Guest Editors
Jie Yin
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Jie Yin is a Yerby Fellow in the Department of Environmental Health at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Dr. Yin’s research interests lie in the cross-disciplinary field of urban planning/design and public health. His work addresses how bringing natural elements into built environments at different spatial scales (i.e. building, city, and region) affects human health and wellbeing. He developed a research platform to quantify the health impacts of biophilic design and nature contact by using virtual reality, eye-tracking, bio-monitoring sensors. Before coming to Harvard, he spent six years working on environmental planning and ecological design in China. As a certified urban planner, Dr. Yin has led several award-winning projects on environmental planning, urban/rural design, land-use planning, and community design. Dr. Yin holds a PhD in Population Health Sciences, an S.M. in Environmental Health from Harvard University, and an M.Eng. degree in Urban Planning and Design from Tongji University.
Chia-Pin (Simon) Yu
National Taiwan University, Taiwan (R.O.C.), School of Forestry and Resource Conservation at, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Dr. Yu is an Associate Professor of School of Forestry and Resource Conservation, and a Deputy Director of the Experimental Forest, National Taiwan University, Taiwan (R.O.C.). He was serving as a Fulbright Visiting Scholar at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health for the VR nature and human health project. Dr. Yu received his doctoral degree from the Recreation, Park and Tourism Studies Department at the School of Public Health, Indiana University-Bloomington. Dr. Yu’s research interests lie in nature, recreation and human health, forest therapy, wellness tourism, nature-based recreation, and tourism, as well as applying new technology to recreation studies. His research applies evidence-based approaches to quantify the physiological and psychological benefits of nature exposure and recreational experience from a health perspective. His research team has focused on investigating the improvement of physical and mental health by using portable bio-feedback devices. Furthermore, studies of VR nature and recreation applications were conducted for individuals with mobility constraints.
Collection Overview
Nature provides a wide variety of goods and services that benefit human health and wellbeing. In our urbanized society, connecting with nature makes us happier and healthier. There has been a blossoming of interest concerning interactions between humans and nature, and a considerable body of literature reveals a broad range of health benefits from the nature experience. Nature experiences exist through a variety of human sensory pathways (e.g. visual, hearing, touch, and olfactory) of real (in situ) nature contacts or simulations (e.g., virtual reality). Further, the natural environment fosters physical activity and support for outdoor recreation opportunity. Findings from the literature indicate a wide range of effects on physical and mental health, social well-being, academic and job performance, happiness, and longevity. This collection invites prominent research related to the effects of nature experiences (e.g., wood materials, scenic views, fragrance, outdoor recreation, VR nature environments) on human psychological and physiological responses and wellbeing. The objective of this collection is to document research methods and protocols of nature, recreation, and human health studies. We encourage scientists from a variety of disciplines, such as public health, outdoor recreation, forestry, urban planning, environmental health, psychology, and landscape architecture, to participate in this special collection.
Articles
Abstracts
Forest therapy base in Japan: toward a health-creation based tourism development model?
Maurizio Droli*1
1Department of Environmental Science, University of Udine, Friuli Venezia Giulia region, I