Let's read! We will often find out this sentence everywhere. When still being a kid, mom used to order us to always read, so did the teacher. Some books are fully read in a week and we need the obligation to support reading. What about now? Do you still love reading? Is reading only for you who have obligation? Absolutely not! We here offer you a new book enPDFd the perception of the visual world to read.

The Perception of the Visual World. By James J. Gibson. U.S.A.: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1950 (George Allen & Unwin, Ltd., London). Price 35s.

Background: At a time of increasing disconnectedness from nature, scientific interest in the potential health benefits of nature contact has grown. Research in recent decades has yielded substantia...

https://www.fs.fed.us/pnw/pubs/journals/pnw_2017_frumkin001.pdf

Nature Contact and Human Health: A Research Agenda

Cities play important roles in the conservation of global biodiversity, particularly through the planning and management of urban green spaces (UGS). However, UGS management is subject to a complex assortment of interacting social, cultural, and economic factors, including governance, economics, social networks, multiple stakeholders, individual preferences, and social constraints. To help deliver more effective conservation outcomes in cities, we identify major challenges to managing biodiversity in UGS and important topics warranting further investigation. Biodiversity within UGS must be managed at multiple scales while accounting for various socioeconomic and cultural influences. Although the environmental consequences of management activities to enhance urban biodiversity are now beginning to be addressed, additional research and practical management strategies must be developed to balance human needs and perceptions while maintaining ecological processes.

https://www.fs.fed.us/nrs/pubs/jrnl/2017/nrs_2017_aronson_001.pdf

Biodiversity in the city: key challenges for urban green space management

On 16 November 2005 a water sample was taken from an urban stream in a metropolitan area in the southern United States and tested for the presence of E. coli. Although water samples from this and other streams in the metropolitan area frequently registered over 15,000 colonies/100 ml, this particular sample is unique in that it registered a reading of 70,000 colonies/100 ml, 350 per cent greater than the 200 colonies/100 ml—the Environment Protection Agency’s standard for streams. The fetid fl oodwaters in New Orleans from Hurricane Katrina, which had a contamination level of 10,000 colonies/100 ml and attracted considerable public attention, were cleaner than this stream at the time of sampling. Although a number of factors can contribute to this high reading, the stream consistently failed to meet water quality standards throughout the year. In addition, children from the local neighbourhood often played in the stream. Yet, presentations on water quality issues and potential health hazards did not raise any concerns among the citizenry, news outlets, and policy-makers. Obviously, there appears to be a disconnection between social and ecological systems as refl ected by the lack of concern by residents, natural resource managers, and decision-makers to the degraded stream conditions. This disconnection suggests the following question: How are social and ecological systems linked in urban landscapes and how does one begin to examine that linkage? In this chapter, we explore the linkage between the ecological and social systems of urban landscapes. First, we examine two metrics—sense of place and land cover—that have been used to integrate social and ecological systems. Second, we examine how system models have been used to link ecological systems with social systems. Third, we introduce the concept of complex adaptive systems (Gunderson & Holling 2002), as it may apply to urban landscapes, and fi nally we present a socio-ecological model ( Morse 2007 ), based on complex adaptive systems and structuration theory ( Stones 2005 ), as a means to link social systems with ecological systems.

/pdf/linking-social-and-ecological-systems-460fxm21cp.pdf

Linking social and ecological systems

https://w3.biosci.utexas.edu/jha/wp-content/uploads/Lin-Philpott-Jha-2015-future-urban-agriculture-BA-Ecology.pdf

The future of urban agriculture and biodiversity-ecosystem services: Challenges and next steps

Stress reduction through contact with nature is well established, but far less is known about the contribution of contact parameters - duration, frequency, and nature quality. This study describes the relationship between duration of a nature experience (NE), and changes in two physiological biomarkers of stress - salivary cortisol and alpha-amylase. It is the first study to employ long-term, repeated-measure assessment and the first evaluation wherein study participants are free to choose the time of day, duration, and the place of a NE in response to personal preference and changing daily schedules. During an 8-week study period, 36 urban dwellers were asked to have a NE, defined as spending time in an outdoor place that brings a sense of contact with nature, at least three times a week for a duration of 10 min or more. Their goal was compliance within the context of unpredictable opportunity for taking a nature pill. Participants provided saliva samples before and after a NE at four points over the study period. Before-NE samples established the diurnal trajectory of each stress indicator and these were in line with published outcomes of more closely controlled experiments. For salivary cortisol, an NE produced a 21.3%/hour drop beyond that of the hormone's 11.7% diurnal drop. The efficiency of a nature pill per time expended was greatest between 20 and 30 min, after which benefits continued to accrue, but at a reduced rate. For salivary alpha-amylase, there was a 28.1%/h drop after adjusting for its diurnal rise of 3.5%/h, but only for participants that were least active sitting or sitting with some walking. Activity type did not influence cortisol response. The methods for this adaptive management study of nature-based restoration break new ground in addressing some complexities of measuring an effective nature dose in the context of normal daily life, while bypassing the limitations of a clinical pharmacology dose-response study. The results provide a validated starting point for healthcare practitioners prescribing a nature pill to those in their care. This line of inquiry is timely in light of expanding urbanization and rising healthcare costs.

/pdf/urban-nature-experiences-reduce-stress-in-the-context-of-4plfa3b4vh.pdf

Urban Nature Experiences Reduce Stress in the Context of Daily Life Based on Salivary Biomarkers

The conservation of insects is not a priority for most urban dwellers, yet can be accomplished in urban settings by the careful design of urban nature. Our goal is to foster cross-talk between practitioners of insect conservation biology who develop the knowledge base and professional design practitioners who are poised to apply this knowledge in designs and management plans for urban green space. The collaborative product promises a built environment that promotes human well-being and urban beauty while maximizing the potential for the conservation of insects. 2. There is precedence for collaboration between science and design communities to achieve conservation, and existing professional and civic organizations offer a structure to formalize and expand collaboration. Design professionals, particularly landscape architects, are trained to support insect conservation in the urban landscape through land planning and ecological site design. 3. Ecological site design is based in principles of sustainability and so must address the well being of humans and nature simultaneously. This powerful approach for insect conservation is illustrated in examples from around the world focusing on roadway-easement corridors, stormwater management areas, and greenroofs. 4. To improve insect conservation and its public support we offer recommendations, organized in response to cultural aspects of sustainability. Considerations include: a) social drivers for support of conservation practices, b) public perception of urban space, c) applying conservation biology principles in urban areas, and d) merging insect conservation goals with human cultural demands.

/pdf/designing-for-conservation-of-insects-in-the-built-3hy668p5vq.pdf

Designing for conservation of insects in the built environment

Previous research has investigated ways to quantify visual information of a scene in terms of a visual processing hierarchy, i. e. making sense of visual environment by segmentation and integration of elementary sensory input. Guided by this research, studies have developed categories for low-level visual features (e.g., edges, colors), high-level visual features (scene-level entities that convey semantic information such as objects), and how models of those features predict aesthetic preference and naturalness. For example, in Kardan et al. (2015), 52 participants provided aesthetic preference and naturalness ratings, which are used in the current study, for 307 images of mixed natural and urban content. Kardan et al. (2015) then developed a model using low-level features to predict aesthetic preference and naturalness and could do so with high accuracy. What has yet to be explored is the ability of higher-level visual features (e.g., horizon line position relative to viewer, geometry of building distribution relative to visual access) to predict aesthetic preference and naturalness of scenes, and whether higher-level features mediate some of the association between the low-level features and aesthetic preference or naturalness. In this study we investigated these relationships and found that low- and high- level features explain 68.4% of the variance in aesthetic preference ratings and 88.7% of the variance in naturalness ratings. Additionally, several high-level features mediated the relationship between the low-level visual features and aesthetic preference. In a multiple mediation analysis, the high-level feature mediators accounted for over 50% of the variance in predicting aesthetic preference. These results show that high-level visual features play a prominent role predicting aesthetic preference, but do not completely eliminate the predictive power of the low-level visual features. These strong predictors provide powerful insights for future research relating to landscape and urban design with the aim of maximizing subjective well-being, which could lead to improved health outcomes on a larger scale.

/pdf/image-feature-types-and-their-predictions-of-aesthetic-1syvwpszt6.pdf

Image Feature Types and Their Predictions of Aesthetic Preference and Naturalness

Ecological restoration on roadsides confers several ecological benefits, but also poses significant challenges. Native plants used in restoration efforts must survive compacted soil, harsh microclimates, prolific invasive species, and pollution from road salts and vehicle emissions. Criteria for both site and species selection need to be developed to assist practitioners in restoring roadside environments. We transplanted seedlings of 9 grassland plant species into plots within 8 highway interchanges surrounding Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. To see if they might predict plant performance in roadside restoration, we assessed 2 indices: the coefficient of conservatism (CC) as an index of affinity to undisturbed habitat; and the number of U.S. counties in which each species occurs as an index of distribution. We measured seedling survival, height, and biomass during the first growing season, and survival 1 year after transplant. We also measured soil characteristics, air temperature, and humidity at each interchange. We found that soil characteristics largely determined plant survival. Plants were more likely to survive in sandier soils than in soils rich in silt or clay that had high bulk density, high pH, and high conductivity. Although plant survival varied among species and interchanges, neither CC nor county-level distribution was a useful predictor of survival. Our results illustrate the importance of matching plant species with local soil characteristics when choosing restoration sites, and offer guidance to transportation officials considering roadside restoration with native plants, and practitioners working to restore any heavily disturbed site.

/pdf/investigating-predictors-of-plant-establishment-during-53vh6lnybe.pdf

Investigating predictors of plant establishment during roadside restoration.

http://natureforcities.snre.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/Impact-ecological-disturbance-environmental-stewardship.pdf

MaryCarol R. Hunter

Papers

Urban Nature Experiences Reduce Stress in the Context of Daily Life Based on Salivary Biomarkers

Designing for conservation of insects in the built environment

Image Feature Types and Their Predictions of Aesthetic Preference and Naturalness

Investigating predictors of plant establishment during roadside restoration.

Impact of ecological disturbance on awareness of urban nature and sense of environmental stewardship in residential neighborhoods