IN-PERSON London. Section A

Abstract

Previous studies suggest a relationship between citizens’ well-being and neighborhood greenness: There are smaller differences in well-being between socioeconomic status groups in very green urban areas. We argue that the view of greenery from home is the fundamental unit of green neighborhood and analyze its relationship with residential satisfaction. Based on theories of stress reduction and well-being generation, we hypothesize that lower-class citizens benefit more from green window views than upper-class citizens. The data comes from a population survey with a random selection of 1,800 respondents in two German cities that collected extensive information on both, neighborhood greening and social background. The results show that green window views are associated with increased residential satisfaction, that they mitigate negative influences of noise pollution and room stress, and that they particularly benefit lower-class citizens. The study supports the hypothesis of an ‘equigenic’ potential of high levels of greenery in compact cities.