Recent research conducted by King’s College London reveals that environments boasting a diverse array of natural features contribute significantly to improved mental wellbeing, surpassing the benefits observed in less diverse settings.
The study, published in Scientific Reports and supported by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) and Wellcome, utilized the citizen science platform Urban Mind to gather real-time data on mental wellbeing and natural diversity from close to 2000 participants.
Findings from the study indicate that environments rich in natural elements such as trees, birds, plants, and waterways correlate with heightened mental wellbeing compared to environments with limited natural features. Furthermore, these benefits were observed to endure for up to eight hours.
Analysis revealed that approximately a quarter of the positive impact of nature on mental health could be attributed to the diversity of natural features present. These results underscore the importance of policies and practices that foster natural richness for both environmental conservation and public mental health.
Lead author Ryan Hammoud, Research Assistant at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN), King’s College London, emphasized the significance of the findings, stating, “By safeguarding and promoting natural diversity, we can optimize the mental health benefits of natural surroundings. This entails transitioning away from heavily curated monocultural spaces towards environments that emulate the biodiversity of natural ecosystems.”
The study, conducted between April 2018 and September 2023, involved 1,998 participants who completed over 41,000 assessments. Each participant was tasked with submitting three assessments daily for a span of 14 days, detailing their surroundings and responding to inquiries regarding their mental health. Natural diversity was assessed based on the presence of four key features: trees, plants, birds, and water.
Data collection was facilitated through the Urban Mind app, a collaboration between King’s College London, landscape architects J&L Gibbons, and arts foundation Nomad Projects. Funding for the Urban Mind project was provided by a Wellcome Climate Impacts Award, the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Maudsley Biomedical Research Centre, and the NIHR Applied Research Collaboration South London.
Senior author Andrea Mechelli, Professor of Early Intervention in Mental Health at the IoPPN, stressed the urgent need to acknowledge the dual benefits of biodiversity for both environmental and human health amidst the backdrop of climate change. Mechelli emphasized, “Biodiversity serves as vital infrastructure within our cities, providing co-benefits for planetary and human health that cannot be overlooked.”
