Helen Hoyle

The University of Sheffield | Sheffield · Department of Landscape

Urban populations experience the multiple health and well-being benefits of nature predominantly via urban green infrastructure. If this is to be designed and managed optimally for both nature and people, there is an urgent need for greater understanding of the complex relationships between human aesthetic experience, well-being and actual or perce...

The growing evidence base for the benefits for people and wildlife of nature-based solutions to managing urban green infrastructure lacks research investigating land manager perspectives on their implementation. To address this gap, we explored UK local authority manager perceptions of the challenges and opportunities of introducing perennial urban...

This chapter discusses the complexities and apparent contradictions in defining ‘nature’ and ‘urban nature’ in the context of human-nature interactions. It explains why urban nature is so important to human health and well-being at this point in the twenty first century, focusing particularly on why considering nature perception is crucial if we ar...

Nature-based solutions (NBS) can mitigate the challenges of climate change, biodiversity loss and mental wellbeing prioritised by the global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The advantages of co-producing NBS with local communities have been explored, yet there is a lack of understanding of professional partners’ priorities in relation to spec...

Green spaces can support human stress reduction and foster positive emotional well-being. Previous research has suggested that biodiversity (i.e. the variety of species of plants and animals in a given location) can enhance recovery from stress even further. However, there is limited experimental evidence testing this hypothesis and results, to dat...

Covid-19 and COP26 both amplified calls from the environment sector for greater support for greenspace management globally. As the future of our planet and population is threatened by a global pandemic, escalating mental health challenges and the interrelated climate and biodiversity crises, there is a growing awareness of the potential for the int...

Covid-19 and COP26 both amplified calls from the environment sector for greater support for greenspace management globally. As the future of our planet and population is threatened by a global pandemic, escalating mental health challenges and the interrelated climate and biodiversity crises, there is a growing awareness of the potential for the int...

Designing healthy resilient places for people doesn't need to be too challenging or complicated. We might be best to remember that a landscape-led approach works best, where the landscape comes first, and provides the framework within the built environment is nurtured. We should also be aware that human reactions to places depend both on the aesthe...

Nature-based solutions (NBS) can mitigate the challenges of climate change, biodiversity loss and mental wellbeing prioritised by the global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The advantages of co-producing NBS with local communities have been explored, yet there is a lack of understanding of professional partners’ priorities in relation to spec...

The global climate crisis precipitates a call to ‘futureproof’ cities by introducing resilient climate-adapted urban green infrastructure (UGI). Recent UK research has revealed public support for climate-adapted UGI, yet there is a lack of research focusing on the values underlying public perceptions, particularly in relation to climate change, and...

Access to parks and greenspaces is key to public health in cities. How can we futureproof parks and greenspaces to provide climate resilience whilst supporting human wellbeing and biodiversity? Contact with nature is beneficial to physical and mental wellbeing. By 2050 almost 70% of the world’s population will live in towns and cities, remote from...

Focus on challenges and opportunities of engaging diverse communities in the co-production of an educational arboretum-meadow project on a disused minigolf site in Wardown Park, Luton, Bedfordshire, UK.

With climate change arguably the greatest threat facing our planet, we are witnessing unprecedented losses of biodiversity and growing human health challenges. The need to prioritise urban green infrastructure (UGI) has never been so great. As two researchers from the UK and Brazil, we draw on recent research evidence and contrasting examples from...

With climate change arguably the greatest threat facing our planet, we are witnessing unprecedented losses of biodiversity and growing human health challenges. The need to prioritise urban green infrastructure (UGI) has never been so great. As two researchers from the UK and Brazil, we draw on recent research evidence and contrasting examples from...

The opportunities and challenges of distance learning from a student perspective

There are increasing calls to provide greenspace in urban areas, yet the ecological quality, as well as quantity, of greenspace is important. Short mown grassland designed for recreational use is the dominant form of urban greenspace in temperate regions but requires considerable maintenance and typically provides limited habitat value for most tax...

The multiple benefits of ‘nature’ for human health and well‐being have been documented at an increasing rate over the past 30 years. A growing body of research also demonstrates the positive well‐being benefits of nature‐connectedness. There is, however, a lack of evidence about how people's subjective nature experience relates to deliberately desi...

There is increasing evidence of the benefits of introducing urban meadows as an alternative to amenity mown grass in public greenspaces, both for biodiversity, and human wellbeing. Developing a better understanding of the meadow characteristics driving human and wildlife response is therefore critical. We addressed this by assessing public and inve...

Evidence that urban green-space promotes health and well-being of urban residents is increasing. The role of biodiversity is unclear: perceived biodiversity may be important, but how accurately it is perceived and the factors influencing this accuracy are poorly understood. We use experimental perennial urban meadows in southern England to investig...

Throughout Europe climate change has rendered many plant species used in contemporary urban planting design less fit for use in public greenspaces. A growing evidence base exists for the ecological value of introducing non-native species, yet urban policy and practice guidance continues to portray non-native species negatively, focusing on their as...

Summarises research showing over 75% people positive about introducing non-invasive non-native planting in UK public spaces

We used photo-elicitation studies and a controlled perennial meadow creation experiment at ten urban green-spaces in southern England (five experimental sites and five control sites) to assess green-space visitors’ responses to urban meadows. Multiple meadows, which varied in their structural diversity (height) and plant species richness, were crea...

Summary of public aesthetic and invertebrate response to introducing perennial urban meadows in different contexts (reporting on NERC-funded Urban BESS meadows experiment) http://bess-urban.group.shef.ac.uk/

Access to nature is beneficial to human health and well-being, yet over 80% of the UK population now live in urban areas and experience nature as “urban green infrastructure”, a mosaic of greenspaces including parks, gardens and semi-natural areas. As well as providing recreational, educational and aesthetic benefits these areas provide potential h...

Access to nature is beneficial to human health. How can designed urban meadows help to enhance public well-being and urban biodiversity? LWEC Living With Environmental Change Policy and Practice Note 32