The impact of urban background on appreciation of natural environments

For the first time in human history, more than half of the world's population live in towns and cities. The acceleration of habitat alteration as well as modern lifestyles dramatically reduce the interaction with natural environments. To get an overview of this issue, a comparison was made between individuals who lived most of their childhoods in high-rise blocks and who experienced nature on a daily basis from living and playing in suburbia or a rural environment. Can a lack of contact with natural environments lead to an estrangement from nature and consequently less tendency to invest in its protection? This paper hypothesizes that a sense of estrangement can occur due to the lack of daily contact with nature and can impact on the way people perceive and value natural environments. Our research question is, ‘does rural/urban upbringing impact the way individuals’ perceive nature?’ In order to answer this question, we focus on individuals’ perceptions about their workplace window-view. In addition to a questionnaire, Kevin Lynch’s and Brian Goody’s ‘mental images’ method was employed to identify the preferred elements of their workplace window-view and whether urban/rural upbringing has any influence on their preferences. This paper presents some early findings of the research. The innovative method of this paper lets us identify aspects of personal appreciation and personal values related to individuals’ lives and lifestyles. In the process of analysis, participants’ mental images were compared against photos taken from their workplace views. We conclude that degree of urban upbringing has an effect on how much individuals value visual contact with a natural environment. In other words, childhood environmental experiences influence the way current surroundings is experienced, understood and appreciated.