IAP-25-130

Trade-offs between wildness and wellbeing in restored landscapes: blue health, beavers and rewilding

Water environments, or blue spaces, are an important natural resource that support biodiversity, underpin food and energy production, supply drinking water, promote tourism, enable recreational opportunities and provide a range of public health benefits (Maltby et al., 2022). Regarding recreation and outdoor pursuits, access and exposure to blue spaces can deliver a broad range of health benefits, e.g., social interactions, mental wellbeing, physical exercise, that together are recognised as ‘blue-health’ benefits (McDougall et al., 2020). The ‘quality’ of blue spaces is therefore crucially important and is influenced by catchment management and restoration programmes. Rewilding has emerged as a particular form of ecological restoration (Prior and Brady, 2017), but despite its ecological benefits it can divide public opinion and lead to a diversity of local perceptions (Gamborg et al., 2025). Currently, we know little about the implications of rewilding with respect to how it influences interactions across environmental aesthetic values, health and wellbeing qualities and experiences associated with blue space exposure within rewilded landscapes. This raises the potential for conflict and trade-offs across different values that people hold for the landscape and its blue spaces too, for example aesthetic, ecological, non-use and social justice values (Deary and Warren, 2017). Beaver reintroductions, as part of rewilding efforts, are one such approach that can conflict across human interests (Oliveira et al., 2023) and which directly influence blue space qualities in a variety of ways (Lorimer, 2025; White et al., 2025).

Through a programme of integrated natural and social science research, the aim of this studentship is to investigate the health and wellbeing (dis)benefits of exposure to blue spaces in landscapes that have undergone rewilding or habitat restoration, and determine how perceived values influence blue-health outcomes. Using beaver-modified landscapes, in which we have a long history of working, the studentship will determine how contemporary and future scenarios of land management and habitat restoration associated with rewilding efforts can alter blue-health outcomes. Key questions of interest relevant to the studentship include: how are the social, mental and physical benefits of engaging with blue space in rewilded landscapes perceived across different communities and does this differ from other blue space encounters?; Are perceptions and values attached to the wildness of blue space influenced by shifting baseline syndrome? How might environmental, social and climatic factors threaten the range and magnitude of health and wellbeing benefits provided by blue space of rewilded landscapes?; and why does this matter?
Understanding the range of (dis)benefits that blue space exposure in rewilded environments provide is vitally important to demonstrate empirical associations between environment and health. In addition, such knowledge can help to provide further underpinning evidence of the need to maintain and manage landscapes from a social, economic and health-related perspective.

The objectives of this studentship are to:
(i) Investigate contemporary values (and potential trade-offs) attached to blue spaces in the context of rewilded landscapes;
(ii) Determine how perceptions and self-reporting of health and wellbeing (dis)benefits associated with blue space exposure vary between users within rewilded landscapes and how people’s values influence those (dis)benefits;
(iii) Use scenario analysis to explore how variations in landscape aesthetics of rewilded environments, driven by land use and climate change, can impact on blue-health benefits.

The student will deploy an interdisciplinary analytical approach, combining quantitative and qualitative research methods to enable data capture of values and blue-health (dis)benefits associated with blue space exposure in rewilded environments, using beaver-modified landscapes as an exemplar. The studentship will link together analysis of national-scale surveys with participatory-based qualitative research methods.

Online surveys to determine trade-offs in blue space values: The student will investigate the different values attached to blue space in rewilded landscapes. A national-scale survey will help understand competing public views on perceived (dis)benefits of beaver reintroductions on blue space values as part of rewilding efforts to restore ecosystems and characterise how views vary across different user groups and ‘beneficiaries’ of rewilded landscapes.

Participatory mapping and exposure workshops: The student will use beaver-modified environments as an exemplar of rewilded wetland landscapes to investigate the spatio-temporal variability of blue space experiences on wellbeing and capitalise on case study sites that accommodate both control (non-beaver impacted) and treatment (beaver-impacted) landscapes. On-site participatory workshops, with a diverse cross-section of the public, will be used to obtain spatially explicit self-reported wellbeing responses and will repeat across different seasons. Participant responses to exposure to these environments will be recorded (multi-sensory experiences, likelihood of return, subjective ratings [aesthetics, self-reported wellbeing, restorative outcomes].

Economic-valuation methods: Ultimately, we want to know: how important are rewilded landscapes in influencing health and wellbeing benefits gained from inland blue space exposure; and how might promotion of blue-health benefits change under a series of future land use and climate-related scenarios. The student will use a number of economic valuation methods, including revealed preference recreation demand models, and contingent behaviour and choice experiments, to show how blue-health benefits can be impacted by changes to wider landscape aesthetics associated with rewilding and how this will vary across sites and across actual and potential visitors of rewilded landscapes. Novel outputs from the studentship will help to inform and underpin future decision-making concerning the socio-economic, health and wellbeing value of rewilded landscapes and blue space exposure, and how to maximise the wider emotional, restoration, recreation and direct health benefits of these landscapes.

Year 1

In the first 4 months of the studentship you will develop a critical review of the literature. After engaging with the literature you will begin to learn key skills for survey design and economic valuation methods, and participate in key training opportunities. You will deploy a large-scale survey to understand (i) values attached to blue space within rewilded landscapes; and (ii) perceived health and wellbeing (dis)benefits of blue space exposure within rewilded landscapes.

Year 2

In year 2 you will begin to develop skills in participatory research methods and will plan participatory mapping and exposure workshops. This will be complemented with the development of a series of landscape/climate change scenarios and their implications for water quality/quantity of different rewilded landscapes. You will be encouraged to begin to draft chapters as you progress.

Year 3

In addition to writing up aspects of the research undertaken so far you will investigate the impact of future landscape/climate change scenarios on public perception of the health and wellbeing (dis)benefits of blue space in rewilded landscapes.

Year 3.5

The final 6 months will be used to interpret the outputs from the scenario modelling and to finalise the thesis with respect to writing up and refining further the drafts of chapters completed thus far.

This studentship will provide a platform to build an interdisciplinary research career in environment and health, with a focus on nature-based health interventions. The studentship will broaden the scope of the applicant’s skills base by providing specialist training in a range of quantitative and qualitative research methods. Extensive skill development in survey design and participatory research will be complemented with exposure to spatial mapping, modelling approaches and economic valuation methods. The student will join supportive research groups at the University of Stirling and have access to partner expertise at the University of Glasgow. A full programme of IAPETUS training courses will also be available. Finally, this studentship will provide opportunities to understand the role of the science-policy interface and experience KE-related activity.