Searching Answers for Creating Healthy Living Environment

Abstract

The mission of the Virtual Laboratory of Urban Environments & Human Health (UEHH) is to understand how and to what extent urban environments, especially urban green spaces, influence human health and wellbeing. Researchers in the lab are concerned with understanding and measure the influence through multiple approaches including psychological, physiological, and hormonal measures of human health. The lab uses two types of experimental sites for research: Virtual urban environments and real urban environments. Researchers will use the immersive virtual environments as surrogates of real urban environments. In a controlled lab setting, researchers will expose participants to a variety of stimuli while record participants’ responses through a variety of physiological devices or psychological instruments. Researchers then can gauge and compare impacts of different environment features or conditions. Researchers will also conduct experimental research in the real urban environments by using mobile devices or instruments. The research will contribute to the body of knowledge on how to create appropriate urban environments to promote human health and wellbeing.