These are works carried out by the very serious King’s College of London which show it. Spending some time near a stream, river or canal increases mental well-being for at least 24 hours. Study participants (aged 16 to 77) said they were “more relaxed, more confident and energetic”. Note that the effect is a little more marked in men and young adults.
To reach these conclusions, these scientists equipped 300 participants with a smartphone application and they had to answer questionnaires on their mental state three times a day for two weeks when they were outdoors, i.e. on the streets in town. , in a garden, a park, a forest or just near a stream. And it appears that the well-being effect generated by the banks of the river and the canals is even greater than that which one feels when one benefits from a forest or a green space. Rivers and canals can play on our morale by the calm, the colors, the beauty of the places and by the opening on the horizon which probably play.
More than a hundred serious scientific publications have already made it possible to make a link, without necessarily detailing the mechanism, between better mental health (less depression, stress and psychological distress) and the proximity of space either green (trees) or blue (sea, ocean or lakes).
This study is the first to focus specifically on the impact of rivers and canals, specify the researchers who recall that the banks of the river have the advantage of being both “blue” spaces with water and spaces “green”, with generally a little vegetation on the banks. These British researchers were therefore not surprised by these results, and intend to continue their work on a larger sample.
Beyond that, it can encourage the urban policy of developing quays in a city, maintaining paths along the canals or bringing waterways that were underground back into the open air. This matters environmentally, but also in terms of public and mental health.