Restorative potential of green and blue spaces on the example of the Maltese Islands

Abstract

Urbanisation increasingly threatens the experience of nature and its benefits. This study explores the restorative benefits of nature, focusing on the relative influence of green and blue spaces on attention repletion. The study was conducted in three phases. The first phase comprised a stratified survey of 369 undergraduate students at the University of Malta, assessing predicted restoration of selected green, blue, and built environments. The survey also measured nature connectedness and mental fatigue. The second phase assessed restoration in the same environments through field experiments. The final part of the study used Virtual Reality (VR) to compare simulated and real nature experiences. Results show that the green environment was generally most preferred and scored highest in terms of predicted restoration. However, the blue environment scored highest for the experienced restorative effects and seemed to produce the greatest improvement in attention task results. The comparison between predicted and experienced restoration yielded inconclusive results and should be further explored. Environmental characteristics influencing restoration were also identified, with these including a feeling of longing in green environments and the sensory experience, particularly sound, in blue environments. With regards to VR, this was generally considered insufficient to replace real nature. This paper argues for the need to protect existing green areas in the Maltese Islands, considering that blue spaces may not function as an alternative to the restorative experience.