IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/endesu/v16y2014i3p633-647.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Are sustainable cities “happy” cities? Associations between sustainable development and human well-being in urban areas of the United States

Author

Listed:
  • Scott Cloutier
  • Lincoln Larson
  • Jenna Jambeck

Abstract

In this paper, we assess the associations between self-reported happiness, measured using the Gallup Healthways Well-Being Index ( 2012 ), and four US city sustainability indices: the Green City Index ( 2011 ), Our Green Cities ( 2012 ), Popular Science US City Rankings ( 2008 ) and the SustainLane US Green City Rankings ( 2007 ). Based on the examination of nonparametric, rank-based correlations, we found positive associations between sustainable development and happiness on all scales and statistically significant correlations for two of the four SD indices. Results support previous research, emphasize the value of explicit consideration of happiness when measuring urban sustainability and highlight the need for future research that assesses the influence of specific subsystems of urban development on self-reported happiness. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014

Suggested Citation

  • Scott Cloutier & Lincoln Larson & Jenna Jambeck, 2014. "Are sustainable cities “happy” cities? Associations between sustainable development and human well-being in urban areas of the United States," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 16(3), pages 633-647, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:endesu:v:16:y:2014:i:3:p:633-647
    DOI: 10.1007/s10668-013-9499-0
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s10668-013-9499-0
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10668-013-9499-0?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. World Commission on Environment and Development,, 1987. "Our Common Future," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780192820808.
    2. Twiss, J. & Dickinson, J. & Duma, S. & Kleinman, T. & Paulsen, H. & Rilveria, L., 2003. "Community Gardens: Lessons Learned from California Healthy Cities and Communities," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 93(9), pages 1435-1438.
    3. Jörg Schimmel, 2009. "Development as Happiness: The Subjective Perception of Happiness and UNDP’s Analysis of Poverty, Wealth and Development," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 10(1), pages 93-111, March.
    4. Grant Duncan, 2010. "Should Happiness-Maximization be the Goal of Government?," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 11(2), pages 163-178, April.
    5. Max Haller & Markus Hadler, 2006. "How Social Relations and Structures can Produce Happiness and Unhappiness: An International Comparative Analysis," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 75(2), pages 169-216, January.
    6. Laura Saldivar-tanaka & Marianne Krasny, 2004. "Culturing community development, neighborhood open space, and civic agriculture: The case of Latino community gardens in New York City," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 21(4), pages 399-412, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Munjae Lee & Kichan Yoon, 2020. "Effects of the Health Promotion Programs on Happiness," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-14, January.
    2. Tan Yigitcanlar & Md. Kamruzzaman & Suharto Teriman, 2015. "Neighborhood Sustainability Assessment: Evaluating Residential Development Sustainability in a Developing Country Context," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(3), pages 1-33, March.
    3. Timothée Cuignet & Camille Perchoux & Geoffrey Caruso & Olivier Klein & Sylvain Klein & Basile Chaix & Yan Kestens & Philippe Gerber, 2020. "Mobility among older adults: Deconstructing the effects of motility and movement on wellbeing," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 57(2), pages 383-401, February.
    4. Erica Berejnoi & David Messer & Scott Cloutier, 2020. "Cultivating Spiritual Well-Being for Sustainability: A Pilot Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(24), pages 1-17, December.
    5. Pam Lee & William Cannon Hunter & Namho Chung, 2020. "Smart Tourism City: Developments and Transformations," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(10), pages 1-15, May.
    6. Raluca Ignat & Marius Constantin, 2020. "Multidimensional Facets of Entrepreneurial Resilience during the COVID-19 Crisis through the Lens of the Wealthiest Romanian Counties," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(23), pages 1-29, December.
    7. Dagmara Stangierska & Iwona Kowalczuk & Ksenia Juszczak-Szelągowska & Katarzyna Widera & Weronika Ferenc, 2022. "Urban Environment, Green Urban Areas, and Life Quality of Citizens—The Case of Warsaw," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(17), pages 1-15, September.
    8. Eva María Sánchez-Teba & María Dolores Benítez-Márquez & Teresa Romero-Navas, 2019. "Residents’ Negative Perceptions towards Tourism, Loyalty and Happiness: The Case of Fuengirola, Spain," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(23), pages 1-19, December.
    9. George P. Kraemer, 2022. "Cultural Sustainability of US Cities: The Scaling of Non-Profit Arts Footprint with Population," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(7), pages 1-13, April.
    10. Guangdong Wu , & Kaifeng Duan & Jian Zuo & Xianbo Zhao & Daizhong Tang, 2017. "Integrated Sustainability Assessment of Public Rental Housing Community Based on a Hybrid Method of AHP-Entropy Weight and Cloud Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(4), pages 1-25, April.
    11. Rilwan Sakariyahu & Olayinka Oyekola & Rasheed Adigun & Temitope Fagbemi & Oluwagbenga Seyingbo & Rodiat Lawal, 2023. "Heterogeneous and time varying nexus between climate change and quality of life in Africa," Discussion Papers 2308, University of Exeter, Department of Economics.
    12. Muhammad Adil Rauf & Olaf Weber, 2021. "Urban infrastructure finance and its relationship to land markets, land development, and sustainability: a case study of the city of Islamabad, Pakistan," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 23(4), pages 5016-5034, April.
    13. Lincoln R Larson & Viniece Jennings & Scott A Cloutier, 2016. "Public Parks and Wellbeing in Urban Areas of the United States," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(4), pages 1-19, April.
    14. Scott Cloutier & Alex Karner & Hanna L. Breetz & Parinaz Toufani & Nuri Onat & Sambhram Patel & Siddhanth Paralkar & Erica Berejnoi & Beth Ann Morrison & Jason Papenfuss & A. Davieau Briggs & Cynthia , 2017. "Measures of a Sustainable Commute as a Predictor of Happiness," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(7), pages 1-15, July.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kirsten Schwarz & Bethany B. Cutts & Jonathan K. London & Mary L. Cadenasso, 2016. "Growing Gardens in Shrinking Cities: A Solution to the Soil Lead Problem?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(2), pages 1-11, February.
    2. Leslie Gray & Laureen Elgert & Antoinette WinklerPrins, 2020. "Theorizing urban agriculture: north–south convergence," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 37(3), pages 869-883, September.
    3. John Taylor & Sarah Lovell, 2014. "Urban home food gardens in the Global North: research traditions and future directions," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 31(2), pages 285-305, June.
    4. Sinan Kordon & Patrick A. Miller & Cermetrius L. Bohannon, 2022. "Attitudes and Perceptions of Community Gardens: Making a Place for Them in Our Neighborhoods," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(10), pages 1-25, October.
    5. Yee Ngoo & Nai Tey & Eu Tan, 2015. "Determinants of Life Satisfaction in Asia," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 124(1), pages 141-156, October.
    6. Jana Spilková, 2017. "Producing space, cultivating community: the story of Prague´s new community gardens," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 34(4), pages 887-897, December.
    7. Katie L. Butterfield, 2023. "Modeling community garden participation: how locations and frames shape participant demographics," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 40(3), pages 1067-1085, September.
    8. Hua Zheng & Min Guo & Qian Wang & Qinghai Zhang & Noriko Akita, 2023. "A Bibliometric Analysis of Current Knowledge Structure and Research Progress Related to Urban Community Garden Systems," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-34, January.
    9. Vanchai Ariyabuddhiphongs & Joseph Li, 2016. "Buddhist Good Karma of Giving, Optimism, and Happiness Among Thai Female Sex Workers," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 127(2), pages 903-917, June.
    10. Sofya Aptekar & Justin S. Myers, 2020. "The tale of two community gardens: green aesthetics versus food justice in the big apple," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 37(3), pages 779-792, September.
    11. Luke Drake & Laura Lawson, 2015. "Results of a US and Canada community garden survey: shared challenges in garden management amid diverse geographical and organizational contexts," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 32(2), pages 241-254, June.
    12. Huaiyun Kou & Sichu Zhang & Yuelai Liu, 2019. "Community-Engaged Research for the Promotion of Healthy Urban Environments: A Case Study of Community Garden Initiative in Shanghai, China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(21), pages 1-24, October.
    13. Mechthild Donner & Anne Verniquet & Jan Broeze & Katrin Kayser & Hugo de Vries, 2021. "Critical success and risk factors for circular business models valorising agricultural waste and by-products," Post-Print hal-03004851, HAL.
    14. Cornelis Leeuwen & Jos Frijns & Annemarie Wezel & Frans Ven, 2012. "City Blueprints: 24 Indicators to Assess the Sustainability of the Urban Water Cycle," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 26(8), pages 2177-2197, June.
    15. CHEN, Helen S.Y., 2020. "Designing Sustainable Humanitarian Supply Chains," OSF Preprints m82ar, Center for Open Science.
    16. Jim Butcher, 2006. "The United Nations International Year of Ecotourism: a critical analysis of development implications," Progress in Development Studies, , vol. 6(2), pages 146-156, April.
    17. Denise Ravet, 2011. "Lean production: the link between supply chain and sustainable development in an international environment," Post-Print hal-00691666, HAL.
    18. Mara Del Baldo, 2012. "Corporate social responsibility and corporate governance in Italian SMEs: the experience of some “spirited businesses”," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 16(1), pages 1-36, February.
    19. Megan Devonald & Nicola Jones & Sally Youssef, 2022. "‘We Have No Hope for Anything’: Exploring Interconnected Economic, Social and Environmental Risks to Adolescents in Lebanon," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(4), pages 1-17, February.
    20. Rigby, Dan & Woodhouse, Phil & Young, Trevor & Burton, Michael, 2001. "Constructing a farm level indicator of sustainable agricultural practice," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(3), pages 463-478, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:endesu:v:16:y:2014:i:3:p:633-647. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.