Beneficial Use Impairments, Degradation of Aesthetics, and Human Health: A Review

In environmental programs and blue/green space development, improving aesthetics is a common goal. There is broad interest in understanding the relationship between ecologically sound environments that people find aesthetically pleasing and human health. However, to date, few studies have adequately assessed this relationship, and no summaries or reviews of this line of research exist. Therefore, we undertook a systematic literature review to determine the state of science and identify critical needs to advance the field. Keywords identified from both aesthetics and loss of habitat literature were searched in PubMed and Web of Science databases. After full text screening, 19 studies were included in the review. Most of these studies examined some measure of greenspace/bluespace, primarily proximity. Only one study investigated the impacts of making space quality changes on a health metric. The studies identified for this review continue to support links between green space and various metrics of health, with additional evidence for blue space benefits on health. No studies to date adequately address questions surrounding the beneficial use impairment degradation of aesthetics and how improving either environmental quality (remediation) or ecological health (restoration) efforts have impacted the health of those communities.

Impact/Purpose

In this review, which sought to assess the available research connecting the degradation of aesthetics BUI to human health, we found a body of literature that is sparsely populated and of limited ability to address the specific questions of interest, though supporting linkages between more general metrics of environmental spaces and health. Many blue and green space studies have attempted to capture elements of aesthetic quality or degradation (i.e., perceptions about parks and spaces). We found relatively few studies that connected these with health outcomes. Of those that did, there was evidence that poor aesthetics can have a detrimental health effect and that more natural environments can have a mitigating or protective health effect. Unfortunately, these studies were not equipped or designed to capture longitudinal shifts in ecological health or populations and so could not accurately assess degradation or improvement of aesthetics. Though we were unable to do so, future reviews of this topic will hopefully be able to narrow their focus to studies that directly address the quality of aesthetic space. It is apparent from this review that the wider literature has demonstrated a clear interest in linking human health outcomes to aspects of environmental aesthetics, including using natural areas to improve health. This interest is applicable not only for the GLWQA AOC program, but globally for a variety of potential aspects of aesthetic quality of environmental spaces. In order for policy and decision makers to make the most appropriate decisions for their efforts toward improving the quality of spaces and recreational areas, additional research directly addressing these questions is needed. This review, in addition to attempting to summarize the current available literature related to the degradation of aesthetics, has helped outline that there are opportunities for future research efforts to improve the assessment of aesthetics from either ecological or human perception perspectives, to establish direct and indirect connections between aesthetics and human health, and to link longitudinal changes in aesthetics to human health. Such research has promise to deliver improved measures of health outcomes and a better understanding of relevant pathologies in relationship to ecological restoration and the improvement of aesthetics in natural spaces.

Citation

Slawsky, E., J. Hoffman, K. Cowan, AND K. Rappazzo. Beneficial Use Impairments, Degradation of Aesthetics, and Human Health: A Review. Molecular Diversity Preservation International, Basel, SWITZERLAND, 19(10):6090, (2022). [DOI: 10.3390/ijerph19106090]

DOI: Beneficial Use Impairments, Degradation of Aesthetics, and Human Health: A Review