Human Health Assessments of Green Infrastructure Designs Using Virtual Reality

Rapid urbanization inadvertently separates people from the natural landscapes in which we evolved. This disconnect can impact human health and cognitive functioning by exposing people to increased levels of pollution and limiting people's opportunities for physical activity. Built environment researchers may prevent the negative effects of urbanization through studying and providing empirical-based recommendations for green infrastructure, such as nature parks, bioswales, green walls, and street trees. Determining which infrastructure elements improve health and wellbeing for their clients and future users is challenging. However, researchers can use virtual reality (VR) to compare the benefits of different infrastructure elements to inform design interventions. VR can require relatively little cost and technical expertise. Users are transported into immersive virtual worlds where their psychological and physiological responses can be collected to predict the long-term health and cognitive functioning impacts of each design option. In the current essay, we provide a methodological overview of VR systems, content creation, study design, health outcome measurement, and safety recommendations. Our goal is to provide the reader with an understanding of how VR may be employed as a research and therapeutic tool for improving health outcomes related to green infrastructure as well as to provide an elementary set of tools and knowledge to use VR in their research.