Natural Green Vegetation Exposure and Mental Health Burden in Australian Metropolitan Regions: A Spatial Ecological Study Using DEA Fractional Cover and PHIDU Indicators

This reproducibility package supports a spatial ecological analysis of associations between persistent green vegetation exposure and area-level mental health burden across 599 Population Health Areas (PHAs) in five Australian metropolitan regions.

The study evaluates green vegetation exposure derived from Digital Earth Australia (DEA) Fractional Cover Percentiles (photosynthetic vegetation median, pv_pc_50) averaged over 2020–2022, and area-level mental health indicators obtained from the Population Health Information Development Unit (PHIDU).

The analysis integrates ordinary least squares regression with HC3 robust standard errors, spatial error models, spatial lag models, and sensitivity analyses evaluating alternative exposure windows, spatial specifications, outcome definitions, multiple-testing correction, and covariate treatment.

The package includes derived analytical datasets, Python scripts, model outputs, publication tables, supplementary materials, and final figures required to reproduce the reported analyses.

Raw third-party datasets are not redistributed. Original datasets should be obtained directly from Digital Earth Australia, PHIDU, and the Australian Bureau of Statistics according to their respective access conditions and licensing terms.

The associated manuscript will provide the scientific interpretation of these results.