Development of the natural environment scoring tool (NEST)

摘要

Natural environments (green and blue space) are associated with a range of health benefits, but their use is likely to be influenced by the presence of features, facilities and amenities and the condition/maintenance, or the natural environment quality. Most 'quality' assessment tools have focused on green spaces and their support for physical activity. This limits their utility for assessment of other natural environment typologies and uses (e.g., social, relaxation). We aimed to develop a tool for feasible, in situ assessment of diverse natural environments that might support a variety of uses, and to explore associations between natural environment quality and objectively measured amount of natural environment and neighbourhood-level socio-economic status (SES).