Improving wellbeing through urban nature: Qualitative interviews and analysis 2016-2019

Jorgensen, Anna and Dobson, Julian and Dempsey, Nicola (2019). Improving wellbeing through urban nature: Qualitative interviews and analysis 2016-2019. [Data Collection]. Colchester, Essex: UK Data Service. 10.5255/UKDA-SN-854023

There is considerable evidence that a healthy natural environment - particularly where people live - and regular access to it, can contribute positively to the health and wellbeing of the population, and that it has the most benefit on those with the highest levels of ill-health. As society looks for cost effective ways to boost mental and physical health and quality of life, it is clear that increased positive interaction between people and the natural environment could be a significant part of the UK's future health care arrangements. However, this potential is not yet being fulfilled - in part because we do not fully understand how and why people interact with the natural environment, and which aspects of the environment, and people's experience of it, lead to positive health and wellbeing outcomes. Does the biodiversity of a place affect people's health and wellbeing? Why are some sections of society, on whom natural environments could have the greatest positive impact, less likely than average to visit natural places? What part does experience of and connection to nature play? What role does access to a high quality natural environment have in the health and wellbeing of people at particularly significant stages in their lives (when they are most vulnerable to ill-health)? If we understood the physical, psychological and socio-economic reasons why members of black, asian and minority ethnic communities, the elderly, disadvantaged urban residents, and those from lower socio-economic groups (in particular) interact with the natural environment as they do - and how this changes through their lives - it would enable us to design and manage our urban spaces more effectively to generate health and wellbeing benefits, and to engage critically important sections of society more effectively, to great social and economic benefit. This project will study the interaction within one large city between people, their local natural environment and their health and wellbeing. It aims to: 1. Understand at a detailed level how the health and wellbeing of the people within different neighbourhoods relates to the quantity, quality and distribution of natural greenspaces where they live; 2. Investigate the role that culture, upbringing, social values and norms play in this; 3. Explore how people from different ethnic and socio-economic groups interact with greenspaces and how this affects their connectedness to nature, and mental health and wellbeing; 4. Discover how the biodiversity value of the places that people visit affects their mental health and wellbeing; 5. Develop a way to assess the economic implications of these insights; 6. Develop effective ways to feed this knowledge into the policy, delivery and investment decisions of politicians, planners, designers, developers, land managers, public health commissioners and other professionals, business leaders and relevant voluntary and community organisations. It will: 1. Explore the relationship between urban natural environments and health and wellbeing across the whole of Sheffield - focusing especially on mental health and using more detailed datasets than those used in previous research; 2. Explore how urban residents from diverse backgrounds (especially differentiated by age, gender, ethnicity and mental health service use) communicate their own stories and values relating to contact and connectedness with nature; 3. Use an innovative smartphone App to record the interactions of a large population sample with Sheffield's natural environment, and its relationship to their nature connectedness and personal wellbeing; 4. Quantify the biodiversity value of different parts of Sheffield's environment and identify the relationship between this and the nature connectedness and personal wellbeing of people experiencing them; 5. Identify the economic, practical and policy implications of these insights, and effective ways of applying them.

Data description (abstract)

IWUN (Improving Wellbeing through Urban Nature) was an interdisciplinary project taking a deep case study approach to the characteristics, perceptions, and management of parks and other natural spaces in Sheffield, a city of nearly 500,000 people in northern England. The project aimed to identify how ‘urban nature’ could contribute to mental wellbeing and what could be done to translate relevant research evidence into policy and practice. The project had four work packages and this dataset contains material from work package 4.1: ‘A new green paradigm for wellbeing: an integrated approach to GBI (green and blue infrastructure) planning, health and social care’. The qualitative research for this work package took place between late 2017 and mid 2018. The central element of this research was a process of identifying greenspace interventions to improve wellbeing, and engaging stakeholders through a survey, interviews and focus groups to shortlist those interventions considered most practicable in Sheffield. The interviews and focus groups also discussed how such interventions could be implemented, what benefits were associated with them, and the processes involved in deciding whether or not to invest in the chosen actions. The dataset contains (a) anonymised interview and focus group transcripts to identify stakeholder preferences for greenspace interventions to improve wellbeing; (b) anonymised notes from associated public events; (c) notes from a thematic analysis of the interview and focus group material; (d) records of voting preferences from stakeholder groups in selecting possible greenspace interventions.

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