Happiness in the air: How does a dirty sky affect mental health and subjective well-being?

Previous studies evaluating the welfare cost of air pollution have not paid much attention to its potential effect on mental health and subjective well-being (SWB). This paper attempts to fill the gap by investigating the impact of air pollution on several key dimensions, including mental health status, depressive symptoms, moment-to-moment happiness, and evaluative happiness. We match a nationwide longitudinal survey in China with local air quality and rich weather conditions according to the exact time and place of survey. By making use of variations in exposure to air pollution for the same individuals over time, we show that air pollution reduces hedonic happiness and increases the rate of depressive symptoms, while life satisfaction has little to do with the immediate air quality. Our results shed light on air pollution as an important contributor to the Easterlin paradox that economic growth may not bring more happiness.     

A Review of the Elements of Human Well-Being with an Emphasis on the Contribution of Ecosystem Services

Natural ecosystems perform fundamental life-support services upon which human civilization depends. However, many people believe that nature provides these services for free and therefore, they are of little or no value. While we do not pay for them, we pay significantly for their loss in terms of wastewater treatment facilities, moratoriums on greenhouse gases, increased illnesses, reduced soil fertility and losses in those images of nature that contribute to our basic happiness. Little is understood about the well-being benefits of the natural environment and its ecosystem services. The interwoven relationship of ecosystems and human well-being is insufficiently acknowledged in the wider philosophical, social, and economic well-being literature. In this article, we discuss an approach to examine human well-being and the interactions of its four primary elements-basic human needs, economic needs, environmental needs, and subjective well-being-and ecosystem services.     

新型城镇化、居民福祉与国土空间规划应对

我国城镇化已经步入中后期发展阶段,以人为本的新型城镇化内涵需要进一步丰富和建构。国土空间规划正是新型城镇化建设和生态文明建设落地的关键。本文提出增进居民福祉是以人为本新型城镇化的核心,梳理了居民福祉内涵的国内外相关研究、居民福祉的主客观测度指标体系与方法,归纳了影响居民福祉和幸福感的综合影响因素。借鉴国外空间规划经验,建议把增进城乡居民福祉作为国土空间规划编制的指导思想之一,并在国土空间规划实践中注重公共服务设施优化配置研究、灾害风险评估与韧性城市建设、三生空间优化、社区生活圈规划与精细化管理和大数据与智能决策系统等。城镇化是国土空间规划的重要组成,国土空间规划的科学编制有助于推动新型城镇化的高质量发展和城乡居民福祉提升,需要关注和加强城市合理等级体系、城市人口流动格局网络、半城镇化与就近城镇化模式、城乡基本公共服务配置与均等化、气候变化、城市灾害风险管理以及快速城镇化下人地关系演变等新型城镇化基础研究。