Re-naturing the City for Health and Wellbeing: Green/Blue Urban Spaces as Sites of Renewal and Contestation

Gearey, Mary; Robertson, Lynette; Anderson, Jamie; Barros, Paula; Cracknell, Deborah

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-01866-5_11

Cited by 3 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…Green prescribing builds on the earlier concept of prescribing exercise and diet-based interventions [27]-a variant that was pioneered by general practitioners (GPs) in New Zealand in the 1990s [28]. It also builds on the recent social prescribing movement, which can be defined as: "a way of linking patients in primary care with sources of support within the community-usually provided by the voluntary and community sector, offering GPs a non-medical referral option that can operate alongside existing treatments to improve health and well-being", [29] (p. 7) [30,31].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Let Nature Be Thy Medicine: A Socioecological Exploration of Green Prescribing in the UK

Robinson

Jørgensen

Cameron

et al. 2020

IJERPH

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Prescribing nature-based health interventions (green prescribing)—such as therapeutic horticulture or conservation activities—is an emerging transdisciplinary strategy focussed on reducing noncommunicable diseases. However, little is known about the practice of, and socioecological constraints/opportunities associated with, green prescribing in the UK. Furthermore, the distribution of green prescribing has yet to be comprehensively mapped. In this study, we conducted a socioecological exploration of green prescribing. We deployed online questionnaires to collect data from general practitioners (GPs) and nature-based organisations (NBOs) around the UK and conducted spatial analyses. Our results indicate that GPs and NBOs perceive and express some common and distinct constraints to green prescribing. This highlights the need to promote cross-disciplinary communication pathways. Greenspace presence and abundance within close proximity (100 and 250 m) to GP surgeries (but not greenness—as a proxy for vegetation cover) and NBO presence within 5 km were associated with higher levels of green prescribing provision. Lower levels of deprivation were associated with higher frequency of NBOs. This suggests that the availability of greenspaces and NBOs could be important for green prescribing provision, but there could be greater opportunities in less deprived areas. Important foci for future research should be to establish transdisciplinary collaborative pathways, efficient infrastructure management and a common vocabulary in green prescribing—with the overall aim of reducing inequalities and enhancing planetary health.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Let Nature Be Thy Medicine: A Socioecological Exploration of Green Prescribing in the UK

Robinson

Jørgensen

Cameron

et al. 2020

IJERPH

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“…Especially as research indicates that negative feelings of loneliness are significantly reduced when city-dwelling people engage with nature ( Hammoud et al, 2021 ). Public aquariums and the nature reserves managed by zoos also provide a form of blue prescribing, promoting the value of wetlands to human quality of life and planetary health (i.e., holistic, sustainable, interconnected health for people, animals and the environment; Cracknell, 2016 ; Gearey et al, 2019 ; Reeves et al, 2021 ). Reduced responses to stress are noted in humans that experience blue spaces ( Reeves et al, 2019 ), further supporting the Wellbeing aim of the blue spaces managed by zoos.…”

Section: Promoting Connectivity With Naturementioning

confidence: 99%

Expanding the role of the future zoo: Wellbeing should become the fifth aim for modern zoos

Rose

Riley

2022

Front. Psychol.

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Zoos and aquariums have an enormous global reach and hence an ability to craft meaningful conservation action for threatened species, implement educational strategies to encourage human engagement, development and behavior change, and conduct scientific research to enhance the husbandry, roles and impacts of the living collection. The recreational role of the zoo is also vast- people enjoy visiting the zoo and this is often a shared experience amongst family and friends. Evaluating how the zoo influences this “captive audience” and extending its reach to include a compassionate approach to animals and people can further enhance the mission, value, and relevance of their work. The modern zoo’s current aims—Conservation, Education, Research and Recreation—provide useful foundations for the activities that zoos conduct at a local and national level. However, to improve sustainability of their actions and outcomes, we feel that Wellbeing should become the fifth aim of the modern zoo for the future- both from an animal perspective (ensuring that populations are managed according to prevailing behavioral needs) and from a human perspective (enhancing access to nature, promoting planetary friendly behavior changes and ways of living, and advancing the wellbeing of the zoo’s workforce). This paper provides discussion and review of how Wellbeing is already a substantial part of what zoos work on as well as posing the idea of altering the Recreation aim of the zoo to one of Engagement, which potentially is more measurable and therefore can allow zoo researchers and managers further options for the collection of evidence on the local and global reach of their zoo’s aims. Education, Engagement, Conservation, Research and Wellbeing provide a more complete picture of the roles of the modern zoo for the animals (both in situ and ex situ), human visitors and workforce, and to society more widely.

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“…Increasingly, urban spaces are associated with better health outcomes (Anderson et al, 2017;Gearey et al, 2019;Kleinert & Horton, 2016). Yet, the research focused on this area remains uneven.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hawker Centres: A Social Space Approach to Promoting Community Wellbeing

Radomskaya

Bhati

2022

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This article sets out to examine how the use of social spaces, namely hawker centres, has contributed to community wellbeing during the Covid-19 pandemic. Using an extensive thematic analysis of online conversations, we have identified that the use of social spaces can have a positive influence on individual, relational and social wellbeing. Access to social spaces during stressful events contributes to the feeling of normalcy, supports routines and structured activities, encourages responsible behaviours, facilitates social connectedness, and helps maintain community resilience. We present a new framework for urban social space characterisation containing three dimensions: coaction, copresence, and colocation (the three Cs). Here, coaction is associated with better visibility of community practices, copresence enhances the sense of connectedness, and colocation is concerned with the use of spatial design factors for influencing movement and interactions. The framework is central to our understanding of social space and its impact on wellbeing. Underpinning the three Cs is the notion of the integration of policy, community wellbeing, and various urban agendas. The findings were considered in terms of their relevance for social space development in Singapore.

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Re-naturing the City for Health and Wellbeing: Green/Blue Urban Spaces as Sites of Renewal and Contestation

Cited by 3 publications

References 29 publications

Let Nature Be Thy Medicine: A Socioecological Exploration of Green Prescribing in the UK

Let Nature Be Thy Medicine: A Socioecological Exploration of Green Prescribing in the UK

Expanding the role of the future zoo: Wellbeing should become the fifth aim for modern zoos

Hawker Centres: A Social Space Approach to Promoting Community Wellbeing

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