http://www.ced.berkeley.edu/downloads/research/LUP.parks.pdf

Urban green space, public health, and environmental justice: The challenge of making cities ‘just green enough’

Urbanization, resource exploitation, and lifestyle changes have diminished possibilities for human contact with nature in many societies. Concern about the loss has helped motivate research on the health benefits of contact with nature. Reviewing that research here, we focus on nature as represented by aspects of the physical environment relevant to planning, design, and policy measures that serve broad segments of urbanized societies. We discuss difficulties in defining “nature” and reasons for the current expansion of the research field, and we assess available reviews. We then consider research on pathways between nature and health involving air quality, physical activity, social cohesion, and stress reduction. Finally, we discuss methodological issues and priorities for future research. The extant research does describe an array of benefits of contact with nature, and evidence regarding some benefits is strong; however, some findings indicate caution is needed in applying beliefs about those benefits,...

Nature and Health

Introduction:The past decade has seen a dramatic increase in empirical investigation into the relations between built environment and physical activity. To create places that facilitate and encourage walking, practitioners need an understanding of the specific characteristics of the built en

Built environment correlates of walking: a review.

https://www.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/lancet/PIIS0140-6736(08)61689-X.pdf

Effect of exposure to natural environment on health inequalities: an observational population study

https://activelivingresearch.org/files/4_AJPM05_Frank_0.pdf

Linking objectively measured physical activity with objectively measured urban form: findings from SMARTRAQ.

Increasing walking: How important is distance to, attractiveness, and size of public open space?

(n 516) within a 408-km 2 area of metropolitan Perth, Western Australia; and personal interviews with 1803 adults (aged 18 to 59 years) (52.9% response rate). The association between access to POS and physical activity was examined using three accessibility models that progressively adjusted for distance to POS, and its attractiveness and size. In 2002, an observational study examined the influence of attractiveness on the use of POS by observing users of three pairs of high- and low-quality (based on attractiveness) POS matched for size and location. Results: Overall, 28.8% of respondents reported using POS for physical activity. The likelihood of using POS increased with increasing levels of access, but the effect was greater in the model that adjusted for distance, attractiveness, and size. After adjustment, those with very good access to large, attractive POS were 50% more likely to achieve high levels of walking (odds ratio, 1.50; 95% confidence level, 1.06 –2.13). The observational study showed that after matching POS for size and location, 70% of POS users observed visited attractive POS. Conclusions: Access to attractive, large POS is associated with higher levels of walking. To increase walking, thoughtful design (and redesign) of POS is required that creates large, attractive POS with facilities that encourage active use by multiple users (e.g., walkers, sports participants, picnickers). (Am J Prev Med 2005;28(2S2):169 –176) © 2005 American Journal of Preventive Medicine

/pdf/how-important-is-distance-to-attractiveness-and-size-of-16gpxmx8zk.pdf

Melissa H. Broomhall

Papers

Increasing walking: How important is distance to, attractiveness, and size of public open space?

How Important Is Distance To, Attractiveness, and Size of Public Open Space?