New publications from Novia UAS focus on life-quality in Raasepori
Researcher Ruslan Gunko at Novia University of Applied Science has published two new papers concerning life quality in Raasepori.
The article “Striving with Global Stress on a Local Level: Has the COVID-19 Pandemic Changed the Relationship between People and Nature?”, published in the journal Sustainability 2022 (DOI) examines changes in the relationship between people and nature caused by COVID-associated stress, as well as its consequences on life quality.
The study highlights the significant role of the local environmental conditions for community members during the stressful circumstances caused by the pandemic of COVID-19.
“We found that despite the significant decline in life quality, individuals who believed that the surrounding nature is in a good condition reported even higher satisfaction with their life in comparison with pre-pandemic times. It demonstrates the role of local nature as a buffer to the global stress impacts. Furthermore, our findings suggest that because of the pandemic's impact people changed their personal relationship with nature towards environmentally friendly behavior (more concern about nature, buying more nature-friendly products, and spending more time in nature). Lastly, we found that the more person was affected by the pandemic the more she/he believes that the pandemic is caused by the way how people treat nature. Overall results of the paper underline the significance of the good state of local nature and signal to policymakers about the future work for satisfying the “green needs” of people.”, says Ruslan Gunko
The paper “Does Water Quality Matter for Life Quality? A Study of the Impact of Water Quality on Well-being in a Coastal Community”, published in Environmental Management volume 70, pages464–474 (2022) (DOI) examines life-quality on a local scale.
The study investigated the effect of the local environmental conditions in relation to life quality in Raasepori. The paper focus on sea surface water quality as an indicator of the state of the local environment in the coastal community. The research team measured its actual state (with the help of professional scientific equipment) and perceived reflection of water quality (inhabitants in Raasepori evaluated water quality in the survey format).
“We tested if the local natural environment (both, objectively measured and perceptions) together with other traditional variables (e.g., income and health) can predict life quality variations. Our findings indicate that if a person feels that the water quality is in good condition, more likely he or she evaluated life quality higher. At the same time, the actual state of the environment explained variations in life quality to a lesser extent. Thus, our results suggest that the impact of the environment on life quality is mediated via the way the environment is perceived (psychological effects) and less by the actual conditions of the environment.”, says Ruslan Gunko
Both papers are Open Access and available online.
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Novia UAS, Researcher Ruslan Gunko