الفهرس 
Human-Nature Connections: Explaining the Relationship
Human-Nature Connections and Health and Well-being in Urban EnvironmentsOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
With most of the world’s population living in cities and urban areas, cities are seeking new ways to bring Nature into their urban fabric with goals of improving urban quality of life and improving human well-being. Natural areas include terrestrial urban parks, green spaces, and riparian and coastal areas. Riparian areas within the built urban environment include urban water-ways and their immediate adjacent urban areas.
Historically, urban water-ways have played a significant role in the establishment and evolution of human settlements, they were initially used for spiritual purposes, food, water supply and for transportation of goods and people, and later as a source of leisure and recreation. However, with increased urbanization, people’s perceptions of water-ways have changed throughout history.
In recent years, a lot of cities around the world started recognizing the breadth of benefits that proximity to water environments within these ecologically and culturally sensitive spaces can provide as places of high restoration levels, unique cultural identity and high economic value. However, a lot of cities still fail to recognize these potentials.
For the past decades, water-ways and their adjacent urban areas have been subjects of heavy development. However, they are rarely designed to reflect the innate human need for contact with Nature, commonly known with the term “Biophilia” as coined and popularized by E.O Wilson to describe people’s inherent affiliation to all forms of living organisms. The application of Biophilia, which is referred to with “Biophilic Urbanism”, is increasingly emerging as a planning and design approach to guide urban development mechanisms and policies to foster positive Human-Nature connections in urban areas and address multiple global pressures including increased urban population, climate change and finite resources.
Under the guidelines of the approach “Biophilic Urbanism” the main objective of this study is to identify Biophilic indicators in the Nile waterfront in the selected study area, explore valuations of Nature within the study area, assess the degree of integration of the Nile waterfront within the urban fabric of the city, and investigate future potential opportunities of the utilization of the Nile in central Cairo as a catalyst for improving human well-being and quality of urban life as urban Nature.
The research follows an analytical case study approach. Methods of data collection included an extensive literature review, field survey and on-site observations, concurrent with semi-structured interviews when possible, and an online survey. An in-depth analysis of data was then carried out to assess the degree of integration of the Nile waterfront within the urban fabric of the city, identify biophilic indicators, and identify typologies of Nature valuations in the waterfront and to investigate potential opportunities and challenges of applying “Biophilic Urbanism” in future development plans along the Nile waterfront.
Results demonstrate that users of the Nile waterfront are rarely allowed physical access to the water. Visual access is mostly provided, with minor exceptions. Other cross-cutting findings indicate a lack of longitudinal and lateral social connectivity to the waterfront, lack of continuous appropriate pedestrian trails, and a general lack of green spaces and public amenities.