Impacts of mental health and household flooding on perceptions of vacant lot greening designs in Detroit, Michigan

Abstract

This study aims to contribute to empirical evidence about how design of green stormwater infrastructure (GSI) might benefit individuals in vulnerable populations such as those with poor mental health or those who experience recurrent household flooding. Past studies have linked flooding experience and neighborhood vacant land with negative mental health outcomes, and greenspace experiences with positive effects on mental health. Landscape design elements at the microscale can operate as cues to care (CTC) or cues to safety (CTS) that affect greenspace experiences. For vacant lot greening treatments characterized by varying microscale landscape elements, we examined whether residents’ perceptions of care and safety are associated with their self-reported depressive symptoms (DS) and previous household flooding experience. We surveyed 316 Detroit households to measure residents’ perceptions of care and safety of GSI designs with varying CTC and CTS. These included fourteen alternative design treatments on two replicate sites and a control vacant lot. Respondents’ DS impacted perceived care and safety differently. Those with DS perceived significantly less care across all treatments than did those without DS, but DS did not significantly impact perceived safety. Flooding experience did not significantly impact perceived care or safety. We also found perceptions of care and safety were not significantly affected by three-way interactions among flooding experience, DS, and CTC. Most importantly, our findings suggest that people with depression may not benefit from greenspace exposure in the same way as others. Future research should examine how specific microscale landscape elements might differentially affect people with differing mental health conditions.