Journal Article

Disentangling associations of human wellbeing with green infrastructure, degree of urbanity, and social factors around an Asian megacity

Nagendra, Harini, Plieninger, Tobias, Nölke, Nils, Torralba, Mario, Thapa, Pramila, Chowdhury, Koushik

2024

Overview

Context Often called a ‘Garden city’, Bengaluru is renowned for its green infrastructure. However, the association of human wellbeing with the amount of tree cover (as an example of green infrastructure), degree of urbanization, and local people's socio-demographics has not been explored. Objective We investigated how human wellbeing is related to the amount of tree cover at household and neighborhood levels, the degree of urbanity, and underlying social factors among respondents. Methods The study was conducted in 61 towns along the rural–urban gradient of Bengaluru, surveying 836 respondents in total. Data on multiple dimensions of respondents’ wellbeing was collected between December 2016 and May 2017. The percentage of tree cover at the household and neighborhood levels was obtained based on WorldView-3 images. Logistic regression models were applied to assess correlations between human wellbeing and tree cover. Kruskal–Wallis tests, Mann–Whitney tests, and cross tabulation with chi-square tests were conducted to investigate relations of human wellbeing with the degree of urbanity, and with social factors. Results We found that several variables of human wellbeing were positively associated with tree cover. Measures of wellbeing also differed along the rural–urban gradient and among social groups. Conclusions Though urbanization is often considered to promote material wellbeing, non-material aspects (e.g., community activities and social relationships) are also important components of overall human wellbeing in urbanizing landscapes. Holistic interactions among natural, spatial, and social factors should be considered while designing interventions for equitable urban landscapes that promote human wellbeing and ecological restoration.

• Publisher: Springer Netherlands,Springer Nature B.V
• Subject: Biomedical and Life Sciences / Cholera / cities / Climate change / Demographics / Developing countries / ecological restoration / Ecology / Education / Environmental Management / Environmental restoration / Green infrastructure / India / Infrastructure / Landscape Ecology / Landscape/Regional and Urban Planning / LDCs / Life Sciences / Megacities / Nature Conservation / Neighborhoods / people / Pollutants / Regression analysis / Regression models / Remote sensing / Research Article / Social factors / social welfare / sociodemographic characteristics / Sustainability / Sustainable Development / Tabulation / trees / Urban areas / Urban environments / Urbanization