Matilda van den Bosch is a physician with a PhD in landscape planning and public health. Her work cuts across medicine and environmental sciences, exploring interactions between human health and nature. Her main focus is health benefits from natural environments and how ecosystem services protect health in a changing climate. Her work is widely acknowledged, featuring in for example National Geographic. Apart from teaching and research activities at the University of British Columbia, Matilda has worked as a consultant to WHO, UN Environmental Programme, and the US Environmental Protection Agency. She is president of the Swedish Society of Behavioural Medicine and president elect of the International Society of Doctors for the Environment.

William Bird is a GP with a special interest in the promotion of outdoor physical activity. He helped set up both the British Heart Foundation National Centre Physical Activity and Health in Loughborough University (2000) and European Centre for Environment and Human Health in Truro (2010). Between 2000 and 2005 he was clinical director at the Met Office working on the Health Forecasting service. In 2010 William was awarded the MBE for services to promote physical activity and health.

• Section 1: Why is nature a health factor?


• 1.1: Matilda van den Bosch and William Bird: Setting the scene and how to read the book


• 1.2: Felicia M. Low, Peter D Gluckman, and Mark A. Hanson: A life course approach to public health: why early life matters


• 1.3: Karl-Henrik Robèrt, Michael T. Hernke, Luke Fortney, and Rian Podein: Systems thinking for global health and strategic sustainable development


• 1.4: Peter Währborg, Panagiota Pervanidou, and George P. Chrousos: The physiology of stress and stress recovery


• 1.5: William Bird, Elissa Epel, Jeannette Ikovics, and Matilda van den Bosch: Unifying mechanisms: nature deficiency and chronic stress and inflammation


• Section 2: How nature can affect health- theories and mechanisms


• 2.1: Agnes E. van den Berg, and Henk Staats: Environmental psychology


• 2.2: Mardie Townsend, Claire Henderson-Wilson, Haywantee Ramkissoon, and Rona Weerasuriya: Therapeutic landscapes, restorative environments, place attachment, and wellbeing


• 2.3: Graham Rook: Microbes, the immune system and the health benefits of exposure to the natural environment


• 2.4: Heidi Janssen, Julie Bernhardt, Frederick R. Walker, Neil J. Spratt, Michael Pollack, Anthony Hannan, and Michael Nilsson: Environmental enrichment: neurophysiological responses and consequences for health


• 2.5: Caroline Hägerhäll, Richard Taylor, Greg Watts, Gunnar Cerwén, Matilda van den Bosch, Daniel Press, and Steven Minta: Biological mechanisms and physiological responses to sensory impact from nature


• 2.6: Leonie Venhoeven, Danny Taufik, Linda Steg, Marino Bonaiuto, Mirilia Bonnes, Silvia Ariccio , Stefano de Dominicis, Massimiliano Scopelliti, Matilda van den Bosch, Paul Piff, Jia Wei Zhang, and Dacher Keltner: The role of nature and environment in behavioural medicine


• Section 3: Public health impact of nature contact - pathways to health promotion and disease prevention


• 3.1: Billie Giles-Corti, Fiona Bull, Hayley Christian, Mohammad Javad Koohsari, Takemi Sugiyama, and Paula Hooper: Promoting physical activity reducing obesity and NCDs


• 3.2: Matilda van den Bosch, Catharine Ward Thompson, and Patrik Grahn: Preventing stress and promoting mental health


• 3.3: Birgit Elands, Karin Peters, and Sjerp de Vries: Promoting social cohesion and social capital increasing wellbeing


• Section 4: Public health impact of nature contact- intervention and rehabilitation


• 4.1: Anna María Pálsdóttir, Joe Sempik, William Bird, and Matilda van den Bosch: Using nature as a treatment option


• 4.2: Aubrey H. Fine and Shawna Weaver: The human-animal bond and animal assisted intervention


• 4.3: Cecilia Stenfors, Eva Bojner Horwitz, Töres Theorell, and Walter Osika: Similarities, disparities, and synergies with other complex interventions stress as a common pathway


• Section 5: Public health impact of varied landscapes and environments


• 5.1: Qing Li and Simon Bell: The great outdoors: forests, wilderness, and public health


• 5.2: Mathew P. White, Rebecca Lovell, Benedict W. Wheeler, Sabine Pahl, Sebastian Völker, and Michael H. Depledge: Blue landscapes and public health


• 5.3: Peter H. Kahn, Jr: Technological nature and human wellbeing


• Section 6: Varied populations and interactions with nature


• 6.1: Nancy M. Wells, Francesqca E. Jimenez, and Fredrika Mårtensson: Children and nature


• 6.2: Mark Detweiler, Jack Carman, and Jonna G. Meinersmann-Detweiler: Nature-based treatments as an adjunctive therapy for anxiety among elderly


• 6.3: Richard Mitchell, Julia Africa, and Alan Logan: Vulnerable populations, health inequalities, and nature


• 6.4: Caroline Hägerhäll: Responses to nature from populations of varied cultural background


• Section 7: Threats, environmental change, and unintended consequences of nature - protecting health and reducing environmental hazards


• 7.1: Åslög Dahl, Matilda van den Bosch, and Thomas Ogren: Allergenic pollen emissions from vegetation threats and prevention


• 7.2: David Wong: Vector-borne diseases and poisonous plants


• 7.3: Eric K. Noji. Anas Khan and Osama A Samarkandi: The health impact of natural disasters


• 7.4: David J. Ball and Laurence N. Ball-King: Risk and the perception of risk in interactions with nature


• 7.5: Anthony J. McMichael: Population health deficits due to biodiversity loss, climate change, and other environmental degradation


• Section 8: The nature of the city


• 8.1: Florian Lederbogen, Leila Haddad, Andreas Meyer-Lindenberg, Danielle Ompad, and Matilda van den Bosch: The shift from natural living environments to urban population-based and neurobiological implications for public health


• 8.2: Timothy Beatley and Cecil Konijnendijk van den Bosch: Urban landscapes and public health


• 8.3: Stephen R. Kellert: Nature in buildings and health design


• 8.4: Raffaele Lafortezza and Cecil Konijnendijk van den Bosch: Green infrastructure - approach and public health benefits


• 8.5: Elisabet Lindgren, My S. Almqvist, and Thomas Elmqvist: Ecosystem services and health benefits an urban perspective


• 8.6: Evelyne de Leeuw and Premila Webster: The healthy settings approach: healthy cities and environmental health indicators


• Section 9: Natural public health across the world


• 9.1: Emmanuel K. Boon and Albert Ahenkan: Africa and environmental health trends


• 9.2: Ana Faggi, Sylvie Nail, Carolina Ceres, Sgobaro Zanette, and Germán Tovar Corzo: Latin America and the environmental health movement


• 9.3: Evelyne de Leeuw, Erik Martin, and Temo Waqanivalu: Healthy islands


• Section 10: Bringing nature into public health plans and actions


• 10.1: Robert Zarr and William Bird: The role of the health professional


• 10.2: Cinnamon P. Carlarne and Jeffrey M. Bielicki: The role of environmental law


• 10.3: Salim Vohra, Marla Orenstein, Francesca Viliani, Ben Cave, Ben Harris-Roxas, and Filipe Silva: Environmental assessment and health impact assessment


• 10.4: David Nowak: Quantifying and valuing the role of trees and forests on environmental quality and human health


• 10.5: Matilda van den Bosch, Cathey E. Falvo, Génon Jensen, Joshua Karliner, and Rachel Stancliffe: The role of civil society and organizations