Environmental science and happiness

The interconnections of the environment and human beings have been largely researched by scientists. This chapter provides an overview of different concepts and theories on environmental science, happiness and wellbeing as well as their interconnections; looking at past, present and potential future development. The past section covers the evolution of the concepts: ‘environment’ and ‘environmental sciences’, and the development of the disciplines in relation to happiness and wellbeing. Nowadays, human activity affects the environment as much as the environment affects people's quality of life. Therefore, in the section about the present, we provide an extended definition of the environment, covering all non-genetic factors influencing human health and wellbeing encompassed in the exposome concept. To conclude, in the future section, interdisciplinary research is discussed, to study the bi-directional relationship between environment and wellbeing, using data analysis and visualization to facilitate the communication between the different disciplines.