Using automated active infrared counters to estimate footfall on urban park footpaths: behavioural stability and validity testing.

BACKGROUND: Using infrared counters is a promising unobtrusive method of assessing footfall in urban parks. However, infrared counters are susceptible to reliability and validity issues, and there is limited guidance for their use. The aims of this study were to (1) determine how many weeks of automated active infrared count data would provide behaviourally stable estimates of urban park footfall for each meteorological season, and (2) determine the validity of automated active infrared count estimates of footfall in comparison to direct manual observation counts. METHODS: Three automated active infrared counters collected daily footfall counts for 365 days on three footpaths in an urban park within Northampton, England, between May 2021 - May 2022. Intraclass correlation coefficients were used to compare the behavioural stability of abbreviated data collection schedules with total median footfall within each meteorological season (Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter). Public holidays, events, and extreme outliers were removed. Ten one-hour manual observations were conducted at the site of an infrared counter to determine the validity of the infrared counter. RESULTS: At least four-weeks (28 days) of infrared counts are required to provide 'good' to 'excellent' (Intraclass correlation > 0.75, > 0.9, respectively) estimates of median daily footfall per meteorological season in an urban park. Infrared counters had, on average, -4.65 counts per hour (95% LoA -12.4, 3.14; Mean absolute percentage error 13.7%) lower counts compared to manual observation counts during one-hour observation periods (23.2 ± 15.6, 27.9 ± 18.9 counts per hour, respectively). Infrared counts explained 98% of the variance in manual observation counts. The number of groups during an observation period explained 78% of the variance in the difference between infrared and manual counts. CONCLUSIONS: Abbreviated data collection schedules can still obtain estimates of urban park footfall. Automated active infrared counts are strongly associated with manual counts; however, they tend to underestimate footfall, often due to people in groups. Methodological and practical recommendations are provided.

Measures of Greenspace Exposure and Their Association to Health-Related Outcomes for the Periods before and during the 2020 Lockdown: A Cross-Sectional Study in the West of England

Greenspaces are argued to be one of the important features in the urban environment that impact the health of the population. Previous research suggested either positive, negative, or no associations between greenspaces and health-related outcomes. This paper takes a step backward to, first, explore different quantitative spatial measures of evaluating greenspace exposure, before attempting to investigate the relationship between those measures and health-related outcomes. The study uses self-reported health data from an online cross-sectional survey conducted for residents in the West of England. This yielded data of greenspace use, physical activity, wellbeing (ICECAP-A score), and connectedness to nature for 617 participants, divided into two sets: health outcomes for the period before versus during the 2020 lockdown. The study uses the participants' postcodes (provided in the survey) to calculate eleven spatial measures of greenspace exposure using the software ArcGIS Pro 2.9.5. A total of 88 multivariate regression models were run while controlling for eleven confounders of the participants' characteristics. Results inferred 57 significant associations such that six spatial measures of greenspace exposure (NDVI R200m, NDVI R300m, NDVI R500m, Network Distance to nearest greenspace access, Euclidean Distance to nearest greenspace access, and Euclidean Distance to nearest 0.5 ha doorstep greenspace access) have significant association to at least one of the four health-related outcomes, suggesting a positive impact on population health when living in greener areas or being closer to greenspaces. Moreover, there are further significant associations between the frequency of use of greenspaces and increasing physical activity or feeling more connected to nature. Still, the residents' patterns of using greenspaces significantly changed during versus before lockdown and has impacted the relationships between health outcomes and the greenspace exposure measures.

Impact of Environmental Factors on Short-Term Eye Strain Relief during COVID-19 Quarantine: A Pilot Study

Some policies implemented during the pandemic extended the time that students spend on electronic devices, increasing the risk of physical and eye strain. However, the role of different environments on eye strain recovery has not been determined. We recruited 20 undergraduate students (10 males and 10 females) from a university in eastern China and explored the restoration effects of their eye strain in different types of spaces (wayside greenspace, a playground, a square, and woodland) on campus through scale measurements. The results showed that the eye strain of the students accumulated by 15 min of e-learning was significantly relieved after 10 min of greenspace exposure compared to the indoor environment, and the recovery effect varied depending on the type of landscape. The effect of eye strain relief was found to be positively correlated with temperature, wind speed, visible sky ratio, canopy density, tree density, and solar radiation intensity, while it was negatively correlated with relative humidity. These findings enrich the research on the restoration benefits of greenspaces and provide a basis for predicting the effect of different environments on the relief of eye strain. © 2022 by the authors.

Survey of citizens' satisfaction with urban parks in the COVID-19 pandemic: an online survey

Urban landscapes and green spaces are an important and integral part of urban spaces, these places play a significant role in improving the quality of life of citizens and increasing their well-being, so citizens' satisfaction with these places, especially in critical situations such as A pandemic is important, Therefore, citizens 'satisfaction with these places is especially important in critical situations such as pandemics. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate citizens' satisfaction with urban parks in pandemic conditions. The required data have been obtained through library resources and questionnaires and have been analyzed by calculating the frequency and mean score of its variables. The results of the data showed that the role of urban parks in reducing the stress caused by the Covid 19 pandemic with an average score of 3.2 is significant and also the existence of an appropriate number of urban parks to reduce population density with an average score of 1.5 indicates a lack of urban green space. In general, it can be concluded that urban parks play an effective role in critical situations such as pandemics and their access should be maintained and strengthened, Also, the facilities needed by these parks to adapt them to pandemic conditions will be increased, in order to increase citizens' satisfaction with these places.

INADEQUATE EXPOSURE TO GREENSPACE AND ITS EFFECTS ON MENTAL HEALTH DURING THE PANDEMIC

Visiting greenspace plays an important role in maintaining public mental wellbeing. This study aims to explore what results from people's limited access to greenspace and the consequent effects on people's mental health. To achieve this goal, this study takes the district of Nanshan in Shenzhen, China as a case study to empirically examine whether residents are adequately exposed to greenspace. Findings revealed that there was an unbalanced spatial distribution of population and greenspace in Nanshan, which was one of the main factors deterring some residents from being served by greenspace. This study also found that the pandemic has caused a deterioration of mental health. Consequently, three nature-based approaches to reducing public psychological diseases under the condition of inadequate access to greenspace were proposed. These findings can provide policymakers with significant insights for local greenspace design and planning in Nanshan. It also offers some effective suggestions to handle public mental issues due to limited access to greenspace. © 2022 by MIP.

Urban green space during the Coronavirus disease pandemic with regard to the socioeconomic characteristics

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The spread of Coronavirus disease limited the activities of humans in the globe in 2020 with Jakarta reported to have also struggled with the virus. The pandemic stopped humans from visiting public amenities such as urban green spaces which are one of the key components of sustainable and livable cities and have the ability to reduce the negative impact on mental health. However, there are limited studies on the behaviors and perceptions of humans toward the usage of urban green spaces during the pandemic. Therefore, this study was conducted to determine the changes in the behaviors, perceptions, and visitation of residents towards the urban green space during the pandemic based on the socioeconomic aspects as well as the access and proximity to the parks and urban forests. METHODS: A questionnaire was distributed through an online survey on social media for approximately two months, from March to April 2021, and the last data recorded showed there were 1,660 respondents. The attention was on their perceptions and visitation to the urban green spaces spread across administrative cities in Jakarta, representing 42 districts and 239 sub-districts. Data obtained were analyzed empirically using the partial least square structural equation approach and SmartPLS 3.0 software to determine the relationship between the respondents' characteristics and proximity to urban green space visitation. FINDINGS: The results showed that almost half of the respondents perceived changes in the urban green spaces and the majority believed the spaces were more useful during the pandemic. It was also discovered that the socioeconomic characteristics of the respondents including age, education level, occupational status, and average monthly income differed statistically significantly from the criteria associated with the visitation to urban green spaces during the pandemic. The findings indicated that education was substantially associated with the decision to exercise and engage in outdoor recreation in urban green spaces. Meanwhile, not all houses close to the parks and urban forests have a statistically significant impact on their usage and this is the explanation for the noncorrelation and non-causation. CONCLUSION: This study showed that the perception of urban green space by the people changed during the pandemic but its usage was reduced due to the closures and restriction policies implemented. It was also discovered that socioeconomic characteristics have a significant influence on visitation but not all accessibility factors were significantly affected and this is different from the findings of previous studies. Moreover, this study discussed and shared empirical evidence that depicts urban green space as a resilient urban infrastructure during the pandemic. This means it is necessary to promote sustainable urban planning through the development of urban green spaces to manage the medium and long-term crises © 2023 The author(s). This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third-party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Raising Healthy Children: Promoting the Multiple Benefits of Green Open Spaces through Biophilic Design

Several studies have indicated that children who grow up in green environments enjoy beneficial impacts on their development. However, to date, very little attention has been paid to the types and characteristics of dedicated public open green space for children. In addition, studies on biophilic design that could help landscape architects to design open spaces for children are limited. In order to fill this gap, this perspective examines the scientific literature on the relationship between open spaces and children. The authors specifically discuss and analyze the following points: (1) pathways to and effects on children's health and well-being;(2) types and characteristics of open spaces for child-dedicated facilities (e.g., schools, hospitals, fitness camps, playgrounds, etc.), as well as for child-friendly urban open spaces. Finally, the authors provide inspiring examples and case studies of biophilic design for children's health and well-being. Conclusions from this perspective show that biophilic design could benefit both the physical and mental health of children, as well as improve children's overall resilience to pandemics and other diseases. This perspective provides, for the first time, new insights for designing biophilic and child-friendly cities, and explores areas of future research.

Understanding Connections between Nature and Stress among Conservation-Engaged Adolescents Using Photovoice Methodology.

While the literature supports positive associations between nature and adolescent mental health, mechanisms are not well understood, and assessment of nature varies widely among existing studies. To partner with the most insightful informants, we enrolled eight adolescent participants from a conservation-informed summer volunteer program, applying qualitative photovoice methodology to understand their use of nature to relieve stress. Across five group sessions, participants identified four themes: (1) Nature shows us different aspects of beauty; (2) nature helps us relieve stressful experiences by balancing our senses; (3) nature gives us space to find solutions; and (4) we want to find time to enjoy nature. At the conclusion of the project, youth participants reported that the research experience was overwhelmingly positive, enlightening, and inspired appreciation of nature. We found that, while our participants unanimously reported that nature relieved their stress, prior to this project, they were not always intentional in seeking time in nature for this purpose. Through the photovoice process, these participants noted the usefulness of nature for stress relief. We conclude with recommendations for leveraging nature to decrease adolescent stress. Our findings are relevant for families, educators, students, healthcare professionals, and anyone who works with or cares for adolescents.

Protocol for the Open Sky School: a two-arm clustered randomized controlled trial to test the effectiveness of a nature-based intervention on mental health of elementary school children.

BACKGROUND: This article outlines the protocol for a trial to test the effectiveness of a nature-based intervention called Open Sky School to reduce mental health problems among elementary school children. Experimental studies show that contact with nature (e.g. walks in parks) improve mental health. A growing number of teachers have been applying outdoor education within the regular school curriculum and evidence suggests that such teaching methods could improve students' mental health but a randomized controlled trial has never been conducted. METHODS: A two-arm clustered randomized controlled trial will be conducted in elementary schools across Québec, Canada. Following informed consent by teachers, parents and students, schools will be randomly assigned 1:1 to the intervention or the control group with a total of 2500 5-6th grade students and 100 teachers expected to participate. The intervention will take place outdoors in a green-space (2 h per week for 12 weeks) and include a toolkit of 30 activities to foster well-being (e.g. mindfulness) and academic competencies (e.g. mathematics). Questionnaires will be administered to teachers and students before, immediately after and 3 months after the intervention. The primary outcome will be reductions of mental health problems in children from pre-to-post test (Social Behavior Questionnaire: self and teacher reports). Secondary outcomes include depression, positive and negative affect, nature connectedness, and pro-environmental behaviors among children. We will explore, immediate benefits on teacher's well-being and positive and negative affect and sustained benefits among students at 3 months follow-up. For the primary outcome, we will explore moderators including child's sex, child's disability status, the green-space of neighbourhoods, the school's socio-economic position and teacher's experience. DISCUSSION: In conducting the first randomized controlled trial of the Open Sky School, our results could provide empirical evidence on the effectiveness of nature-based interventions in reducing mental health problems among elementary school children. TRIAL REGISTRATION: This study was registered with clinicaltrials.gov: NCT05662436 on December 22, 2022.

Realising the Sustainable Development Goal 11.7 in the post-pandemic era – A case study of Taiwan

The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically impacted our daily lives worldwide. For instance, pandemic-prevention policies restrict people's mobility, which causes problems in accessing urban greenspaces. Indeed, unequal access to urban greenspace has been accentuated during the most stringent lockdowns of 2020 and 2021. Amid such challenging circumstances, there has been a growing attention placed on Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 11.7, which has brought opportunities for urgent action. In this paper, we applied the Gini coefficient to our analysis of unequal access to urban greenspaces across all urban planning areas in six special municipalities in Taiwan. Moreover, we also conducted comparative analyses between the Gini coefficient and other socio-economic factors. The results show that approximately 63.98% of the urban planning area suffers from unequal access to greenspaces. In addition, urban greenspace provision and household income show significant positive correlations with the Gini coefficient, which reflects Taiwan's environmental injustice. Furthermore, these findings can help city planners and decision-makers evaluate levels of equality in each urban planning area and decide which priority areas should be improved. Finally, this study can also be used as a reference for decision-makers to realise SDG 11.7 in the post-pandemic era. © The Author(s) 2022.

Changes and Disparities in Nature Access During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Time in nature is associated with a range of physical and psychological benefits. These benefits tend to be unevenly distributed, with non-white and low-income communities often having lower access to nature than richer, more white neighborhoods. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit the United States in Spring 2020, changes in daily routines, restrictions on public nature access, and risk perceptions may have affected whether and how much people spent time in nature. We explore how nature access changed during the COVID-19 pandemic and how those changes were experienced by different demographic groups. We surveyed representative samples of California and New York residents (n = 2,036) in May and June of 2020 and examined differences in nature access and nature-related COVID restrictions and risks by gender, income and race. We find that, on average, the pandemic was associated with reductions in frequency of nature access and less time in nature for all respondents. However, these trends were greatest for women, people of color and people who are low-income. Moreover, the pandemic seems to have widened prior inequalities: low-income and non-white people accessed nature even less frequently and had fewer nature access options than they did prior to the pandemic. Given the disparities in broader pandemic impacts by gender, income, and race, these results further demonstrate the inequalities laid bare by COVID-19. Copyright © 2022 Byerly Flint, Hammond Wagner and Watson.

Changes and Disparities in Nature Access During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Time in nature is associated with a range of physical and psychological benefits. These benefits tend to be unevenly distributed, with non-white and low-income communities often having lower access to nature than richer, more white neighborhoods. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit the United States in Spring 2020, changes in daily routines, restrictions on public nature access, and risk perceptions may have affected whether and how much people spent time in nature. We explore how nature access changed during the COVID-19 pandemic and how those changes were experienced by different demographic groups. We surveyed representative samples of California and New York residents (n = 2,036) in May and June of 2020 and examined differences in nature access and nature-related COVID restrictions and risks by gender, income and race. We find that, on average, the pandemic was associated with reductions in frequency of nature access and less time in nature for all respondents. However, these trends were greatest for women, people of color and people who are low-income. Moreover, the pandemic seems to have widened prior inequalities: low-income and non-white people accessed nature even less frequently and had fewer nature access options than they did prior to the pandemic. Given the disparities in broader pandemic impacts by gender, income, and race, these results further demonstrate the inequalities laid bare by COVID-19.

Urban green areas in the city of Joao Pessoa/PB and the COVID-19 pandemic: a case study in Parque Solon de Lucena

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly affected the health and well-being of people around the world. In this period, urban parks and green areas were recognized as vital for the physical and mental health of the population. However, in Brazil, studies in the context of the pandemic are scarce. In this sense, the objective of this research was to understand the importance and benefits of urban green areas for users' physical and psychological well-being from a study in Parque Solon de Lucena, in Joao Pessoa-PB, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Fifty interviews were conducted with park visitors. The results showed that most users had completed high school, and more than half (58%) of visitors were between 16 and 35 years old. It was also verified that the population perceives the benefits for the well-being provided by the park and that the relaxation of restrictive measures led to an increase in interest in attending the park.

How the COVID-19 pandemic changed patterns of green infrastructure use: A scoping review.

The use of green infrastructure (GI) has been established as a way to alleviate stress and the COVID-19 pandemic has placed a new emphasis on the importance of GI as both a coping mechanism and a source of recreation. This scoping review seeks to address whether the COVID-19 pandemic affected the use of GI, specifically the ways in which the pandemic altered visitation patterns and the frequency of the use of GI. This review identifies studies that explore the relationship between the COVID-19 pandemic and GI use and assesses whether the pandemic has altered the use of GI, including whether GI use increased, decreased, or remained the same and examines potential changes in visitation structure as well as other effects studied. This review also discusses how future planning for GI can consider the lessons learned from the pandemic. Key findings suggest that GI use increased, as did visitors' appreciation for GI and its benefits. The use of local GI to one's home also increased in importance. Decreases in visitation were typically a result of COVID-19 lockdown restrictions and fear of viral transmission within GI.

Corrigendum: Understanding multiple dimensions of perceived greenspace accessibility and their effect on subjective well-being during a global pandemic(Front. Sustain. Cities, (2021), 3, (709997), 10.3389/frsc.2021.709997)

In the published article, there was an error. The Methods section incorrectly states the number of interviews analyzed as 74. A correction has beenmade to Section 2.Methods, “2.3 Interview,” Paragraph 1. This sentence previously stated: “The total number of individuals contacted for interviews was 356 and the total number of completed interviews was 74.” The corrected sentence appears below: “The total number of individuals contacted for interviews was 356 and the total number of completed interviews was 72.” The authors apologize for this error and state that this does not change the scientific conclusions of the article in any way. The original article has been updated. © 2022 Maurer, Cook, Yoon, Visnic, Orlove, Culligan and Mailloux.

When green enters a room: A scoping review of epidemiological studies on indoor plants and mental health.

BACKGROUND: Increasing numbers of epidemiological studies are investigating the association between outdoor greenery and various health outcomes. However, in the case of indoor plants, although experimental studies seem relatively abundant, epidemiological studies remain scarce, and research considering the mental health effects is even more limited. Thus, we aim to identify and summarise the relevant epidemiological studies on indoor plant exposure and mental health via this scoping review, thereby presenting the current state of knowledge and research niches. METHODS: PubMed and PsycINFO were systematically searched for epidemiological studies on indoor plant exposure and mental health, including mental and behavioural disorders, quality of life, and cognitive function. The publication period was from the inception of these two databases to 22nd June 2022. We extracted information on exposure to indoor plants and mental health-related outcomes from the relevant studies. RESULTS: The systematic search yielded 1186 unique results. Six studies met the inclusion criteria and were finally included in this scoping review. All included studies were Europe-based cross-sectional studies on mental and behavioural disorders. One study was conducted in 2015 and investigated the office environment, whereas the other five were conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic and focused on the home environment. Despite considerable heterogeneity in outcome assessments and indoor plant exposure metrics, all six studies generally reported beneficial associations between having indoor plants and mental health, such as reducing stress, depressive symptoms, and negative emotions. CONCLUSIONS: Epidemiological evidence on exposure to indoor plants and mental health is currently limited. In general, favourable effects of indoor plants are supported, although most relevant studies were conducted in the context of COVID-19. Before conducting more studies to explore the associations, data collection methods must be refined with more elaborate designs that allow for the measurement of more comprehensive metrics of indoor plants. REGISTRATION: Open Science Framework, osf.io/5xr6b.

Present security of the neighbourhood urban parks considering SARS-CoV-2 potential spreading - a case study in Ursynow district in Warsaw

Motives: It is expected that COVID-19 pandemic will impact future design, use and perception of urban green spaces such as public parks. How to facilitate residents' safe use of the urban green spaces and reduce health risks has become important question to consider by landscape architects and municipal authorities responsible for the public green areas resources. This research focuses on examination of urban parks of a typical residential district of a large city in terms of their security in time of COVID-19 pandemic. Aim: In urban parks of Ursynow district in Warsaw were assessed: quality and present security and possibilities of re-adjustments to increase their security.

Supporting biodiversity: Structures of participatory actions in urban green spaces

Biodiversity loss is an important topic considering climate change, global warming, and even the reasoning of current and future animal-related diseases, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Urban biodiversity is also important because of the ecosystem services they provide, restorative benefits for well-being, and physical health of the people who live in urban areas. Each city has its own strategies to cope with this issue, and these strategies do not function without the contribution of habitants of the cities. We developed an index (BBS) of the existing possibilities to support urban biodiversity in Berlin to measure the awareness and willingness of the Berliners to participate and support urban biodiversity. A survey was conducted in a face-to-face situation in four districts of Berlin with 431 urban residents, measuring preference for three different levels of biodiversity, connectedness to residential greenspace, neighborhood and city, nature relatedness, and willingness in participatory actions around greenspace. The results show that the high biodiversity condition in a photo scenario was preferred by most residents, indicating the appreciation for urban biodiversity. The connectedness to the residential greenspace was high (and higher than the connectedness to neighborhood and city), showing large potential for quality of life. While the overall willingness to participate in actions to support urban greenspace was rather high, our index shows substantial differences in activities, which are perceived more or less. This is a key result for urban park management to increase urban biodiversity participation processes. Copyright © 2022 Martens, Öztürk, Rindt, Twarok, Steinhardt and Molitor.

Urban greenspace and anxiety symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic: A 20-month follow up of 19,848 participants in England.

This study examined the association between greenspace and the growth trajectories of anxiety symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using data from 19,848 urban residents in England who were followed for 20 months between March 2020 and October 2021, we found that living in an area with higher greenspace coverage (exposure) was associated with fewer anxiety symptoms independent of population density, area deprivation levels, socio-demographics, and health profiles. There was limited evidence that greenspace was related to the change of anxiety symptoms over time. No association with anxiety trajectories was found when considering distance to nearest greenspace (proximity), highlighting potentially differential mental health effects of simply having access to local parks and recreation areas versus living in areas of greater natural environment land cover. These findings have important implications for mental health intervention and policymaking.