Urban green spaces, such as parks, backyards, riverbanks, and urban farmlands, are thought to contribute to citizen happiness by promoting physical and mental health.
Various methods of measuring green space – questionnaires, qualitative interviews, satellite images, Google Street View images, and even smartphone technology still rely on individual-level measurements and hence are not scalable to the global level.
Led by the Chief Investigator and an Associate Professor CHA Meeyoung at the Institute for Basic Science in Daejeon, South Korea, an international collaboration of researchers from POSTECH, Max Planck Institute, New Jersey Institute of Technology, and the National University of Singapore set out to tackle the issue.
For a clear view, only the satellite imagery data from summertime were used for analysis, which is June to September for the Northern Hemisphere and December to February for the Southern Hemisphere.
Urban green space adds increased happiness compared to the baseline happiness value determined by the wealth of a nation.
Happiness in the top 30 wealthiest countries is strongly affected by the amount of urban green space, whereas the GDP per capita is a more critical factor of happiness in the bottom 30 countries.
Also, the meaning of public safety may change; for example, ensuring biological safety will be a priority in keeping urban parks accessible during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Second, urban planning for public green space is needed for both developed and developing countries.
Extreme events such as wild?res, ?oods, droughts, and cold waves could endanger urban forests while global warming could conversely accelerate tree growth in cities due to the urban heat island effect.
Our method can be used to quantify blue space at shores, and we may further study the relationship between blue space and happiness”, says Dr.