Maybe you’re the kind of person that can go an entire day or week without any significant exposure to nature and the outdoors. Or maybe your only outdoor activities each day include walking down a busy city sidewalk to catch a bus to another neighborhood in the same city.
The NatureDose app aims to provide a “prescription” for nature to help improve your well-being by getting out into nature and the outdoors.
The Concept Behind NatureDose
The NatureDose app’s parent company, NatureQuant, is a technology and research company that aims to give you the tools needed to track, count, and assess characteristics of the natural environment and exposure to nature. The company hopes to help people learn how to create and improve access to nature.
The NatureDose app is targeted at individuals. It uses your smartphone’s GPS and a proprietary analytical technology that can track how much time you spend in the healthiest—or least healthy—environments.
Download: NatureDose for Android | iOS (Free)
How the NatureScore Works
There are other apps that can help improve mental and emotional well-being, but none like NatureDose, which is backed by patent-pending technology that can track how much time you spend in natural environments.
According to the NatureQuant website, the app uses data to measure the amount and quality of natural elements at any address to give you a “NatureScore.” It does this by analyzing a range of data: satellite infrared measurements, GIS and land classifications, park data and features, tree canopies, air, noise and light pollution, and computer vision elements (Google aerial and street images, for example).
The company claims that these tools allow it to weigh and measure natural elements that are correlated with positive health outcomes using a machine learning process. For example, according to the app developers, who are researchers at the University of Oregon, elements like sand and rock do not provide the same positive benefits as forests, parks, or other locations with heavy vegetation.
Based on the amount of time you spend in various locations, the app provides you with a daily customized nature prescription—a “nature dose”—and a breakdown of how much nature you’ve been exposed to each day. Then, it analyzes your exposure to nature and provides data on the amount of time you’ve spent indoors versus outdoors. You’ll receive your NatureScore each week.
Goal Setting in NatureDose
While there are many online resources to help with physical fitness goals, NatureDose takes a unique approach. The app allows you to set a goal for how much exposure to nature you’d like to receive each week (for example, 60, 90, or the recommended 120 minutes per week).
If you’re having trouble meeting your goals or you find it difficult to motivate yourself to spend more time in nature, NatureDose provides encouragement through helpful tips, suggestions, and scientific facts that act as encouragement to get off the couch or computer chair and onto the trail or your bike.
NatureDose’s Strava Integration
You can connect your Strava data to the proprietary NatureScore technology separately from the NatureScore app. The service uses your location data to provide a NatureScore as well as the NatureDose report you received when you did those activities.
Health Benefits of Exposure to Nature
In 1984, a scientist named Roger Ulrich wrote an article in Science that showed people recovered faster from surgery when they had a window with a view. Since then, numerous studies, including one published in Environmental Research, have shown that time spent in natural environments, such as wooded forests, public parks, or other green spaces, has positive health benefits.
The positive impacts of nature on your health should come as no surprise, and the NatureDose app claims to be informed by more than 500 peer-reviewed studies that connect time outdoors to improved well-being.
While the impacts of technology on health are becoming more well-known, research published in Ecosystems Services suggests that the physiological benefits of the outdoors may be greater than we thought, including improved cardiovascular and respiratory health, reduced obesity, and increased longevity.
The psychological benefits include less stress, increased happiness, restored focus and attention, and reduced ADHS in children. Not stopping there, the cognitive benefits include improved attention span, cognitive function, academic performance, and self-esteem.
Should You Use NatureDose
Most people don’t need scientists to tell them that spending time in nature is good for them. There’s nothing like spending time breathing fresh air, soaking up the sunshine, or being among the trees in a forest. So, check out the NatureDose app if you need the motivation to get outside more often and spend less time in environments that promote sedentary lifestyles.
