Review on the Built Environment and Mental Health: Research Hotspots, Influence Factors and Technological Advance

In the context of urbanization, mental health disorders are more and more becoming a presence that cannot be ignored. In fact, countries and organizations around the world have been trying to find ways to enhance public mental resilience. It has been discovered that built environment can generate mental recovery benefits, has now become a frontier subject in ameliorating the current state of mental health. To explore the relationship between built environment and mental health, this review first visualized the research hotspots and research focus, and then combined the keywords clustering results with qualitative analysis in three aspects: definition of the spatial scale of built environment, environmental elements affecting mental health and data acquisition methods, and analysis methods, and ultimately determined the existence of built environment have influence on mental health. In summary, first, the public attaches great importance to mental health, especially the younger depression and psychological dilemmas of the elderly. Second, the built environment evaluation index system influencing mental health has become relatively comprehensive, and the research hotspots have gradually shifted from macro-scale to meso-micro-scale. Third, the application trend of modern science and technology has gradually emerged, enhancing the accuracy of data. Fourth, built environment and mental health have been proven to be non-linearly correlated, providing a new perspective for research. The literature review indicates that the current research progress provides a reference and basis for urban planning and recommendation to improve public mental health, which is of great significance to the construction of healthy cities and communities.