ISSCY_ Do we have enough parks? A multilevel analysis of correlation between stress level and urban green space

Gee Tak Lee
The Korean poet Kim Kwang-seop once wrote in a poem, “only the original inhabitant pigeons lost their addresses as new house numbers were added to Seong-buk mountain”. Indeed, Seoul became a “barren valley” going through rapid urbanization. Seoul, Korea’s most populated city and its capital, has a park and greenspace area per person ratio relatively smaller than that of capital cities of other countries. According to the data presented by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport, Seoul’s ratio is 8.48 m2 per person, while Paris’ is 11.6, New York City 18.6, and London 26.9. (MoLIT, 2013)
Preceding research demonstrates that there is a positive correlation between urban green space and citizens’ mental health. De Vries et al. have claimed that residents of urban areas have a higher risk of mental illness, and that the mental health of people living in greener neighborhoods tended to appear generally better. (2003) Similarly, researchers have contended that equal access to tree canopy contributes to mental health equity (Astell-Burt and Feng, 2019), and illustrated the association between green space and mental health while considering various affecting factors. (Beyer et al., 2014) Specifically, Beyer et al. focused on the influence of green space on depression, anxiety, and stress. Other research have shown that emotions such as depression, anger, and tiredness also decrease when participants view greenscape compared to when they view the cityscape. (Li et al., 2007; Lee et al., 2011) Moreover, even viewing a manufactured arboretum (More and Payne, 1973) or greenery outside the window (Dravigne et al., 2008) releases stress and improves job satisfaction. According to the results mentioned here, it would be natural to assume that citizens of London or New York would feel less stress than citizens of Seoul.
This research concentrates on the discrepancy between preceding results and intends to figure out the complication in the correlation between citizens’ stress level and greenspace in urban areas. A 2017 research by Wood et al. argued that mental health was associated with park space not only because of its nature-related characteristics but also because it allows recreational or sporting activity. As a result, both the number of parks in the neighborhood and the total spatial area of accessible parks are significant. Based on this information, this research proposes that the accessibility of green space is a bigger factor in the correlation between citizens’ stress level and urban greenspace. A statistical analysis of survey results was conducted: the dependent variable was stress, the independent variable was the ratio of urban park area, which is a variable for measuring park accessibility by region. Accessibility was defined as the ratio of urban park area per area (unit, e.g. city, country, city, province, geographic boundary), and the value was calculated using data provided by the 2019 survey conducted by Protectivity. In addition, a range of neighborhood characteristics including urbanicity, socioeconomic status and residential instability, which were found to have a significant relationship with stress in existing research, was selected and input as control variables.
 
Works Cited
 
Astell-Burt and Feng. “Association of urban green space with mental health and general health among adults in Australia.”, Public Health, 2019, pp.1-22
Beyer et al. “Exposure to neighborhood green space and mental health evidence from the survey of the health of wisconsin.”, Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health, 2014, pp.3453-3472
De Vries, et al. “Natural environments—healthy environments? An exploratory analysis of the relationship between greenscape and health.”, Environment and Planning A, 2003, pp.1717-1731
Dravigne, et al. “The effect of live plants and window view of green spaces on employee perception of job satisfaction.” Hort Science 4, 2008, pp.183-187.
 Lee, et al. “Effect of walking at the urban arboretums on psychological stability of male university students.” Journal of Korean Society People Plants Environment , 2011, pp.271-277.
Li, et al. “Forest bathing enhances human natural killer activity and expression of anti-cancer proteins.” Int. J. Immuno pathol. Pharmacol , 2007, pp.3-8.
More, T.A. and B.R. Payne “Alternative response to natural areas near cities.” Journal of Leisure Research 10 , 1973, pp.7-12.
Wood, et al. “Public green spaces and positive mental health – investigating the relationship between access, quantity and types of parks and mental wellbeing.”, Health & Place, 2017, pp.63-71.