Thesis subject
MSc thesis topic: Simulating Attention Restoration Potential of Urban Green Areas
Today many people feel stressed by being confronted with pressure at work or personal life. Especially living in an urban environment depletes the cognitive capacities of citizens (Ohly et al 2016). The Attention Restoration Theory (ART) (Kaplan and Kaplan 1989) suggests that being exposed to a natural environment has positive effects on restoring the cognitive capacity compared to non-natural environments.
As seen in the figure the ART theory has four basic spatially related elements: being away, extent, fascinating, and compatibility. To explore how different spatial designs/configurations of UGS help to restore the cognitive fatigue of living in a city while being exposed to stress we proposed to develop a model, most likely based on the Agent Based Modelling which can be used simulated various spatial designs.
Relevance to research/projects at GRS or other groups
This research is part of an ongoing cooperation with Agnes Patuano of the Landschap Architecture and Spatial Planning group and Scott Ogletree of the university of Edinburgh
Objectives and Research questions
- Conceptualize and formalize a model to simulate the effect of the green environment on cognitive restoration
- Implement the model in a ABM
- Carry-out sensitivity analyses and explore various spatial and social scenarios
Requirements
- Knowledge or affinity with ABM and programming
- Creativity to translate relative abstract notions to
Literature and information
- Ohly, H., P., W. M., W., W. B., Alison, B., C., U. O., Vasilis, N., & and Garside, R. (2016). Attention Restoration Theory: A systematic review of the attention restoration potential of exposure to natural environments. Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health, Part B, 19(7), 305-343.
- Kaplan, R., and S. Kaplan. 1989. The experience of nature: A psychological perspective. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
Theme(s): Modelling & visualisation; Human – space interaction