Nature Deficit Disorder is a term used by the American author Richard Loux in his book Last Child in the Woods (written in 2005) to describe the damage caused by lack of access to nature and wild spaces. Green space is increasingly seen as being beneficial if not integral to good health: reducing stress levels and providing an escape from the physical and mental pressures of congested urban living. Public bodies are now researching the link between environment and health and how these health benefits may be enhanced in future ‘place making’. In China where population density is increasing rapidly this emphasis on providing access to green space to improve health has driven the Beijing’s Gardening and Greening Bureau to confirm plans to create five urban forests, 21 green spaces, 10 new leisure parks and 100 km of healthy green paths in 2018. JFA Environmental Planning has always understood the importance of green spaces and that is why we have firmly embraced the ethos of ‘Bringing Nature into the Heart of Design’. But can investment in landscape infrastructure really reduce health inequality and improve lives? A new study, ‘Residential Greenness and Prevalence of Major Depressive Disorders’ funded by Hong Kong University, the UK Biobank and the UK Economic and Social Research Council has conclusive evidence to prove that residential green-space is an important factor in personal well-being and mental health outcomes. The study used a cross-sectional data set from the UK Biobank of 94,879 participants from 10 spatially diverse UK cities. The Biobank is an UK charity with government and academic support that tracks the health of 500,000 participants for research purposes. The participants in this study were middle aged or older – a significant life-stage for the onset or progression of mental health disorders. A high-resolution metric of residential greenness was created for the study using infra-red aerial imagery. Adjustments were made for other physical, social and environmental variables but the study showed that exposure to residential green space (including private gardens and street trees) produced a significant reduction in mental health disorders in the order of 4%. The effects for women, people under 60 years of age and those living in deprived areas was particularly marked. The authors concluded, ‘With rapid urbanisation and progressive urban densification optimisation of individual level exposures to green can be one of the most enduring public health interventions achieved by urban design and planning’. The presence of nature in cities increases restorative activity and social interaction; provides amenable living space; and natural filters to mitigate the harmful effects of air, noise and thermal pollution. Further research is needed to determine how the maximum benefit may be effectively designed into our cities using green infrastructure. Resources:
Study by Chinmoy Sarkar and C Webster, Healthy High Density Cities Lab, HKUrban Lab, University of Hong Kong and J Gallacher, Dept of Psychiatry, Oxford University
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