Dr Helen Hoyle

School of Architecture and Landscape

Lecturer in Healthy Urban Landscapes

Helen Hoyle
Profile picture of Helen Hoyle
h.e.hoyle@sheffield.ac.uk
Arts Tower

Full contact details

Dr Helen Hoyle
School of Architecture and Landscape
Arts Tower
Western Bank
Sheffield
S10 2TN
Profile

I am a Lecturer in Healthy Urban Landscapes in the School of Architecture and Landscape at the 爆料TV and a NIHR  in the Sheffield Centre for Health and Related Research. 

My research lies at the intersection of nature and human wellbeing, informing policy and practice to prioritise biodiversity and wellbeing in the context of a changing climate. I believe passionately in collaborating closely with those who juggle these priorities on the ground; policymakers, practitioners, and communities.

My background in landscape architecture has equipped me with the tools to understand how people benefit from green infrastructure/ environments and to design green infrastructure interventions in ways that maximise the benefits to health, climate resilience and biodiversity.  My transdisciplinary fellowship provides the opportunity to apply these tools within a public health context, developing and delivering ambitious place-based public health interventions to reduce health inequalities at the population scale whilst delivering environmental co-benefits.

I am a member of the Adaptation Committee of the Irish Climate Change Advisory Council where I share expertise in nature-based solutions, biodiversity and health.

Qualifications
  • Master of Public Health (Distinction) 爆料TV. 
  • Post Graduate Certificate in Academic Practice (PCAP) University of the West of England. 
  • PhD: Human happiness v urban biodiversity? Public perception of designed urban planting in a warming climate. Department of Landscape, 爆料TV with Professor James Hitchmough and Dr Anna Jorgensen.
  • MA Landscape Architecture (Distinction) 爆料TV.
  • BA Geography Oxford University (St Edmund Hall).
Research interests
  • Aesthetics, colour and human reactions to urban green infrastructure (UGI)
  • Futureproofing places for climate resilience, biodiversity and human health and wellbeing
  • Co-creating nature-based solutions (NBS) in deprived diverse places
  • Connecting children with nature through co-creating NBS
  • Green social prescribing: Opportunities, challenges, and environmental co-benefits

I use integrative transdisciplinary approaches drawn from environmental psychology, urban ecology, sociology and public health. As a landscape architect I believe strongly in the importance of design for diverse urban publics rather than for professional elites, and aim to reconcile human aesthetic preferences, well-being and ecological objectives.

Current project:

I am currently part of a large multidisciplinary partnership led by Luton Borough Council, awarded a 拢1M grant by the highly competitive  The project 鈥楻oots to healthy places: nature connections in Luton鈥 focuses on improving health, access and connections to nature across communities, with a particular focus on communities already identified as facing barriers to access. 

Here I am working closely with primary schools across Luton to explore children鈥檚 perceptions, preferences and values towards optimising the public health benefits of nearby nature-based interventions (NBS) whilst maximising the co-benefits for biodiversity and climate resilience.

/smph/news/roots-healthy-places-sheffield-researcher-heart-nature-based-public-health-project

Publications

Journal articles

  • Hoyle HE (2025) . People and Nature.
  • S眉le G, B谩ldi A, Kleijn D, Steffan鈥怐ewenter I, Venn S, Goulson D, Dietzel S, Muratet A, Cole LJ, 脰ckinger E , Tzortzakaki O et al (2025) . Ecology Letters, 28(8).
  • Yuille A, Davies J, Green M, Hardman C, Knight J, Marshall R, Armitt H, Bane M, Bush A, Carr V , Clark R et al (2024) . Health & Place, 90.
  • Farris S, Zhang L, Dempsey N, McEwan K, Hoyle H & Cameron R (2024) . Cities & Health.
  • Farris S, Dempsey N, McEwan K, Hoyle H & Cameron R (2024) . PLOS ONE, 19(2).
  • Hoyle H & Cottrill W (2023) . Urban Forestry and Urban Greening, 81.
  • Hoyle H (2022) Perceptions of colour, form and amenity in green spaces.. Urban Design Journal, 162, 28-30.
  • Hoyle HE (2021) . Urban Forestry & Urban Greening, 65.
  • Hoyle HE & Sant鈥橝nna CG (2020) . Landscape Research, 48(4), 460-476.
  • Norton BA, Bending GD, Clark R, Corstanje R, Dunnett N, Evans KL, Grafius DR, Gravestock E, Grice SM, Harris JA , Hilton S et al (2019) . Ecological Applications, 29(6).
  • Hoyle H, Jorgensen A & Hitchmough JD (2019) . People and Nature, 1(2), 167-180.
  • Hoyle H, Norton B, Dunnett N, Richards JP, Russell JM & Warren P (2018) . Landscape and Urban Planning, 180, 103-113.
  • Southon GE, Jorgensen A, Dunnett N, Hoyle H & Evans KL (2018) . Landscape and Urban Planning, 172, 1-10.
  • Hoyle H, Hitchmough JD & Jorgensen A (2017) . Landscape and Urban Planning, 164, 49-63.
  • Hoyle H, Hitchmough J & Jorgensen A (2017) . Landscape and Urban Planning, 164, 109-123.
  • Hoyle H, Jorgensen A, Warren P, Dunnett N & Evans K (2017) . Urban Forestry and Urban Greening, 25, 139-149.
  • Southon GE, Jorgensen A, Dunnett N, Hoyle H & Evans KL (2017) . Landscape and Urban Planning, 158, 105-118.

Book chapters

  • Hoyle H (2025) , The Dynamic Landscape (pp. 76-101). Routledge
  • Hoyle H (2020) In Dempsey N & Dobson J (Ed.), Naturally challenged: contested perceptions and practices in urban green spaces (pp. 9-36). Springer Cham

Conference proceedings

  • Hoyle H & Mell I (2022) . Proceedings of the F谩bos Conference on Landscape and Greenway Planning, Vol. 7(1) (pp 37-37). Budapest, Hungary, 30 June 2022 - 30 June 2022.

Reports

  • Hoyle H (2016) Improving urban grassland for people and wildlife: access to nature is beneficial to human health. How can designed urban meadows help to enhance public well-being and urban biodiversity?

Theses

  • Hoyle HE (2015) Human happiness versus urban biodiversity? Public perception of designed urban planting in a warming climate..
Research group

Nature Cultures
Explores the relationship between nature and culture in urban areas. Through a range of projects, from shaping socially inclusive places, to producing innovative ecologies and technologies for urban greening, we study how people鈥檚 health and wellbeing is impacted by aspects of space and landscape.

Grants
  • 2025    Natural England Nature Towns and Cities Heritage Lottery Fund. 鈥楻oots to healthy places: nature connections in Luton鈥 Project  - 拢20,000 of 拢1M project.
  • 2024    NIHR-SPHR 24-month Transdisciplinary Fellowship . Applying place-based expertise from Landscape Architecture to address public health problems - 拢276,784.
  • 2023    NIHR-SPHR Transdisciplinary Placement for 鈥淪ensing Biodiversity: Understanding the relationships between sensory biodiversity traits, human aesthetic response and mental wellbeing in urban green spaces鈥 - 拢8,000.
  • 2021    Landscape Research Associate Editor honorarium - 拢2,000 p.a.
  • 2021    UWE (FET) Public Engagement and Outreach Award for 鈥淧ortishead Community Garden: co-producing health and wellbeing through green and social prescribing - 拢3,800.
  • 2020    UWE (FET) Vice Chancellor鈥檚 Early Career Research Award for 鈥淧hysical activity in different natural environments: Motivations, perceptions and wellbeing benefits鈥 - 拢13,000.
  • 2019    UWE (FET) Public Engagement and Outreach Award for 鈥淔utureproofing Luton鈥 Co-producing an educational air quality arboretum-meadow - 拢1,500.
  • 2019    Newton-funded early career researcher workshop place Rethinking the green city Brasilia - 拢2,000.
Professional activities and memberships

Adaptation Committee of the Irish Climate Change Advisory Council.
Landscape Institute.

PhD Supervision

I currently supervise two PhD students;  Zainab Alwardi and Anqi Wen