Factors influencing nature interactions vary between cities and types of nature interactions

1. There is mounting concern that people living more urbanised, modern lifestyles have fewer and lower quality interactions with nature, and therefore have limited access to the associated health and wellbeing benefits. Yet, variation in the different types of nature interactions and the factors that influence these interactions across populations are poorly understood.
2. We compared four types of nature interactions by administering surveys across two cities that differ markedly in urbanisation pattern and population density—Singapore and Brisbane—: (i) indirect (viewing nature through a window at work or at home); (ii) incidental (spending time in nature as part of work); (iii) intentional interactions in gardens; and (iv) intentional interactions in public urban greenspaces.
3. Our results show that Singapore respondents spent about half as much time (25.8 hours per week) interacting with nature as Brisbane respondents (52.3 hours per week), and indirect interactions were the most p...