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‘Healthy Natures’ at the Conference of Irish Geographers 2017

9/5/2017

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Dr Owen Douglas


Hosted by University College Cork, the 49th Conference of Irish Geographers took place from the 4th to the 6th of May 2017. With the overarching theme of ‘Disruptions and Transgressions’, an aim of the conference was to explore the blurring of disciplinary boundaries across space, society and environment.
 
Co-chaired by Dr Owen Douglas of the UCD Eco-Health team and Dr Ronan Foley of Maynooth University, the ‘Healthy Natures’ session included papers and speakers exploring the environment/nature-health association from the perspective of multiple disciplines and ‘user-groups’.
 
The first speaker was Sonya Agnew, a PhD candidate from the UCD School of Architecture, Planning and Environmental Policy. In her paper titled “Growing fruit, vegetable and sustainability in urban community gardens”, Sonya presented results from her study which employed a walk along methodology involving 35 semi-structured interviews in community garden spaces in Dublin. Interviewees identified mental health and physical well-being benefits, in addition to improved community cohesion as key benefits of - and motivations for - their participation in community gardening. Such benefits clearly compliment other recognised benefits attributed to urban gardening including increased environmental activity, supporting community involved food and nutrition education and catalysing cultural diversity, creativity and urban regeneration. In identifying these benefits across multiple user groups, the research demonstrates the potential role of urban gardening in fostering and supporting new forms of urban sustainability which transcend disciplinary boundaries.
 
The second presentation was delivered by Dr Ronan Foley of Maynooth University. In his presentation Dr Foley provided an outline of the recently launched EPA-HSE funded project “Green and blue spaces and health: a health-led approach” on which he is the PI. This project aims to examine the associations between green and blue infrastructure (GBI) and human health from a “health-led” direction. That is, rather than starting with available GBI data, the research starts with health data to model environment/health interactions. In so-doing, the research will identify the elements and configurations of GBI elements contributing to known health outcomes. In taking this approach, this research requires the identification, manipulation and analysis of health data from multiple sources, which exists in different formats and at various scales and resolutions. Successful completion of the project will provide important information for professional users across the broad fields of health, planning and geography.
 
The third speaker was Dr Michael Brennan of the Eastern & Midlands Regional Assembly and formerly of UCD. Dr Brennan’s talk was titled “Deprivation and Trees: spatial inequality of urban tree canopy cover in Dublin city”. Dr Brennan outlined how ‘green infrastructure’ (GI), has become increasingly recognised as crucial the health and well-being of urban residents, providing a host of physical, economic and social benefits; including climate regulation, air pollutant reduction, increases in property price, and relaxing spaces. The empirical analysis focused on urban trees – key components of any city’s green infrastructure – and how access to GI (and the benefits provided) is often not equally distributed among different socio-economic groups. Recognising such socio-spatial inequalities, Dr Brennan identified the need to identify areas with the least amount of, and hence greatest need for, GI. The talk provided 1) a city level assessment of one green infrastructure element (urban tree canopy cover) for Dublin 2) examined how tree cover relates to measures of socioeconomic deprivation in this city, and 3) discussed the potential for increasing urban tree cover within areas currently impoverished in this resource. In so-doing, the paper identified spatial equity in the distribution of urban trees as an important consideration in understanding the association between GI provision and population health.
 
The final speaker was Dr Owen Douglas of the UCD Eco-Health team. In his talk, Dr Douglas explored the intersections of public health and green space by reflecting on the need to move beyond an overriding concern with equity in the spatial distribution of green spaces towards a focus on the quality, or character, of those green spaces provided. The talk resonated with recent calls in environmental justice literature to move past a simple focus on ‘distribution’, and engage more fine-grained studies focused on issues of ‘opportunities’ and individual agency, functioning and well-being when examining the goods potentially offered us by the environment. This line of reasoning is re-enforced by empirical research which has demonstrated that differences in age, gender, cultural background and socio-economic status influence a person’s relationship with green space.  This suggests that the planning and design of green spaces should focus not only on provision, accessibility and distribution, but on design interventions that complement proximity by enticing people to use green spaces to enhance health and well-being. It is to this challenge that the UCD Eco-Health Project is responding.
 
 
In responding to the Conference theme of ‘Disruption and Transgressions’, a clear recognition of the interdisciplinary and cross-disciplinary nature of the health-environment relationship was identified by all of the speakers in the ‘Healthy Natures’ session. The contributions to the session were notable for the diverse research methods used to explore health-nature interactions, from qualitative walk-along interviews to modelling and mapping to capture GBI and health associations, spatial equity in GI distribution and theoretical considerations employing an ‘opportunities’ approach. A particular theme identified was the potential variation in the nature-health association depending on user characteristics (health, socio-demographics) and GI proximity and quality/character. As such a blurring of disciplinary boundaries across space, society and environment was clearly identified.
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Well-Being 2016: Green space reflections

9/9/2016

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Owen Douglas

Hosted by Birmingham City University (BCU), UK, Well-Being 2016: The third international conference exploring the multi-dimensions of well-being (https://wellbeing2016.org/) took place on the 5th-6th September 2016. In attracting academics and practitioners from wide-ranging disciplines, the conference facilitated a holistic consideration of well-being from multiple perspectives. Exposure to natural environments and green space emerged as a cross-cutting theme for well-being and was reflected in keynote lectures, parallel sessions, poster displays and workshops.

Keynote Lectures

​Karen Creavin (Head of the Birmingham Wellbeing Service), discussed the engagement of communities through the promotion of physical activity in civic and green spaces to improve physical well-being. Focusing in particular on disadvantaged communities, Karen explained how the facilitation of physical activity (e.g. exercise, running and cycling) in public spaces is at the core of the service’s Wellbeing Strategy. Through the provision of easy, attractive, timely and social services, Karen demonstrated positive health and social outcomes for individuals and communities.

Professor Claire Freeman (Dept. of Geography, University of Otago, New Zealand) discussed well-being across the age range. Using case studies from her work in New Zealand, Prof. Freeman considered the role of everyday nature encounters in influencing the health and well-being of children and older people. Focusing on private gardens and places close to home, the importance of biodiversity for the creation of spaces which facilitate physical activity, mental escape and social interactions across age groups was emphasised.

​Professor Kalevi Korpela (Professor of Psychology, University of Tampere, Finland) considered the relationship between environment and well-being in the context of natural settings and favourite places. He presented some of his key published research which has identified associations between exposure to such places and reduced stress, improved cardio-vascular health, reduced mental fatigue and increased positive emotions. He emphasised the need for increased evidence of the effects of different kinds and qualities of green spaces on mental wellbeing.
 
Parallel Sessions

There were two sessions on nature-based solutions towards well-being. Talks variously considered the contribution of gardens to mental well-being (both private and institutional) and the wellbeing implications of ‘solo’ interactions with greenspace and nature and the influence of woodlands. The UCD Eco-Health project was outlined and critical comment on the state of knowledge was made. In particular gaps in knowledge, the attribute-descriptive nature of existing research and the challenge of influencing planning policy in the development of health places were discussed. The overlap between public health and sustainability agendas and the importance of green spaces in reducing health inequalities and protecting the environment were considered in the session on visioning and future thinking of well-being scenarios. Alan Carr of Sustainability West Midlands, UK, described a number of case studies in the West Midlands and outlined ambitious targets for physical and mental health outcomes. It is likely that such ambitious outcomes will be difficult to achieve given the gaps in knowledge identified by UCD Eco-Health and others.
 
Poster Displays

A number of posters dealt with nature and greenspace with titles including ‘A Garden for Active Ageing’, ‘The Practice of Biophilic Design’, ‘Dancing in, with and as Nature’. In addition to the UCD Eco-Health poster – which won the poster competition [click here] – a poster titled ‘Public and Third Sector Collaboration – Can it Really Work’ by Elizabeth Mary Woodcock (Bangor University, UK) set out a plan for research which will engage with the ecosystems services approach.

Workshops

​Workshops dealing with nature-based solutions towards well-being were run on both days. A workshop titled The Practice of Biophilic Design was facilitated by Elizabeth Freeman Calabrese (Calabrese Architects, Inc, USA and the University of Vermont, USA). The workshop focused on methods for fostering human and environmental health and well-being using biophilic design. The session was very interactive and provided a good overview of biophilic design and its potential benefits for health and well-being. A useful resource ‘ The Practice of Biophilic Design’ was used and is available for free download here. On the closing afternoon of the conference, a workshop titled Building Well-Being Together: Exploring Strategies for Well-Being Network Development was facilitated by Florence Scialom and Dr Larch Maxey of the Network of Well-Being (NOW). This workshop explored different ways to generate connections and provided a suitable close to a stimulating and thought-provoking conference.

​Well-being 2016 brought together multiple disciplines to discuss and debate the concept of well-being from different perspectives. Exposure to green space and nature emerged as an important and cross-cutting focus for well-being. The wide variety of research presented at the conference provides significant support for the ‘green space improves well-being’ argument. However, as emphasised by a number of contributors - including UCD Eco-Health - a better understanding of the type and quality of greenspaces that improve health and well-being outcomes is necessary for planning policy. It is this gap in knowledge that UCD Eco-Health is addressing.
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Nature-based solutions for the contemporary city

2/7/2016

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Prof Mark Scott

We now live in the global urban age – but one also marked by a series of interrelated environmental challenges and risks, particularly arising from anticipated climate change, providing an important emerging context for spatial planning. This blog, and the related Interface in Planning Theory & Practice [Click here], explores how planners can deepen the ecological dimensions of planning practice to reconcile urban development with the biosphere through re-examining the relationship between nature and the city.
 
For much of the 20th Century, planners have viewed ‘urban’ and ‘nature’ as opposite ends of the spectrum, with nature often associated with the countryside and landscape, serving as a backdrop to urbanisation. In this way, nature was preserved or protected but planning for natural capital was largely separated from urban development.
 
In recent years, there has been increased attention given to understanding the potential avenues for planning to deliver ecologically sound outcomes through examining the intersection between ecosystem approaches and spatial planning frameworks which considers the city in terms of a social-ecological system. While greater recognition has been given to thinking about spatial planning as an activity inherently concerned with social-ecological interactions, limited attention has been given to addressing the principles of ecologically sound spatial planning and how these may be translated into practice through the procedures employed in the formulation and implementation of policies designed to stimulate practical interventions.  One way to address this deficit is through the concept of nature-based solutions and green infrastructure.
 
Nature-based solutions have emerged as a concept that may be employed to operationalise an ecosystem services based approach within spatial planning policies and practices to fully integrate the ecological dimension alongside traditional planning concerns.  This approach moves beyond traditional site-based approaches of ‘protect and preserve’ towards a more holistic ecosystems approach, which includes not only protection but also enhancing, restoring, creating and designing new ecological networks characterised by multifunctionality and connectivity, and importantly seeks to connect nature and the city.
 
In this context, nature-based solutions have emerged as the latest term to reimagine the relationship between nature and the city. In a recent European Commission publication, Nature-based Solutions and Re-naturing Cities (2015), it is defined simply as ‘actions which are inspired by, supported by or copied from nature’ and therefore encapsulates inter alia green infrastructure, blue infrastructure and biomimicry as urban design and planning tools for ecologically sensitive urban development. The EC publication outlines four interrelated goals for a nature-based approach:
  1. Enhancing sustainable urbanisation: through ensuring essential ecosystem functions are protected or restored (e.g. groundwater), enhancing well-being through the provision of green space for residents and urban regeneration through nature-based approaches;
  2. Improving the restoration of degraded ecosystems: the need to maintain or restore the functionality of degraded ecosystems and their services;
  3. Developing climate change adaptation and mitigation: including redesigning human made infrastructure and production systems as natural ecosystems or developing nature-based ‘frugal technologies’ for lowering energy use through integrating grey with green and blue infrastructure;
  4.  Improving risk management and resilience: implementing nature-based solutions as part of an integrated risk management approach, including utilising nature-based design which combine multiple functions and benefits such as pollution reduction, carbon storage, biodiversity conservation, reducing heat stress and enhanced water retention.
Therefore, nature-based solutions applied at the urban scale emphasize multifunctionality in terms of services and functions to include drainage management, habitat provision, ecological connectivity, health and well-being, recreational space, energy reduction and climate change mitigation and adaptation. This suggests a range of scalar interventions, from the design of city-wide ecological networks to local multifunctional urban parks providing recreational functions and cooling/flood alleviation services, and micro-scale design including streetscapes designed to retain water (e.g. rain gardens, roadside bioswale) and the integration of living systems with built systems such as green walls and green roofs to reduce heat stress.
 
These themes are addressed in this Interface with a collection of papers from academics and practitioners exploring nature-based solutions and the implementation of green infrastructure within spatial planning. Key themes addressed include:
  • the tensions between promoting compact urban forms and urban form which incorporates ecological thinking;
  • enhancing biodiversity within the urban landscape – including niche ecosystems designed within and between buildings, urban greenspaces and also unused land – and also the benefits that biodiversity provides;
  • moving beyond a narrow focus on land-use, but instead calling for spatial planning frameworks to incorporate services into the management and planning for the urban environment – in other words, examining the potential of land to provide key ecosystem services such as urban cooling or flood alleviation, and not simply in terms of ‘development’ potential;
  • examining the potential of brownfield sites to alleviate high temperatures and the potential of converting brownfield sites to greenspaces particularly in communities vulnerable to climate change;
  • promoting biophilic cities as a means for planning to enhance human connections to nature for health and well-being benefits, suggesting that nature should be an essential element of urban life and that cities should be designed to maximize our contact with the natural world;
  • outlining the experience of a local planning authority promoting green infrastructure as the key integrative concept within its most recent spatial plans to protect, enhance and manage green infrastructure as a strategic resource – an approach that recognises that the creation of a connected and multi-functional green infrastructure will yield economic and social benefits as well as the more obvious environmental benefits.
 
As we live in an ever more urbanised world, incorporating natural capital into urban development provides one approach to enhance the resilience of our cities while also providing a key resource for enhancing biodiversity and allowing urban citizens to reconnect with nature for enhanced well-being and quality of urban living.
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