Emily Grant

Graduate student

I am focused on research that increase 

Picture of Emily Grant
knowledge of how natural environments improve the well-being of individuals living in urban environments. I developed an interest in this issue while completing my Bachelor’s degree at Lakehead University, a campus with natural elements woven into the landscape. This inspired my Master’s thesis leading me to design and conduct an experiment exploring how nature can be used to attain and restore well-being in a an urban environment using a limited amount of nature and exposure time.

Currently I am interested in continuing the study of how urban nature can be used to increase well-being while analyzing how much nature (time spent and amount of vegetation) is enough to produce an effect. I am also interested in identifying the natural elements that improve people`s well-being and how these elements can be effectively incorporated into urban environments. I will build on my research by continuing field studies in different environments (indoor, built, and natural) and I will be testing findings from the natural environment studies in the immersive virtual environments to further confirm my findings. This will allow me to understand what the optimal doses of nature is and what elements provide the greatest sense of well-being to help create sustainable urban environments. 

Contact Information

Office: Psychology, Anthropology, and Sociology (PAS) building 2254

Email: e3grant@uwaterloo.ca