scholarly journals Urban green spaces and cancer: a protocol for a scoping review

BMJ Open ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. e018851 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marion Porcherie ◽  
Mathilde Lejeune ◽  
Marion Gaudel ◽  
Jeanine Pommier ◽  
Emmanuelle Faure ◽  
...  

IntroductionGreen space in the built environment is an important topic on the health agenda today. Studies have shown that access to green spaces is associated with better mental and physical health, yet green spaces can also be detrimental to health if they are not managed appropriately. Despite the increasing interest in urban green spaces, little research has so far been conducted into the links between green spaces and cancer.ObjectiveThe purpose of this scoping review is therefore to map the literature available on the types of relationship between urban green spaces and cancer.Method and analysisWe followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis Protocols 2015 guideline to report the protocol. To conduct this scoping review, we will use a structured search strategy based on controlled vocabulary and relevant key terms related to green space, urban space and cancer. We will search MEDLINE (PubMed), GreenFILE (EBSCOhost), Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (EBSCOhost) and ScienceDirect as electronic database as well as hand-search publications for grey literature. This review will therefore provide evidence on this current topic, one which could have practical implications for policy-makers involved in choices which are more conducive to healthy living.Ethics and disseminationNo primary data will be collected since all data that will be presented in this review are based on published articles and publicly available documents, and therefore ethics committee approval is not a requirement. The findings of this review will be presented at workshops and conferences, and will be submitted for publication in a peer-reviewed journal.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hajung Ko

Abstract Objectives: To distinguish between the differences in cultural services based on the type of urban green area, through atypical expressions.Context: Urban green spaces provide important ecosystem services, with cultural ecosystem services (CES) playing a significant role in citizens’ lives. Nevertheless, these are often undervalued as it is difficult to quantitatively evaluate the characteristics of an individuals’ subjective perception of urban space. By examining social media content, we can analyze the content created by users and grasp demand values. Methods: This study analyzed urban green areas in the inland of Ansan city in Gyeonggi-do, South Korea. Data were collected twice, on October 3, 2017 and October 4, 2018, to verify that the extracted keywords were representative. We extracted keywords from blog posts related to CES and evaluated the possibility of using them as quantitative indicators. Results: The results indicate that the perceived expression words were different depending on the type of green space. Certain CES such as “exhibit” and “climbing” are affected by green space type. However, it was difficult to identify emotional responses to CES. We found that some words contained double meanings, which made it difficult to evaluate individuals’ perceptions of CES based on the frequency of specific words.Conclusions: This study demonstrates that social media data on CES greatly extends the type and, especially, the volume and scale of information derived from traditional survey methods. The significance of this study lies in its attempt to quantitatively evaluate the recognition of CES in daily life.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (9) ◽  
pp. 5071
Author(s):  
Beata Makowska

Intensive urban development has created a shortage of urban green areas. The need to economically plan and use urban green spaces has fueled the redefinition of public spaces and parks so as to provide the residents with both recreation and relaxation facilities, as well as a forum for contact with culture. This paper discusses the case of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center (SNFCC) in the Kallithea district on the outskirts of Athens, near the Mediterranean Sea. It fills a gap in the research on the aspects of the practical functioning of such facilities. The methodology used in the research included an analysis of the literature, the SNFCC’s reports, and an in situ survey. The cultural center hosts a number of events aimed at promoting Greece’s natural and cultural heritage. The paper includes a detailed analysis of the events organized by the SNFCC in the period 2017–2020 and their immense impact on residents. The aim of the study is to show that the creation of the SNFCC with the park areas has functioned as a factor contributing to the improvement of the quality of urban space and the quality of life of the city’s inhabitants. The paper’s conclusions indicate that the sustainable SNFCC project, which fulfils the urban ecology criteria, has been very well received by the visitors—citizens and tourists alike. A program-centered innovation introduced by the SN Park has added great value to their lives. The project contributes to economic and cultural growth, as well as the protection and promotion of heritage.


2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 3917 ◽  
Author(s):  
K Rahman ◽  
Dunfu Zhang

This study estimates the factors affecting socially vulnerable groups’ demand for and accessibility levels to green public spaces in Dhaka City, Bangladesh. Dhaka is a high-density city with one of the lowest levels of green space per capita in the world. Dhaka has just 8.5% of tree-covered lands, while an ideal city requires at least 20% of green space. Urban public green space provides a healthy environment to city dwellers as well as ecological soundness. This study aims to examine the effects of population density and size of a community area (Thana) on the social demand for and accessibility to green parks. To determine the socially vulnerable group demand index, this study used demographic data from the National Population and Housing Census 2011 conducted by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics. This study used geographical data extracted from Google Earth Pro to measure accessibility levels, and additionally analyzed geographical data with ArcGIS 10.0 and Google Earth Pro. We drew radius circles using Free Map Tools to measure time-distance weighted scores from community areas to urban green spaces. The results show that the large population size of socially vulnerable groups creates very high demand at the score of 0.61 for urban green public parks and small-sized, high-density community areas generate very good accessibility at 2.01% to green public spaces. These findings are highly useful to policymakers, urban planners, landscape engineers, and city governments to make a compact city sustainable, inclusive, and resilient. Moreover, the notion of a “smart city” might be a smart solution in order to manage Dhaka Megacity sustainably in this modern technological age.


2021 ◽  
Vol 263 (1) ◽  
pp. 5780-5791
Author(s):  
Omid Samani ◽  
Verena Zapf ◽  
M. Ercan Altinsoy

Urban green spaces are intended to provide citizens with calm environments free of annoying city noises. This requires a thorough understanding of noise emission and related exposure to sounds in green spaces. This research investigates noise perception in various spots in an urban green space. For this purpose, the study has been conducted in the grand garden of the city of Dresden. The garden covers 1.8 square kilometers of various landscapes, including water streams, park railways, fountains, bridges, roads for bicycles and pedestrians etc. Noise perception was investigated at eleven spots with emphasis on four noise types: nature noise, human noise, traffic noise, and technical noise. In parallel, audio-visual recordings were conducted for each spot to identify the connection between the perceptual measures and the psychoacoustic parameters. These spots are categorized based on the resulting perception and psychoacoustic parameters. In addition, the visual effect of each spot on final perception is investigated. Eventually, annoyance for each spot is identified based on the corresponding participants' perception and is associated with the relevant psychoacoustic parameters.


2018 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
pp. 77-86
Author(s):  
Mahendra Singh Thapa ◽  
Gokul Poudel

Urban green spaces are integral part of urban infrastructure. Green spaces can offer a number of benefits ranging from inner spiritual to outer materialistic values. Available green spaces in particular area especially in urban places need to be identified and located properly with scientific way and means so that we can use those places in emergency caused by natural or human induced hazards. This study has tried to measure the green space available for people dwelling in Butwal Sub-Metropolitan City of Nepal. An attempt was made to quantify green spaces in urban environments from Landsat 8 OLI imageries using object-oriented approach and field verification. The study concluded that the total green space available in Butwal Sub-Metropolitan City is 86.37 km2 i.e., around 86% of total municipal area and per capita green space is around 623 m2.


Challenges ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 36
Author(s):  
Jennings

Urban green spaces can facilitate positive social interactions in numerous ways. These interactions may lead to the development of social cohesion among city dwellers. This article provides a viewpoint on the potential role that the presence of green space and volunteering can play in the construct of social cohesion. Specifically, the article focuses on one aspect of social cohesion, volunteerism, as a way to illustrate the immense potential of social cohesion to link health with place and the planet.


2016 ◽  
Vol 26 (8) ◽  
pp. 1091-1101 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abdullah Akpinar ◽  
Murat Cankurt

This study investigates the associations between characteristics of urban green spaces and frequency and duration of self-reported physical activity in the city of Aydın, Turkey. Data were collected through a survey with 420 participants. We analysed the associations between characteristics of urban green spaces and frequency and duration of general population’ physical activity and physical activity of physically active people with multivariate linear regression while controlling for sex, age, marital status, education level, occupation and household income level. Results showed that for the general population, short distance to urban green spaces, many trees, exercise equipment and picnic areas were positively associated with frequency of physical activity, while barbecue and fire places negatively associated with duration of physical activity. For physically active people, many trees, soccer and basketball fields were positively associated with their frequency of physical activity, but water features were negatively correlated with frequency of physical activity. In regard to duration of physical activity for physically active people, findings showed lawn and exercise equipment were positively correlated with duration of physical activity, while water features, barbecue and fire places were negatively correlated with duration of physical activity. The findings indicate that levels of physical activity in urban green spaces could be promoted with many trees, exercise equipment, picnic areas and lawn. However, causal relationship needs to be conducted with intervention or longitudinal studies.


2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 87-96
Author(s):  
Zartab Jahan ◽  
Safdar Ali Shirazi ◽  
Khadija Sharkullah

In a country like Pakistan, the presence of urban greening and parks are very essential for the well-being ofits citizens. The resident’s awareness about urban green spaces (UGSs) is essential as it would not only help towards ahealthier environment, but prepare residents to manage these spaces efficiently through local resources. This formulatesthe rationale behind current research work. This research is aimed at studying about the resident’s perception for UGS’sattributes like environmental, negative and positive. Another major focus of this research is to analyze thesocioeconomic differentials and its consequent impacts on resident’s perception about urban green spaces, which hasbeen probed with the help of MANOVA (Multivariate Analysis of Variance). In this regard the primary data of 223visitors were collected by random sampling method from eight major parks of Lahore, Pakistan. The findings of thissurvey of resident’s perception have shown that mostly male, single, low and middle class, and educated people visitthe urban green spaces and they are highly indebted by their environmental and health benefits. For the selectedcharacteristics of urban green areas, the resident’s perception has revealed that there exists an insignificant relationshipwith age and marital status of the respondents while the most significant relation was shown by the residents whovisited the UGSs regularly as ‘ρ’ value is less than the set significance level of 0.05. This study has highlighted a direneed of such UGSs in the city of Lahore which is known to be the “City of Gardens”. This could raise the spirits ofadministrators, city managers and planners to take immediate action in this regard.


Author(s):  
Yashaswini S* ◽  
Shankar B

Improving the Accessibility of Urban Green Space (UGS) is an integral part of city planning system. People with better access to green space enjoy a wide range of health benefits. Therefore, it is a crucial element to be taken care and nourished in a land use framework. Mysore City is one of the planned large cities in India. The City had a population of about 0.9 million in 2011 and it is estimated to cross the million mark by 2021. There is a growing consciousness on health and wellbeing among the people resulting an increasing demand for urban green spaces both at neighbourhood and city levels. The accessibility helps in promoting usage of UGS and maintaining the balance in environment within the city areas. The main aim of this paper is to study the existing scenario of the UGS within the planning district-12 and to analyse the green space accessibility. The land use of Mysuru city is analysed to understand the city and the micro level land use analysis of Planning district-12 is made. The existing scenario of the UGS within the study area and its accessibility is analysed using different accessibility indicators. Considering the key findings, issues and challenges are identified. Later the suggestions and recommendations for the identified issues is proposed to enhance the green spaces quality and accessibility at neighbourhood levels. The Accessible Natural Green space Standard (ANGst) type of accessibility analysis has been carried to know UGS functionality. Henceforth urban green space network at Planning District levels (local levels) in the City of Mysuru is prepared as a model which can be implemented to the city as whole at the later stages


Forests ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (12) ◽  
pp. 1614
Author(s):  
Yilei Hou ◽  
Yibing Qu ◽  
Zheng Zhao ◽  
Jinyu Shen ◽  
Yali Wen

The fundamental purpose of future urban development is to meet residents’ yearning for a better city life with the rapid development of urbanization. This study uses a multinomial logit model and cognitive map to evaluate residents’ spatial image perception of urban green space. A field study and data collection were conducted from July to August 2019, using the typical urban green space area in Beijing as the research object. Based on 375 valid questionnaires and 139 cognitive maps, the study analyzed and evaluated the image characteristics and differences of residents to the urban green space under different conditions. The results show the following. First, there is a close relationship between residents’ preference and the characteristics of urban green spaces, especially the working and living environment and characteristics will have a great influence on it. Second, the cognitive map drawn by Beijing residents can be divided into sequential and spatial cognitive maps, and the image perception shows diversified characteristics. However, the perception is relatively superficial overall, and most are simple line maps. Besides, according to the analysis of the elements of the cognitive map, the advantages and disadvantages of each type of urban green space are closely related to their geographical location and internal structure. This study has two key findings. First, the construction of urban green spaces in various cities should be carried out according to local conditions, considering the scientific basis and reasonableness of urban green space in terms of structural setting. Second, the multinomial logit model and cognitive map can effectively quantify the subjective evaluation of respondents’ spatial perceptions in a relatively simple manner, which can be further expanded in the application system design of the method.


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