Research into experiences of nature in everyday life across Europe

The GreenMe consortium, a Europe-wide organisation, has recently finished collecting responses from over 6500 people across six European countries and the US as part of a survey of nature engagement in everyday life. The results from such studies are important for urban planning and public health strategies.

Specific recruitment strategies were employed to make sure that people from marginalised communities were included. Participants completed a 30-question survey which aimed to explore connections between different aspects of everyday life, such as nature connectedness, short-term mental wellbeing and awareness of the health benefits of being in nature.

A unique  aspect of the study was that people were asked about the particular green and blue spaces they had visited in the last 2 weeks. These were identified and rated according to their environmental quality.

The collected responses will now be analysed to answer questions such as whether everyday exposure to nature has a measurable impact on mental wellbeing, and whether high quality green and blue spaces are equally accessible to people from different communities. For further details of the project, see here.

This is one of several ongoing projects being undertaken by GreenMe aiming to help understand how nature-based therapies and green care are currently being used in Europe and their impact on mental wellbeing. The studies will investigate the benefits of different types of nature-based therapies in various settings such as in urban, semi-urban, rural and coastal areas. Accessibility and possible barriers to access are also being investigated, as are possible correlations between exposure to nature in everyday life and wellbeing. Results from these studies should help with scaling up of green care and its integration into national healthcare systems.

The GreenMe consortium involves researchers from the UK, Spain, Germany, Italy, Poland, Sweden and the US. Centres in the UK include Edge Hill University, Social Farms & Gardens, the Universities of Kent and Salford and Mind in Bexley and East Kent.