Urban greenspace, health and wellbeing

Question 1

What are benefitted by living in a greener place?

Answer 1

Mortality
Cardiovascular diseases
Blood pressure, blood glucose
BMI
Mental disorders
Low birth weight
Physical inactivity
Sleep disorders

Question 2

ANOther of the same

Question 3

Hoe does green space provide health and well- being benefit?

Answer 3

Mitigation of harm
Restoration of depleted capacities
Building new capacities
Microbial diversity

Question 4

How does greenspace provide mitigation of harm?

Answer 4

Reduce air pollution
Noise reduction
temperature regulation (reduction of urban heat island effect)

Question 5

What is the urban heat island effect?

Answer 5

Trees/shrubs in non-domestic greenspace - reduce mean max daily soil surface temperatures by 5.7C
Shadows and pond are esp good for cool place that isnt home

Question 6

How does greenspace help through sound?

Answer 6

Noise pollution has multiple adverse effects e.g. hearing loss, sleep disruption
Vegetation mitigates noise

Question 7

Why is greenspace needed to mitigate effects of air pollution?

Answer 7

Linked to increased mental illness and obesity in children, found in fetal placenta
Greenspace provides barriers, respite from air pollution

Question 8

Complete mechanism 2 and 3

Question 9

What can we do to make people feel better in nature?

Answer 9

Green prescribing
Greenspace provides benefits for all

Question 10

What is green prescribing?

Answer 10

Instead of pharmaceutical drug… prescribe walking through green spaces e.g. park run
More of a preventative than a treatment

Question 11

How can greenspace benefits affect people differently?

Answer 11

Context and access - those living in deprived areas technically have lots of little pockets of greenspaces but not good quality ones - evens out as you look into the complexities
Quality of green space - mown grass compared to meadows

Question 12

How does garden size affect health?

Answer 12

Smaller gardens… higher rate ratio for poor health, even when diet, income etc were accounted for

Question 13

In green spaces…
Do people statistically like more flowers or less flowers?
Do people statistically like more colour or less colour?
More structure/more tidiness?

Answer 13

More flowers, always
Medium height responded best, tall better than short
Colour is more attractive to walk through but excites brain more,,, plain green is more relaxation (restorative effect)
Mixed bag, but optimal results mix structure with the meadow type green

Question 14

How can hospital gardens help?

Answer 14

Place for restoration and calm
Place to dig hands into dirt

Question 15

How is greenspace conducive to the restoration of depleted capacities?

Answer 15

Reduction of stress
Increase in positive emotions
Facilitation of recovery from attentional fatigue
Improved relaxation and restoration
- stress reduction therapy
- attention restoration therapy

Question 16

How do greenspaces build new capacities?

Answer 16

Community and social adhesion
Physical exercise - free walk - higher tree density 100m around houses associated with lower rates of obesity
High rates of access to good quality greenspace within 300m associated with lower rates of obesity

Question 17

How does diversity of planting and wildlife affect green spaces?

Answer 17

Strong relationship between perceived biodiversity and variety of birds
More diverse green spaces correlated with more positive emotions