16 THE HEALTH BENEFITS OF PARKS AND THEIR ECONOMIC IMPACTS Social Capital If social cohesion is the degree to which a community is connected, then social capital is the access to resources and ability to act socially and effect change (Putnam 1993). Natural environments have been shown to impact social actions. Participants in a study of college students who were shown natural environments were more likely to engage in cooperative and prosocial behavior in subsequent game testing (Zelenski 2015). How parks are activated has a significant impact on their contribution to social health. Environmental education programs, volunteer programs, and community-led stewardship are associated with increased levels of social capital (Krasny et al. 2015). Urban parks can serve as an access point to social participation through nature-based recreation that might otherwise be inaccessible, particularly to people in lower-income neighborhoods (Baur and Tynon 2010; Graham and Glover 2014).
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NTkzMzk=