Green Impacts City Life, Here Is How

Urbanization is believed to be a sign of advancement and technical era. However, it is found that urban greenery promotes a healthy urban life.

Researchers at the University of Oregon conducted a pilot study that aims to describe the differences in microbial communities and the extent the influence may stretch, Science Daily has learned. They collected six air samples within eight hours at five parks and five parking lots in Eugene and the locales were free of tall trees that stop air movement to restrict microbial distinction secondary to air circulation.

The samples were obtained using three petri dishes and three vacuum-pump-driven units, which were all placed two meters or six feet above the ground at each site. Then, the researchers gathered 5.8 million DNA sequences, which represented 16,633 operational taxonomic units from 40 distinct bacterial phyla.

As per Phys, the DNA analyses revealed that Sphingomonas, which is commonly found in soil and on plant surfaces, was present for 25 percent of bacteria obtained. Aside from it, other microbes found were Rohodococcus, Agrobacterium, Pedobacter, and Hymenobacter; these are all associated with soil. The microbes were reportedly collected during Eugene's harvesting season.

According to landscape architecture doctoral student Gwynne Mhuireach, as cited by Science Daily, there was a reason to believe that healthy air relied not just on the absence of bad things like pollutant, but the presence of good things like bacteria, which she said humans had co-evolved.

In a statement, as cited by the publication, Mhuireach said that they were starting to build larger and more complex cities, adding that she was interested in ways to help preserve people's health and joy as they did so. The doctoral student also said that some studies said that as they were building these denser cities, they were losing green space. Thus, she revealed that she was looking for mechanisms that explained why vegetation helped people and how they could design for it.

Watch how urban greenery declines here.