The diverse influences of local landscapes on life satisfaction

The natural environment is widely recognized as beneficial for human well-being. Limitedresearch, however, has examined the combined influence of both biophysical and experien-tial measures related to the natural environment on subjective well-being. This study inves-tigates how multiple environmental attributes including air quality, recent land cover change,biodiversity, extent and diversity of natural areas, psychological restoration, and outdoorrecreation, relate to life satisfaction in the Puget Sound region, Washington, USA. We usedlinear models built on data from a regional survey (n = 1,372) to assess the direct and indirecteffects of environmental features and demographics on life satisfaction. We found thatpsychological restoration and frequency of outdoor recreation had significant positive effectson life satisfaction. Of the biophysical attributes, recent increases in forest cover had sig-nificant positive effects on life satisfaction, particularly for long-term residents. While biodi-versity and natural area characteristics had no significant effects on life satisfaction, they didhave significant effects on psychological restoration and outdoor recreation, indicatingindirect pathways of influence. Specifically, bird species richness and the proportion ofnatural area within the nearby landscape had significant positive effects on both psycholo-gical restoration and outdoor recreation. The diversity of natural habitats within the nearbylandscape also had a significant positive effect on psychological restoration. These findingshighlight the importance of integrating structural and experiential dimensions of nature inwell-being research and underscore the need for equitable access to environments thatsupport both recreation and psychological restoration.