ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses a range of positive and negative relationships between people and the animals and plants that inhabit urban areas. The chapter explores the information concerning the effect of nature on people's health and well-being. Maintaining urban ecosystems requires an ability to deal with external changes, not only those resulting from human behaviour, but also those from natural processes, or from natural responses to ecosystem disturbance at all scales from the local to the global. The health effects of nature are underpinned by a dual theoretic background based on stress reduction and attention restoration theories. The theoretical benefits of human contact with urban greenspaces can be approached from two perspectives: the value of urban greenspace; and the individual human health gains from contact with urban nature. The way vegetation is arranged and managed in parks and neighbourhoods considerably affects how people engage in health-promoting physical activities.
