As part of his work on human geography, Yi-Fu Tuan developed a theory of topophilia. Topophilia, literally “love of place,” is defined as humans’ innate affection for place and environment. It is, above all, an individual's perception and instinctive reaction to environmental settings, typically associated with more natural environments. In the context of green health, topophilia highlights the affective bond and salutogenic psychological response to natural environment settings.

As a theory, topophilia aims to address how humans respond to their environment, the relationship between this response and health, and how urbanization affects the topophilic response. Human response to the environment is personal but can be contextualized for a deeper theoretical understanding. This contextualization can occur across system levels. At the individual level, the response to environment ...