system (GIS) or other available data, or otherwise by subjective methods using standardized questionnaires. (f) The factors measuring mental health included mental state, mood (i.e., pleasure, happiness, depression, stress, anxiety, and other positive or negative emotions), and restoration.

In addition to following the above criteria, there are several points to be clarified during the screening process. After filtering the two databases, we first eliminated duplicate articles. For linguistic reasons, (g) we excluded the studies if they were not written in English.

At the stage of title and abstract filtering, we mainly considered the correlation between the search results and the search terms, as well as whether the research focused on urban green space and health. (h) Some studies were only related to either urban green space or health. These studies were excluded. In addition, (i) we also excluded studies if they described the general benefits of nature. Since our research subjects were urban residents, (j) we excluded articles that were non-urban or non-human studies (e.g., those conducted using mice). In our research, we sought to draw conclusions regarding the path of the impact of green space on mental health, according to the research process. Therefore, (k) we excluded studies if they were reviews, meta-analyses, or qualitative or planning articles. Furthermore, we have selected articles that included heterogeneity analysis, that is, exclude those articles that did not analyze the differences caused by population characteristics or carry out descriptive statistical analysis of the research objects.

In the full-text screening stage, in order to prevent the review from producing biased results, (l) we did not screen the results of the study or exclude those articles showing insignificant mediating variables or negative effects. (m) For articles with similar methods and conclusions, we included only one of them, which was always the most comprehensive or most recently published one. In addition, (n) generalized or mixed studies of green space (e.g., green and blue space) were excluded, because it is hard to judge the contribution of different spaces on resident’s mental health.

2.2. Data Extraction

Key data from each selected article was collected and extracted into a complete data collection form in Microsoft Excel. The selection of attributes referred to previous reviews on green space and mental health. [ 7 , 16 , 19 ]. This form included the publication year, study location, sample characteristics, green space calculations/measures, mental health measures, study design, key findings, and potential mediators. Considering the space limitations and readability of this review, a table presenting the key data is shown in Appendix A .

Figure 1 shows the process of including or excluding articles from the review. From the databases considered, 2330 articles were identified. After discarding 1082 duplicates and 37 papers in other languages, 1124 were excluded at the title or abstract screening stage, and the full text of 129 was assessed. In total, we found 42 articles that met our criteria and received a high score of quality analysis ( Supplement Tables S1 and S2 . It should be noted that these 42 articles were our main analysis objects. The other information collected during the process of full-text screening will be presented in following sections.

To date, numerous studies have shown that there is a correlation between green space and mental health, but such a correlation cannot represent causality [ 20 , 21 ]. After the key data were extracted ( Appendix A ), we summarized and classified the influencing mediators obtained and depicted the main paths from urban green space to residents’ mental health. From the perspective of types of green space [ 22 , 23 ], we sorted the articles in Table 1 according to the mediators. Most mediators of environmental factors and social cohesion are found in neighborhood green spaces. Parks work primarily by promoting outdoor activities. Urban forests focus on subjective perception of sense of belonging and security as a mediator in social cohesion.

Summary of selected articles based on types of green space and mediators.

The possible mediators that exist between the two were analyzed, and the possible influencing path was deduced ( Figure 2 ). Figure 2 also summarizes three influencing mediators relating to mental health. Then, different mediators were analyzed and compared from the perspective of heterogeneity.

The mediators and influencing paths of urban green space’s impact on residents’ mental health [ 4 , 8 , 17 , 32 , 33 , 44 , 51 , 52 , 53 , 54 , 55 , 56 , 57 , 58 , 59 , 60 , 61 , 62 , 63 , 64 , 65 , 66 , 67 , 68 , 69 , 70 , 71 , 72 ]. Notes: (1) Part I and Part II are the classification and measurement of urban green space, respectively, which is defined in Section 2 . (2) Part III is the mediators of urban green space’s impact on residents’ mental health, which is the core part of the article. This part will be shown in Section 3.1 . (3) Part IV is the heterogeneity characteristics of residents. The heterogenous effect of different mediators on various groups is shown in Section 3.2 . (4) Part V is the measurement of mental health, which is presented in Appendix A . (5) Based on part III, the classification and definition of mediators is discussed in Section 4.1 . (6) Based on part IV, the individual and group characteristics of residents are discussed in Section 4.2 . (7) Based on parts I and II, the classification study and quality analysis of green space will be discussed in Section 4.3 . (8) Based on parts III and V, measures of mental health are discussed in Section 4.4 in terms of mediator.

3.1. Impact Mediator

Urban green space affects residents’ mental health. However, how does this effect come about? That is why we are reviewing and considering mediating variables and influencing pathways. The impact of mediators on urban green space and mental health should be a factor, but is one that is not included in the concept of urban green space or mental health. For example, the quality of green space and the time spent in green spaces are measures of green space, and the perception of loneliness and stress are indicators of mental health, which cannot be regarded as the mediators we are discussing. Mediators can be divided into direct and indirect mediators [ 48 , 73 ]. A direct mediator refers to promoting mental health through the characteristics of plants themselves (such as improving air quality, absorbing noise, and visual stimulation), which is summarized as “environmental factors”. Indirect mediators focus on the use of green space [ 26 , 31 , 64 ]. On the one hand, green space can provide places for outdoor sports and social communication and attract residents to engage in outdoor activities, which is summarized as “outdoor activity” [ 28 , 32 , 33 ]. On the other hand, from residents’ subjective perception, green space can enhance their senses of belonging and security and their neighborhood satisfaction, which is summarized as “social cohesion” [ 42 , 43 , 74 , 75 ]. Hence, from the two perspectives of direct contact and passive attraction, we summarize the mediating factors between green space and mental health into three aspects: environmental factor, outdoor activity, and social cohesion. This corresponds to Part III of Figure 1 .

3.1.1. Green Space Affects the Environmental Factor

According to the definition of green space, it is obvious that the addition of green plants can improve the environment. The environmental factors discussed here are mainly considered from the perspective of human beings. From an objective point of view, some of the characteristics of green plants themselves directly affect the residents. On the one hand, green space can reduce physical damage to the residents [ 26 , 76 ]. On the other hand, greenery can increase the visual stimulation of the residents [ 31 , 64 , 77 ].

First, green space can absorb pollutants from the air and improve air quality. Green space has a significant impact on pollution exposure [ 51 ]. Yin and Yuan indicated that increasing green space can mitigate the urban heat island [ 78 ], and thus improve air quality [ 79 ]. Gascon et al. [ 27 ] suggested green space has a potential protective effect on mental health (depression and anxiety) in adults, mediated in part by air pollution and, to a lesser extent, noise exposure. Franklin et al. [ 26 ] indicated that people’s exposure to smoke at home and residential exposure to artificial light at night and near-roadway air pollution were associated with increased perceived stress. These connections seem to be partly mitigated by more residential green space. Urban green spaces will reduce residents’ sensitivity to stress [ 24 , 42 , 61 ]. These results may provide a theoretical basis for green space to reduce environmental pollution and improve residents’ mental health [ 26 ].

Second, green space also absorb noise from the environment, thus reducing the stress of living and promoting mental health of residents. Several studies have been conducted to explore this link. The presence of vegetation can also weaken the negative perception of noise, to a certain extent [ 8 ]. Plants have a greater ability to maintain attention. This allows residents to better relieve the self-perception of pain and relieve pressure, thus adjusting the psychological state and improving people’s mental health [ 56 , 73 ]. Yang et al. [ 24 ] found that high levels of stress affected sleep quality, but the impact of stress was relatively small in neighborhoods with large amounts of green space. In other words, green space can improve sleep quality by absorbing noise.

Furthermore, green space can allow for visual stimulation, which can make people’s minds more relaxed. Horiuchi et al. [ 31 ] suggested that visual stimulation, such as viewing a real forest, might produce psychological benefits for human health, compared to not viewing a real forest. This stimulation may be associated with feelings of comfort, which lowers blood pressure, heart rate, and psychological stress. Different green space areas have different decompression effects. Van et al. [ 64 ] showed that respondents who lived in neighborhoods with more green space were less affected by stressful life events than those who lived in neighborhoods with less green space. The abovementioned results emphasize that green space has a buffering effect on stress.

3.1.2. Green Space Affects Residents’ Outdoor Activity

Outdoor activities not only include sports but also leisure activities such as walking, social contact, and interaction with residents. It is an indirect mediator, which is a spontaneous activity of residents. It is not entirely dependent on green space, which means that residents can engage in outdoor activities without green space. Green space simply indicates an outdoor space with more vegetation; that is, residents prefer to go to green spaces for outdoor activities [ 33 ]. Because of this, residents are more willing to engage in outdoor activities; that is, green space strengthens the motivation of residents to perform outdoor activities.

Green space can provide spaces for outdoor sporting activities and opportunities for physical activity. The duration of time spent engaging in green space has an effect in reducing stress levels [ 80 , 81 ]. A study conducted by Lu [ 65 ] in Swedish towns and cities showed that the amount of time residents spent outdoors in green areas is inversely related to their own stress. A brief recreation program in the forest may be effective in reducing the negative symptoms of stress [ 82 ]. Whether walking in the suburbs or in the forest, participants felt relaxed physically and psychologically, and this activity had a positive impact [ 15 ]. Forest bathing heightened the positive effects and induced a feeling of subjective restoration and vitality [ 50 , 83 , 84 ]. Furthermore, Brown [ 85 ] used a scale to assess the mental and physical health of participants. Compared to the control group, who performed two walks in an urban environment, the self-reported mental health of the natural walk group improved.

However, some studies have suggested that the relationship between green space and physical activity is not significant. While physical activity is higher in greener neighborhoods, this does not fully explain the relationship between green space and mental health [ 33 ]. Richardson et al., showed no association was found between green spaces and social contact or physical activity [ 86 ]. One possible reason is that people who like to go out tend to have more positive emotions in the first place. Their positive emotions are therefore not directly related to whether they like going to green spaces. On the other hand, green space can promote interaction between people in society. Kruize et al. [ 32 ] showed that more time spent outdoors in natural environments is associated with more time engaging in social contact with neighbors and better mental well-being. Brockman et al. [ 87 ] showed that several features of the physical environment promoted active play for children, including green spaces in the community.

In addition to physical activities, social activities are also a part of outdoor activities. Social activities can further enhance contact and interaction between residents. More specifically, Dadvand et al. [ 25 ] showed that spending more time in green spaces was associated with increased self-satisfaction and social interaction. Social contacts explained more than half of the link between green space use and self-satisfaction [ 46 ]. Yao et al. [ 20 ] concluded that green space provides a good environment for social activities, increases the possibility of communication between neighbors, and promotes social interaction among residents. Furthermore, social interaction is an essential part of personal life. The health status of people who participate more frequently in social activities is better than that of people who participate less frequently [ 53 ]. The health status of social people is interrelated to the interaction promoted by urban green space [ 35 ].

3.1.3. Green Space Affects Residents’ Social Cohesion

Social cohesion has been defined in many ways. Unlike social activity in outdoor activity, social cohesion starts from human perception. In this review, we see social cohesion as residents’ senses of belonging and security, and their neighborhood satisfaction [ 42 , 43 , 74 , 75 ].

Green space affects adults’ perceptions of loneliness, security, and happiness. Research by Maas et al. [ 88 ] showed that even if adults did not have much contact with the people around them, they were less lonely as long as they lived in an environment with a high proportion of green spaces (including parks, farmland, and forests). Greiner et al. [ 53 ] pointed out that open green space is an important place for urban social interaction and demonstrated the positive correlation between social participation and mental health through a questionnaire survey of residents. Urban parks in green spaces, as places of social interaction, could enhance people’s sense of security and belonging, and the wide visual space created by green spaces might also reduce the incidence of crime [ 43 ].

Green space can improve residents’ environmental satisfaction. Empirical research shows that residents’ subjective perception of neighborhood characteristics has an impact on residents’ neighborhood satisfaction [ 89 ]. By studying neighborhood satisfaction, we can measure residents’ quality of life to a certain extent and infer the mental health of residents [ 70 ]. Kaplan [ 90 ] found that viewing natural elements from a window is conducive to improving residents’ satisfaction with green space environments and various aspects of happiness. Fried [ 70 ] proved that proximity to nature is the most powerful single predictor of neighborhood satisfaction, in the means that green space can greatly enhance social cohesion. Hur [ 91 ] used GIS and Landsat satellite images to measure the characteristics of green space in Franklin County in central Ohio in the United States. Through path analysis, the study found that there is a correlation between the characteristics of a neighborhood environment (green space) and residents’ subjective and perceived neighborhood satisfaction.

Furthermore, residents’ perceived neighborhood satisfaction links environmental characteristics with self-assessed mental health, that is, neighborhood satisfaction is the link between green neighborhood space and happiness [ 92 ]. Leslie et al. [ 52 ] confirmed that the environmental characteristics of residents’ residences, such as the aesthetics and greening, the diversity of mixed use of land, and other factors, are positively related to neighborhood satisfaction. These factors affect residents’ mental health, that is, many aspects of neighborhood satisfaction are related to self-reported mental health. Choumert et al. [ 93 ] confirmed that people who are dissatisfied with their surrounding environment due to a lack of green space or for other reasons have worse mental health than those who love their surrounding environment. Nielsen et al. [ 63 ] confirmed that the closer the residence is to green space, the lower the stress felt by residents.

It is worth noting that such experimental studies can only observe a significant correlation between the environmental characteristics of a specific green space and social cohesion through the joint significance test [ 52 ], that is, social cohesion is a good mediator between perceived green environmental characteristics and mental health. The argument relating to causality is yet to be perfected.

3.2. Heterogenous Effect in Different Mediators

The impact of green space has a heterogeneous effect, i.e., green space affects people in different ways. It has been suggested that certain residents, such as children, the elderly, and women, may benefit more from the presence of neighborhood green space than others [ 94 ]. The reason is that different mediators work on people of different ages in various ways and have various effects. For example, green space mainly promotes the mental health of children, adults, and the elderly by enhancing peer communication, relieving stress, and increasing outdoor activities, respectively. The connotation of heterogeneity is very diverse. In addition to age, gender, income, education level, and family structure can also be considered. Additionally, subgroups such as pregnant women or people with disabilities or allergies, and characteristics of the city where they live, also need to be taken into account. In the following, we describe the influence of different mediators on these heterogeneities. This corresponds to Part IV of Figure 1 .

3.2.1. The Heterogenous Effect of Environmental Factor

Environmental factors refer to the impact of green space on residents’ mental health by reducing physical damage and increasing visual benefits. From the perspective of age, this effect is particularly pronounced for children with cognitive immaturity. Dadvand et al. [ 25 ] showed that there was a beneficial relationship between green space exposure and the cognitive development of schoolchildren, which was mediated to some extent by the reduction in air pollution exposure. For the elderly, those living in low-quality housing have a stronger demand for green space. They are more likely be affected by light, smell, greenness, temperature, and humidity [ 95 ].

For people who are sedentary or have limited mobility, the environmental factor of green space can be achieved by appreciated green areas through the window. Furthermore, it is easier to make small repairs through the window [ 43 ]. This visual stimulation had a stronger effect on mental health than activity in green spaces [ 30 ]. Reducing pollution through green space can reduce the risk of depression for residents. However, for people with allergies, green space actually reduces the effects on mental health by improving air quality [ 96 ]. From urban density type, increasing green space will aid the residents’ mental health in compact urban areas by reducing urban density [ 79 , 97 ]. For poor regions, neighborhood green space may promote emotional well-being in poor urban children in early childhood through visual stimulation [ 98 ].

3.2.2. The Heterogenous Effect of Outdoor Activity

For the elderly, time spent in parks is associated with mental health, and physical activity also helps promote mental health. Older people’s own physical conditions can also affect their tendency to go outdoors. Elderly people with cardiovascular disease are more likely to go to a park, while those with hypertension are less likely [ 36 ]. In consideration of their physical condition, there is another prerequisite for the elderly to engage in outdoor exercise, that is, the perception of environmental safety. However, this point is slightly different in the case of women. The precondition for women to choose outdoor sports is the consideration of green area security. Physical activity near parks is associated with good mental health, but only for those who do not care about park crime [ 35 ]. Green spaces with limited horizons, such as parks, can deepen women’s sense of insecurity.

In terms of subgroups, green space encourages pregnant women to engage in outdoor leisure activities to a certain extent [ 99 ]. This is a small but significant mediator. People with dogs have more opportunities for outdoor exercise than other residents and can make better use of green space.

Residents in cities with high levels of urbanization spend more time sitting and less time on sightseeing and outdoor activities, thus weakening the mediating effect of outdoor activities [ 100 ]. In high-density cities, outdoor exercise plays a significant mediating role [ 48 ]. There are also opinions that cities with high urbanization level have more leisure green space, better accessibility, and more opportunities for outdoor sports than rural farmland, so outdoor sports have a significant mediating effect.

3.2.3. The Heterogenous Effect of Social Cohesion

Green space enhances children’s interaction with nature and affects their cross-cultural communication and growth [ 101 , 102 ]. Frances et al. [ 71 ] found that the interaction between natural environments and animals is extremely important for children’s growth. Echeverria et al. [ 74 ] confirmed that urban green space, such as parks and playgrounds, can significantly promote cross-cultural contact and friendship between children. Sedentarism can lead to poor mental health in children, while spending time in green spaces can improve this situation. Andrusaityte et al. [ 34 ] showed that residential greening and time spent in parks are positively correlated with a reduction in children’s general and mental health risks. An increase in time spent playing and interacting can allow children to resolve emotional problems and establish peer relationships, and it can increase their concentration [ 44 ].

Green space affects adults’ perceptions of loneliness, security, and happiness. Research by Maas et al. [ 88 ] showed that even if adults did not have much contact with the people around them, they were less lonely as long as they lived in an environment with a high proportion of green spaces (including parks, farmland, and forests). Greiner et al. [ 53 ] confirmed that urban parks in green spaces, as places of social interaction, could enhance people’s sense of security and belonging, and the wide visual space created by green spaces might also reduce the incidence of crime. Dadvand et al. [ 103 ] observed that some signs of underlying age and sex differences appeared to be more relevant to male participants and people younger than 65 years of age in these mediating roles related to mental health status and perceived social support. In addition to the benefits of green space, women had some concerns about the safety of green space. The negative effects weaken the positive effects of social cohesion to a certain extent [ 99 ]. This may be the reason why social cohesion is not significant for female residents.

4. Discussion

Through an analysis of a series of previous studies on green space and mental health, it is not difficult to find that studies of the same population often draw different conclusions, and the significance of each mediator is not the same in different studies. A green space is a geographical system with rich functions and a complex structure. Each country has different characteristics in terms of the climate, status of development, and living conditions. For example, in countries with poor sanitation, living in green spaces may be detrimental to mental health because such areas have a higher risk of infectious diseases [ 104 ]. On the other hand, in cities in low- and middle-income countries which are developing faster than high-income countries, mental health problems are almost ignored [ 4 , 101 ]. Apart from these, the various urban green space rates, tree species mixes, etc., are different, so their ecological health functions and impact on the health of urban residents are also different [ 105 ]. Consequently, researchers need to substantiate and clarify what exactly is the mediator between green space and mental health. Furthermore, it is necessary to fully consider differences in the heterogeneity of residents, green space quality, and measures of mental health.

4.1. Definition of Mediators

Based on Part IV of Figure 1 , we summarized the mediating factors between green space and mental health into three aspects. However, the definition of mediators is not uniform. There is a lot of good research going on, and most articles consider the role of mediators. The way they look for mediators is to refer to historical studies, propose mediation hypotheses, and verify the significance of the mediation through models. However, this approach is not able to ensure that these mediators are mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive.

The problem is that the factors identified in this way are not necessarily mediations, which, in many literatures, overlap with the concepts of green space and mental health. For example, the concept of loneliness may be included in the measurement of mental health [ 43 ]. It is a dimension to describe mental health. The same goes for stress [ 42 ]. Even different studies disagree on whether stress is a mental health issue. Similarly, mediation overlaps with green space. Some researchers take the use time of green space as a mediating variable, which seems to be a measure of the use rate of green space (many related papers take it as an independent variable). Additionally, if we continue to ask why the more time we spend in green space the healthier our psychology, we still need to continue to solve the mediation problem. Some studies contend that greening quality is also a possible mediating variable. However, since it is not related to any greenbelt index, and it is not easy to measure.

From our point of view, the impact of mediators on urban green space and mental health should be a factor that is not included in the concept of urban green space and mental health. Yet, the study of mediators is not over. It needs more researchers to pay attention to this problem and more evidence to further support and improve relevant theories.

4.2. The Individual and Social Characteristics of Residents

There are many aspects of heterogeneity. Various influencing factors, such as individual characteristics and social characteristics of residents, should be considered comprehensively to reduce random errors to the greatest extent, so as to clarify the mediator of green space on mental health. In the future, the correlation between urban green space and residents’ mental health should be demonstrated in a broader space–time scope. Researchers should try to avoid the existence of confounding factors in sample screening, and long-term follow-up observations should be conducted on participants’ mental health to improve the effectiveness of the results. Therefore, we need to fully consider the individual characteristics and social characteristics of the residents in the research process to ensure the accurate analysis of how the mediator works. This corresponds to Part IV of Figure 1 .

The individual characteristics of the residents need to be included in the category of research variable control. In most studies, the analysis’ object is an individual. Only in a few “time–activity” detection studies has a specific area been taken as the research object [ 106 ]. Therefore, the research sample can only exclude some medical prerequisites, and there are always uncontrollable potential confounding factors between subjects, such as individual differences (health prerequisites, mental conditions, etc.) [ 107 ].

The social characteristics of the sample population need to be included in the category of research variable control. Some studies have found that the health benefits of green spaces can be modified by variables such as education level and socioeconomic status [ 4 , 98 ]. For example, a British study found that the risk of emotional problems among poor children aged 3–5 was related to the surrounding green environment, but not among children from a higher social status [ 98 ]. For example, people with different levels of education perceive the effect of green space differently. Pun et al. indicated that there was a significant negative correlation between green space and perceived stress in highly educated people. Because these people spend more time near the home, they use and interact with their surroundings more frequently [ 108 ]. As mentioned above, people with a lower socioeconomic status seem to benefit more from green space, and few studies have focused on the impact of urban nature on vulnerable people, that is, the issue of “environmental injustice” [ 107 ].

Stratified analysis can be conducted according to social class, education level, age, and gender. These factors may change the direction and extent of the impact of green space on mental health, which means different mediators and influencing mechanisms.

4.3. Types and Qualities of Green Space

Urban green space includes neighborhood green space, urban forests, and parks, which corresponds to Part IV of Figure 1 . There is currently no standardized approach to define green space, specifically, to define what we actually mean by surrounding greenness or exposure or access to green space [ 109 ]. This relates to the heterogeneity regarding green space assessment among different studies. Few studies have examined the association between mental health and the type and quality of green spaces, and only some researchers have studied the impact of environmental conditions on artificial and natural green spaces and the impact of improved and unimproved green spaces on participants’ mental health. For example, Butryn et al. [ 92 ] measured the emotional and sensory states of female long-distance runners, before and after running four miles on a natural or man-made urban route. The results showed that people’s emotional and sensory states were improved in both cases. Olszewska-Guizzo et al. used type of urban green space as a substitute for quality of green space. Specifically, parks were regarded as green spaces of higher quality than neighborhood green spaces [ 10 ].

The quality of green space should not be discussed in general in the research on green space and mental health. Instead, the different dimensions of green space quality should be explored according to the different tendencies and emphases of different mediators. The green space index (GSI) has been used by Occidental countries in recent years to quantitatively evaluate green infrastructure in designated sites. By superimposing the different weights of green space types, which have different ecological benefits, and by comparing them with the minimum value of the set index, a quantitative reference space can be obtained. Among them, ecological service, infrastructure spatial allocation, and maintenance of green space correspond to environmental factor, outdoor activity, and social cohesion, respectively.

Nowadays, cities around the world that have implemented the GSI have received favorable feedback from city managers, project builders, and the general public. Taking the Berlin habitat index as an example, relevant surveys have shown that, since its implementation, urban green infrastructure has achieved remarkable results in terms of regulating the urban ecological environment, improving the environmental quality of residents, and promoting the health of residents [ 110 ].

In a word, measuring the type and quality of green space from the perspective of mediators is more conducive to exerting its benefits, thus promoting the mental health of residents. The practice of urban green space-related policies has been widely carried out across the world, and the psychological health benefits of residents are relatively significant. There is an urgent need to fully consider mediators to distinguish types of urban green space and measure green space quality and to study the positive effects of urban green space on residents’ mental health from the perspective of type and quality of urban green space. The purpose is to ensure the comparability of related researches on urban green space.

4.4. Measure of Mental Health

Based on the measurement methods of mental health, empirical research was conducted on urban green space and the mental health of residents. With the help of specific measurement tools, the relationship between these psychological factors and environmental factor, outdoor activity, and social cohesion was further analyzed. Such methods are more diverse, focusing on the use of observation methods and interviews, while preferences and other behavioral social survey methods are based on scales. The measures of mental health in the selected literature are shown in Appendix A . Mental health measures are mainly divided into three categories, including mental state measures, mood measures, and restoration measures. These three are correlated with the mediators, which is based on Parts III and V of Figure 1 .

Environmental factors as a mediator mainly affect mental health from the level of recovery, such as improving air quality, reducing ambient noise, and increasing visual stimulation. Therefore, the mental health under this mediator is mainly measured by restoration. It refers to the relief of stress and psychological relaxation. The restorative outcome scale (ROS) is used to assess human recovery of forest environments [ 82 ]. The perceived restorativeness scale (PRS) measures how much mental alertness is restored in a given environment [ 49 ]. The Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K10) measures symptoms of psychological distress experienced by subjects [ 38 ]. Fan et al. [ 13 ] measured stress using the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS).

Outdoor sports often bring about interaction between residents and people or the environment. The effects on mental health tend to be direct in mood. Positive emotions are part of mental health. The most commonly used are the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D), the Profile of Mood States (POMS), and the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale-21 (DASS-21). The Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) is also used to evaluate the positive and negative feelings of participants, and it has already been applied in many studies [ 15 , 49 , 82 ].

Social cohesion refers more to the residents’ subjective feelings about their living environment, so it often corresponds directly to the mental state scale. Some studies use the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) [ 86 , 111 ] to measure the effectiveness of exposure to quiet and spacious green spaces in reducing the risk of poor mental health in women, and some studies use the Mental Health Scale (MHI) to measure mental health [ 42 , 112 ]. The short form health survey (SF) is also a valid instrument for measuring mental health [ 33 , 52 , 86 ].

Of course, this correspondence is not absolute. Some studies measure the impact of environmental factors and outdoor activities on mental health directly through mood. By recording the electroencephalography (EEG) signals of participants, Olszewska-Guizzo et al. [ 10 ] found that participants in green spaces produced higher frontal alpha asymmetry (FAA) values, which are generally associated with subjective motivation and positive emotions. By assessing children’s internalization and externalization ability (basc-2), we can assess the general mood and behavior symptoms of adolescents [ 25 ].

5. Implications for Green Space Planning

Green space plays an increasingly significant role in residents’ life. More and more urban policy makers are including green space in urban planning and considering the coordination between green space and building in order to maximize the health benefits of green space. The planning and design of urban green infrastructure is the mainstream policy practice in urban green space construction. According to David Ross, an American Landscape Architecture Planning scholar, green infrastructure is an internally connected green space ecological network which is formed by combining the natural environment and artificial environment [ 93 ]. This network can perform a series of urban ecosystem functions and improve people’s health, especially mental health, by creating more green spaces. Community is the basic unit of social governance. To solve the problem of community green space is to meet residents’ demands for green space from the micro perspective. The green space of the community should be planned according to the environmental characteristics of the community in a people-oriented way [ 113 ]. For this reason, and in consideration of green space quality and heterogeneous demand, the policy implications of green space planning are put forward at different levels of mediation by drawing on the experience of other countries.

5.1. Implications on Environmental Factor

The mediating effect of green spaces’ environmental factors is the direct harm reduction and the physical gain to residents. Green space, such as the plants in the streets and office buildings, works by reducing air pollution and environmental noise and increasing green visual stimulation. Therefore, urban planning needs to ensure that there is enough green space between buildings and roads.

To be specific, the construction of green and gray infrastructure should be coordinated. Grey infrastructure is the traditional municipal public infrastructure which has a single function, such as roads and bridges. Green infrastructure is a green space system, which should be connected with grey infrastructure. The accelerated development of urbanization leads to green infrastructure not being able to play its role in promoting health independently, which creates the necessity for networked support of gray infrastructure. It is necessary for densely urbanized regions to apply a more environment and ecosystem friendly planning approach and system [ 97 ]. Urban administrators need to balance the two and promote the construction of green infrastructure to the maximum extent, while improving grey infrastructure. The practice in Cleveland, Ohio in the United States is a good example. The government advocated that relevant departments give priority to the development of green building standards when revising local gray infrastructure regulations, such as the construction of ecological botanical gardens and the expansion of residents’ green activity spaces, which provided mental health benefits to local residents to varying degrees.

5.2. Implications on Outdoor Activity

The mediating effect of outdoor activities is that green space strengthens residents’ behavior. In order to make it work, we must first ensure that residents have green space, want to have green space, and have access to green space. This involves three aspects of availability, security, and accessibility. In addition to the guarantee of the quantity of green space, we should also consider the improvement of quality. It is important to add facilities that enhance the quality of sports or social activities.

On the one hand, full consideration should be given to special groups, such as the disabled, the elderly, children, etc. Combined with heterogeneity, the different demands for green space should be fully considered from the perspective of all age groups, so that the green space can be reasonably allocated to all residents. For example, for the elderly and children, special activity areas can be set up, and corresponding entertainment facilities, fitness facilities, and rest seats can be added. For the disabled, sloping passageways can be designed to ensure green space accessibility. In addition, the open vision of green space should be fully considered in order to improve the sense of security of residents’ while they undertake activities in the green space.

On the other hand, regarding the quality of the green space, we should not only consider whether the green rate is up to the standard, but also fully consider the accessibility and convenience in terms of actual use. First of all, community green space is the most frequently used activity space for community residents. In order to ensure its use, it is necessary to make public green space more attractive to residents as much as possible. Therefore, the design of community public green space should be more beautiful and interesting in order to increase the frequency of residents using it. Secondly, the greening design should fully integrate the spatial structure of the community and the behavioral habits of residents in order to ensure the availability and accessibility of the green space and, thus, minimize any negative effects on the convenience of residents’ life.

5.3. Implications on Social Cohesion

The mediating effect of community cohesion is to increase residents’ sense of belonging and satisfaction with the surrounding environment. Policy makers need to organically combine the urban production environment and green space. Meanwhile, as a kind of environmental resource, monitoring and maintenance of green space also needs to be considered.

The connection between green infrastructure and the local environment is deep. In the planning and design of green space, we should pay attention to the regional concept, preserve the natural landscape, and reduce the damage to the original ecological landscape. The transition between the buildings and the surrounding green space should be considered at the same time. For example, with the help of the tributaries of urban rivers, the continuity principle was adopted to build an ecological park in Louisville, Kentucky, USA. The project of Queen’s Square Park in the United States involved the use of a large number of green plants to green the dangerous intersection, which is integrated with the characteristics of the natural area. The project not only ensured road safety, but also improved the health and well-being of residents. In Maryland, USA, rain gardens provided extended green spaces for urban residents. Because of the low costs of construction and maintenance and high health benefits, these gardens were widely adopted around the world.

In addition, community green space should be constantly transformed and maintained. Managers should combine practical experience and pay continuous attention to the green space of the community. According to the change in residents’ demands, the green space and related facilities should be restored and updated regularly. On the basis of reasonable planning, the management of community green space should be strengthened. For example, private occupation of public green space and malicious damage to the green environment by some residents should be prevented.

6. Conclusions

At present, fruitful achievements have been made in the research on green space and mental health. Through the above review, the path of the impact of green space on residents’ mental health is fully discussed and analyzed. We summarize the current mediators and identify the impact paths of different mediators. Furthermore, this article specifically analyzes the heterogeneous effects of the above-mentioned influences, considering not only different types of green spaces, but also residents with different socioeconomic characteristics. From the perspective of direct contact, the environmental factor is considered as the main mediator, which includes improving air quality, absorbing noise, and visual stimulation. It mainly works through the neighborhood green space. It can be helpful for adults to reduce stress and improve sleep quality, which in turn improves their mental health. From the perspective of passive attraction, this can be divided into outdoor activity and social cohesion. Parks and urban forests provide venues for residents to engage in outdoor activities and communication, and make them mentally healthier. Children and the elderly often benefit from this impact pathway. A greener environment can improve residents’ sense of social satisfaction and happiness in life. These results are more consistent in dense cities. These findings should make an important contribution to the field of causality analysis between urban green space and residents’ mental health, as well as demand-oriented urban green space planning and management.

In addition, there are limitations to the study. When analyzing the heterogeneity, we cannot guarantee that every mediator contains all the dimensions of heterogeneity due to the limited search results. In future studies on green space, it will be necessary to fully consider the impact of heterogeneity, including not only the individual, but also the social characteristics of samples, and to adopt a relatively uniform standard to measure green space. Detailed and comprehensive research should also be carried out on the mechanism between green space and mental health, including a study of the mixed effects of the mediators.

Acknowledgments

The authors are indebted to the anonymous reviewers and editors. The authors are grateful for the assistance provided by Man Yuan from Huazhong University of Science and Technology for his comments. The authors also thank Haiying Shi, Yingxiang Zeng, Rui Zhang, Anqi Liao, Fengjin Han, Xin Yang, Yixu Wang, and Nanan Zhao from School of Economics and Management, Beijing Forestry University and Weixin Deng for their encouragement and help.

Supplementary Materials

The following are available online at https://www.mdpi.com/article/10.3390/ijerph182211746/s1 , Table S1: Quality assessment tool, Table S2: Quality assessment score.

Main characteristics and results of the studies on green space and mental health.

Summary of some of the literature research methods employed in retrieved articles.

Author Contributions

Conceptualization, Y.Z., K.C. and F.L. data curation, K.C. and T.Z.; formal analysis, Y.Z., K.C. and T.Z.; funding acquisition, Y.Z.; methodology, Y.Z., K.C. and F.L.; project administration, Y.Z. and Y.S.; resources, Y.Z., K.C. and F.L.; writing—original draft, K.C. and F.L.; writing—review and editing, Y.S., K.C. and Y.Z. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

This research was supported by the National Office for Philosophy and Social Sciences (No. 20CGL064), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 71603024), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. 2021SRY19).

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

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Vital green spaces are disappearing in NZ cities—what can central and local government do?

by Paul Blaschke, Edward Randal, Maibritt Pedersen Zari, Meredith Amy Claire Perry, Philippa Howden-Chapman and Ralph Brougham C, The Conversation

Urban green spaces are disappearing from New Zealand cities, at a time when denser housing is being planned in many areas.

Overall, the total area of green space is reasonable in New Zealand cities because they are relatively small by world standards. But our new research shows complex links between urban intensification and the availability of green spaces.

It highlights that Aotearoa's cities have experienced significant loss of green space over recent decades, often concentrated on private land as a consequence of subdivisions and paving within residential lots.

We also show uneven distribution of green spaces between and within cities.

This is concerning because surveys show city residents value green spaces highly for recreation, social interaction and cultural practices . Access to parks and nature strips is also vital for people's health and well-being .

Pressures on urban green space

Cyclone Gabrielle and the devastating floods of 2023 underlined the benefits of green spaces for urban resilience. About 13% of New Zealand's population live in flood-prone areas and this proportion will grow as flooding becomes more frequent due to climate change .

This has focused attention on the idea of " sponge cities ," an urban design concept that emphasizes the use of parks, gardens and other "green infrastructure" for stormwater and flood management, rather than relying purely on hard infrastructure such as drainage systems.

For green spaces to benefit urban resilience, they must be accessible and well-placed within cityscapes and communities. Flooding-related resilience increases when they are situated appropriately—for example in valleys or hollows where flood waters can safely accumulate. It's not enough to have ample green space on the outskirts of cities or in steep town green belts.

However, the push for higher density in response to the housing crisis puts pressure on maintaining green spaces, let alone creating new ones, especially where land is scarce or expensive. This all adds to the pressure on council budgets, competing with other priorities for infrastructure provision in cities.

Our research shows both a loss and uneven distribution of urban green spaces .

For example, Wellington's urban areas have twice as much land with tree cover than in Auckland and Hamilton. The variation between different parts of the same city is even more striking. Some Hamilton suburbs have up to eight times more green space than others. In Wellington, nearby parts of the city center also differ dramatically.

In Auckland, private green space per person decreased by approximately 20% between 1980 and 2016. Given the forecast population growth over the coming decades in parts of most cities, these losses will become even more acute.

Inequities in access

This trend is compounding already significant inequities in access to urban green spaces and its benefits. This is important given that 87% of us live in cities.

In line with international literature, more affluent suburbs typically enjoy more green space per person, closer to where people live. In some of the studies we reviewed , inequities in access reflect inequities in health and well-being.

Research in Christchurch shows residents of more economically and socially vulnerable neighborhoods have access to fewer ecosystem services (the benefits people get from nature). This includes flooding mitigation, improved air quality, shade, and public and private green spaces. The researchers conclude the distribution of urban ecosystem services disadvantages more vulnerable residents.

There are also important design and quality issues for green spaces. Many parks and other public green spaces suffer from deferred maintenance due to stretched council budgets. This can make physical access (steps, paths) more difficult, particularly for people with impaired mobility.

A further issue is the increasing prevalence of hard surfaces, impervious to water. Central Wellington has one of the highest rates of paved surfaces in public spaces. This trend is also seen on private residential lots where former garden or lawn areas have been paved over for driveways or hard courtyards.

This is more than an aesthetic issue, given the critical importance of permeable surfaces for draining heavy rain and floodwaters.

How to do better

All these considerations should be taken into account if we want to improve the effectiveness of urban green spaces. Based on our research, we recommend the following.

• Urban green spaces must be considered essential assets for the well-being of all residents and as a climate adaptation strategy. Their provision and quality should be protected and strengthened through council policy. Many useful policy initiatives exist and could be strengthened, but current policy is highly variable between councils.
• Over-stretched councils can't be expected to make up for the loss of private green spaces through subdivisions and urban intensification, as encouraged at all levels of government. Policies must require adequate provision of green infrastructure.
• Strategic creative design can incorporate green space within medium and high-density development cost effectively, if supported by the right policies. This may include green roofs and walls integrated in buildings.
• Continued investment in the provision and maintenance of green spaces is crucial even while cities build more homes and make infrastructure more secure.

Provided by The Conversation

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