Planning for Urban Sustainability through Residents’ Wellbeing: The Effects of Nature Interactions, Social Capital, and Socio-Demographic Factors

The COVID-19 pandemic provided a unique opportunity to examine how varied environmental and social factors in urban environments affect human wellbeing, which is an important dimension of urban sustainability. Past research has focused on individual dimensions of health and isolated nature interactions, limiting knowledge about how different environmental and social factors affect distinct aspects of residents’ wellbeing. Through quantitative analyses of social survey and environmental data in metropolitan Phoenix, Arizona (USA), we explored how distinct nature recreation activities—along with nature satisfaction and social capital—affected residents’ subjective, mental, and physical wellbeing across diverse neighborhoods during the COVID-19 pandemic, controlling for socio-demographics. Results reveal how distinct drivers shape different dimensions of wellbeing. Perceived social and environmental attributes of neighborhoods and proximity to nature preserves were associated with subjective wellbeing, while park visitation was linked to physical health. Nature interactions largely were unrelated to mental health. Changes in nature recreation during the COVID-19 pandemic did not significantly impact any dimension of wellbeing. Our research suggests that multiple local environmental and social features should be considered when designing healthy communities for urban sustainability.