Dr. Pongsakorn Suppakittpaisarn

Invited Speech: Virtual Exposure to the Natural Environment to Reduce Stress in the East and West 

Biography:

Dr. Pongsakorn Suppakittpaisarn is an associate professor at the Landscape Design and Environmental Management Studio, Faculty of Agriculture, Chiang Mai University. His research, aligning with his collaborators in Healthy Landscape & Healthy People Laboratory (Taiwan) and Sustainability and Human Health Laboratory (US,) aims to create resilient, healthy, and balanced partnerships between people and the environment. His recent works included the relationships between nearby nature and human health, water-sensitive urban design, and research-through-design strategies. One of his study series included uses of virtual nature to increase health and well-being.    

Abstract:

Four decades of evidence suggests that aspects of nature benefit human health. In the past decade, the ongoing gaps were identified: what nature (1), how much nature (2), and who benefit (3)? For the first question regarding types of nature, one of the types of nature emerged: simulated nature. Simulated nature, including natural images, sounds, videos, and three-dimensional representation of nature, represented natural elements for those with limited mobility, including those incarcerated, bed-bound, or simply under hazardous outdoor environments such as pandemics, heat waves, floods, or sub-zero temperature. These types of nature could also be used to understand the second question of dosage. Researchers could simulate similar landscapes with different parameters, including vegetation density, types, and placement, or they could present the research participants with several types of nature at once. Finally, under the third question of who benefits, simulated nature could present people across the world with similar stimulus to understand the degrees to which their well-being benefits from nature might differ.

This lecture emphasizes the third question and investigates how international collaborations may foster our understanding regarding the relationships between nature and human health using simulated nature. It explores cross-cultural comparisons between US, Taiwan, and Thailand through Sustainability and Human Health Network, discusses strategies for collaborations, and explains the ongoing results. This lecture may benefit researchers who want to develop similar cross-cultural studies to explore the relationships between nature, virtual or real, and human health.