Innovative Approaches to Researching Landscape and Health

Our modern lifestyles often cause us to spend more time sitting behind a desk than being active outdoors. At the same time, our general health is deteriorating. The alarming rise in obesity, sedentary lifestyles and mental ill-health across the developed world has resulted in an urgent desire to understand how the environment, in particular the outdoor environment, influences health.
This book addresses the growing interest in salutogenic environments - landscapes that support healthy lifestyles and promote well-being - and the need for innovative methods to research them. Drawing on multidisciplinary approaches from environmental psychology, health sciences, urban design, landscape architecture and horticulture, it questions how future research can be better targeted to inform policy and practice in health promotion.
The contributing authors are international experts in researching landscape, health and the environment, drawn together by OPENspace directors who have a unique reputation in this area. This pioneering book is a valuable resource for postgraduate researchers and practitioners in both environmental and health studies.

Catharine Ward Thompson is Professor of Landscape Architecture at the University of Edinburgh. She is Director of OPENspace research centre, based at Edinburgh and Heriot-Watt Universities, and directs the Landscape Architecture PhD programme at Edinburgh. Peter Aspinall is Associate Director of OPENspace Research Centre and is an environmental psychologist. He is currently an Honorary Fellow of the University of Edinburgh and Emeritus Professor of Vision and Environment at Heriot-Watt University. Simon Bell is Associate Director of OPENspace Research Centre, University of Edinburgh and a forester and landscape architect. He is also Professor of Landscape Architecture at the Estonian University of Life Sciences, Tartu, Estonia.

Introduction Part 1: Affordances in the Landscape: A Theoretical Approach 1. Affordances and the Perception of Landscape: An Inquiry into Environmental Perception and Aesthetics 2. Using Behaviour Mapping to Investigate Healthy Outdoor Environments for Children and Families: Conceptual Framework, Procedures, and Applications Part 2: Evidence on the Relationship between Landscape and Health 3. Nearby Nature and Human Health: Looking at Mechanisms and their Implications 4. Active Landscapes: The Methodological Challenges in Developing the Evidence on Urban Environments and Physical Activity 5. Using Affordances as a Health-Promoting Tool in a Therapeutic Garden Part 3: Different Perspectives on Methodology 6. Opening Space for Project Pursuit: Affordance, Restoration and Chills 7. On Environmental Preference: Applying Conjoint Analysis to Visiting Parks and Buying Houses Part 4: Applications in Practice: Spatial Structure, Landscape Design and Landscape Use 8. Feeling Good and Feeling Safe in the Landscape: A 'Syntactic' Approach 9. Landscape Quality and Quality of Life Part 5: Conclusions 10. Challenges for Research in Landscape and Heath