Nature connectedness, human behaviours, and blue infrastructure: the water effect to people in historical and contemporary masterplanning

Most urban designers and planners have produced anthropocentric masterplans since early twentieth century. Today green infrastructure in cities, including blue infrastructure, primarily expresses people’s relationship to the environment in terms of resource management. Often the natural world is converted into urban green arrangement or a replica of nature mainly for the economic and cultural benefit of humans. Water and related ecosystems were only part of industry as necessity until late twentieth century. Nowadays, water is valued as a very important element of life. Most experts believe that by offering people the opportunity to participate in running and preserving certain ecosystems could have a very positive impact to human health and wellbeing. Environmental psychology suggests that we can provoke heightened experiences in people’s minds by designing dynamic flowing water patterns in urban context. Natural or artificial landscapes, such as green parks should intertwine with the built environment, displaying human creativity and inventiveness. The authors of this paper discuss the importance of water changing culture and behaviours in regenerated green parks in vulnerable urban areas, such as the case study of Arboretum Derby. This particular case study was reviewed by both authors (tutor and PhD student) who shared research with undergraduate students in Urban Design module in this academic year. The student projects reveal the importance of nature connectedness to people seeking happiness and mental balance to counterbalance lockdown hardship, employment loss and social deprivation.

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