A Review of the Parametric Characteristics of Urban Environment and it's Influence to the Urban Quality of Life

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Abstract

This study covers the researchers' effort on the influence of the urban environment parameters and factors related to the quality of life of the urban inhabitants. The design and the construction industries have an increasing attention in and concern for environmental effects to the cycle of urban fabrics and structural health. The growth of urbanization had become an integral part of in various essential parametric matrix confronted by rapid structural growth and their influence on the life pattern of urban dwellers. The purpose of this study is to investigate the parametric characteristics of the urban environment at the multidimensional scale and which needs to be inspected and verified by experiments and observational processes. A valid model in neighborhood scale has been employed for the analysis of relevant data. Results displayed are vital importance to the environmental modification in micro level and enormous macro-level.

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The Influence of Urban Natural and Built Environments on Physiological and Psychological Measures of Stress—A Pilot Study

Kurt Beil, Douglas Hanes (2013)

Environments shape health and well-being, yet little research has investigated how different real-world environmental settings influence the well-known determinant of health known as stress. Using a cross-over experimental design; this pilot study investigated the effect of four urban environments on physiological and psychological stress measures. Participants (N = 15) were exposed on separate days to one of the four settings for 20 min. These settings were designated as Very Natural; Mostly Natural; Mostly Built and Very Built. Visitation order to the four settings was individually randomized. Salivary cortisol and alpha-amylase; as well as self-report measures of stress; were collected before and after exposure to each setting. Gender was included as a variable in analysis; and additional data about environmental self-identity, pre-existing stress, and perceived restorativeness of settings were collected as measures of covariance. Differences between environmental settings showed greater benefit from exposure to natural settings relative to built settings; as measured by pre-to-post changes in salivary amylase and self-reported stress; differences were more significant for females than for males. Inclusion of covariates in a regression analysis demonstrated significant predictive value of perceived restorativeness on these stress measures, suggesting some potential level of mediation. These data suggest that exposure to natural environments may warrant further investigation as a health promotion method for reducing stress.