Adventure Education

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Denise Mitten ◽  
Lewis Ting On Cheung ◽  
Wanglin Yan ◽  
Robert Withrow-Clark
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Education ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Adventure Education ◽  
Social Ties ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Urban Environments ◽  
Environmental Behaviors ◽  
Urban Environmental Education ◽  
Group Experiences

This chapter examines the benefits of adventure education and of pairing adventure and environmental education in urban environments. By participating in outdoor activities, people learn about their surroundings and places they might not otherwise visit. These group experiences enhance social ties and may promote pro-environmental behaviors, which contribute to ecosystem health and human well-being as well as urban sustainability. Benefits of adventure education include positive relationships with self, other people, places, and the natural world. After explaining what adventure education is, the chapter considers adventure education in urban areas such as metropolitan Hong Kong, Minneapolis (Minnesota), and Japan. It shows that adventure education can be used by educators as a catalyst for urban environmental education.

Nonformal Educational Settings

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joe E. Heimlich ◽  
Jennifer D. Adams ◽  
Marc J. Stern
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Education ◽  
Social Institutions ◽  
Field Trips ◽  
Urban Environments ◽  
Educational Opportunities ◽  
Education Programs ◽  
Community Institution ◽  
Urban Environmental Education ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
Sports Leagues

This chapter examines the pedagogy of nonformal environmental education for urban audiences, focusing on different types of urban nonformal educational opportunities and situating them in the lives of urbanites using the concept of “learningscapes.” Urban nonformal environmental education involves relating environmental content to the everyday lives of urban learners, ensuring learner autonomy, and integrating the institutions of environmental education providers within the broader array of social institutions in the urban environment. Nonformal urban environmental education programs according to participant choice and goals and provider goals include school field trips or related programs, casual visit to a community institution (for example, nature center), and recreational programs. The chapter suggests that urban environmental education providers have unique opportunities for connecting beyond traditional audiences due to the dense and diverse networks of programs within urban environments, from youth sports leagues to literacy clubs and neighborhood watches.

Sense of Place

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer D. Adams ◽  
David A. Greenwood ◽  
Mitchell Thomashow ◽  
Alex Russ
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Education ◽  
Social Construction ◽  
Urban Communities ◽  
Sense Of Place ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Experiential Knowledge ◽  
Ecological Identity ◽  
Urban Environmental Education ◽  
Construction Of Place ◽  
Urban Places

This chapter considers the concept of sense of place, focusing on how urban environmental education can help residents to strengthen their attachment to urban communities or entire cities and to view urban places as ecologically valuable. Sense of place—the way we perceive places such as streets, communities, cities, or ecoregions—influences our well-being, how we describe and interact with a place, what we value in a place, our respect for ecosystems and other species, how we perceive the affordances of a place, our desire to build more sustainable and just urban communities, and how we choose to improve cities. Our sense of place also reflects our historical and experiential knowledge of a place and helps us imagine its more sustainable future. The chapter offers examples of activities to help readers construct field explorations that evoke, leverage, or influence sense of place, including social construction of place meanings and developing an ecological identity.

scholarly journals Mental Health & Resiliency: Designing Participatory Nature Dependent Environments and Communities for a Sustainable Future

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 234 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacqueline Beam ◽  
Nawari O. Nawari ◽  
Bill Tilson
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Urban Planning ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Close Contact ◽  
Community Planning ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Mental Health Research ◽  
Urban Environments ◽  
Relationship Building ◽  
Natural Environments

Sustainable design trends have historically wended down a road that supports the idea of densely populated urban planning as a strategy for mitigating sprawl. Creation of dense urban areas aims at the reduction of carbon emissions. However, studies show that densely populated areas often come with a panacea of mental health, resiliency, and quality of life ails for a community.The following research explores the possibility of combining densely populated design approaches with ancient community planning methods that encourage relationship building: close contact with natural environments and social interchange. Community planning that also creates a day to day contact with nature could be a crucial strategy for both sustaining healthy ecosystems and the development of sustainable communities. The potential for integrating dependence upon nature within built urban environments, as well as the possibility of positive place-making by harvesting nature dependent cultural and social assets in communities and neighborhoods, is, therefore, a wealthy area worthy of exploration.To explore these areas, mental health research on the effects of nature on the brain, as well as the three leading determinants of social, environmental and economic well-being, worldwide, and the founding cultures of these determinants were reviewed. Resilient indigenous groups and case studies of the happiest nation, of Norway and two leading environmentally sustainable and resilient countries, Costa Rica, Cuba, and New Mexico are examined. The paper provides recommendations for improving mental health and resilience by integrating strategies for nature and community needs in urban planning and built environments design.

Urban Environmental Education Review

2017 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Education ◽  
Environmental Quality ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Learning Opportunities ◽  
Urban Context ◽  
Healthy Environment ◽  
Urban Environmental Education ◽  
Environmental Educators ◽  
Integrate Research ◽  
Education Review

This book explores how environmental education can contribute to urban sustainability. Urban environmental education includes any practices that create learning opportunities to foster individual and community well-being and environmental quality in cities. It fosters novel educational approaches and helps debunk common assumptions that cities are ecologically barren and that city people don't care for, or need, urban nature or a healthy environment. Topics within the book range from the urban context to theoretical underpinnings, educational settings, participants, and educational approaches in urban environmental education. Chapters integrate research and practice to help aspiring and practicing environmental educators, urban planners, and other environmental leaders achieve their goals in terms of education, youth and community development, and environmental quality in cities.

scholarly journals Vegetation and microclimate in open urban areas. Cuiabá, Mato Grosso - Brazil

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 1089-1099
Author(s):  
Maria Corette Pasa ◽  
Lucas Henrique Vieira Lenci ◽  
Nhaára Da Vila Pereira ◽  
Rosenil Antonia de Oliveira Miranda
Keyword(s):  
Relative Humidity ◽  
Thermal Comfort ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Modern Science ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Urban Environments ◽  
Forest Fragment ◽  
Open Spaces ◽  
Mato Grosso ◽  
Significant Difference

The influence of vegetation on the reduction of heat in open urban environments by providing a milder and more pleasant microclimate is highlighted in modern science. The objective of this study was to evaluate the trend of microclimatic variables and thermal comfort, in the Federal University of Mato Grosso - UFMT campus, in open spaces (forest fragment, cerrado and paved) with and without afforestation. Three collection points were selected in open spaces (wooded and without afforestation) at the UFMT campus in Cuiabá. To record the data, we used the Alloet Thermohigrometer mini-markers, model TA-318 with 0.1%. The collections took place in May of 2018, period that begins the local winter. The microclimatic variables such as air temperature, relative humidity (%), wind speed, ultraviolet index and chance of rain were analyzed daily from 09:00 to 17:00 for 15 days. The results highlight the importance of the shade provided by the tree vegetation in the forest fragment, which revealed a significant difference for the thermal comfort in relation to the other sample points and without afforestation. The microclimatic parameters present variations of the temperature and relative humidity of the air at the points allocated, with emphasis on the thermal comfort sensation for the wooded area. The research also suggests new scientific investments in studies on urban micro-climates as a way to stimulate and raise awareness of the importance of vegetation in thermal comfort, which can directly reflect the health and well-being of people in general. 

A new relationship

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip James
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Natural Environment ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Urban Environments ◽  
Paradigm Shifts ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Conservation Policies ◽  
Health And Well Being ◽  
The Way

If the health and well-being benefits attributable to contact with nature are to be realized, there needs to be a change in the framing of nature within urban environments. The way nature is perceived and valued and the way that it is incorporated in policy and practice need to be re-positioned. The discourse around that challenge and the resulting re-framing are set out. There is a discussion of the changing relationship between humans and the natural environment. Ideas around nature apart from, or in spite of, or for, or and people are considered. These paradigm shifts affect conservation policies and associated practices. The ecosystem services and disservices attributable to urban environments are assessed. The importance of cultural services within urban environments is highlighted. Tensions that exist within this changing relationship are causing humans to forget the natural world and its benefits, with knock-on ill effects to human health.

Afterword

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicole M. Ardoin ◽  
Alan Reid ◽  
Heila Lotz-Sisitka ◽  
Édgar J. González Gaudian
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Education ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Social Ecological Systems ◽  
Suburban Sprawl ◽  
Social Ecological ◽  
Urban Decay ◽  
Urban Environmental Education ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities ◽  
Urban Rural ◽  
Environmental Educators

This book has discussed academic debates and practices in urban environmental education. It has highlighted challenges and opportunities facing the field of environmental education in general and educators working in urban areas in particular. It has examined how the unique features of cities—as places facing major environmental and justice issues yet also as hubs of innovation—influence environmental education goals and implementation. Urban planning, social justice, climate change, and social-ecological systems resilience are areas environmental education has addressed in the past, but which are becoming increasingly salient for environmental education in cities. This afterword urges environmental educators to: First, challenge the urban/rural binary by recognizing and critiquing processes such as urban decay, suburban sprawl, migration, and gentrification. Second, spend time in the field—or, more accurately, in the streets— in order to understand urban settings in a deeper, more embodied way.

scholarly journals Mapping Local Climate Zones and Their Applications in European Urban Environments: A Systematic Literature Review and Future Development Trends

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 260
Author(s):  
Michal Lehnert ◽  
Stevan Savić ◽  
Dragan Milošević ◽  
Jelena Dunjić ◽  
Jan Geletič
Keyword(s):  
Urban Areas ◽  
Urban Climate ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Climatic Conditions ◽  
Urban Environments ◽  
Outdoor Thermal Comfort ◽  
Climate Zones ◽  
Local Climate ◽  
Local Climate Zones ◽  
Scale Modelling

In the light of climate change and burgeoning urbanization, heat loads in urban areas have emerged as serious issues, affecting the well-being of the population and the environment. In response to a pressing need for more standardised and communicable research into urban climate, the concept of local climate zones (LCZs) has been created. This concept aims to define the morphological types of (urban) surface with respect to the formation of local climatic conditions, largely thermal. This systematic review paper analyses studies that have applied the concept of LCZs to European urban areas. The methodology utilized pre-determined keywords and five steps of literature selection. A total of 91 studies were found eligible for analysis. The results show that the concept of LCZs has been increasingly employed and become well established in European urban climate research. Dozens of measurements, satellite observations, and modelling outcomes have demonstrated the characteristic thermal responses of LCZs in European cities. However, a substantial number of the studies have concentrated on the methodological development of the classification process, generating a degree of inconsistency in the delineation of LCZs. Recent trends indicate an increasing prevalence of the accessible remote-sensing based approach over accurate GIS-based methods in the delineation of LCZs. In this context, applications of the concept in fine-scale modelling appear limited. Nevertheless, the concept of the LCZ has proven appropriate and valuable to the provision of metadata for urban stations, (surface) urban heat island analysis, and the assessment of outdoor thermal comfort and heat risk. Any further development of LCZ mapping appears to require a standardised objective approach that may be globally applicable.

scholarly journals Improving Assessments of Connection to Nature: A Participatory Approach

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabby Salazar ◽  
Martha C. Monroe ◽  
Catherine Jordan ◽  
Nicole M. Ardoin ◽  
Thomas H. Beery
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Concern ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Assessment Tools ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Connection To Nature ◽  
Environmental Behaviors ◽  
Perceived Relationships ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Reducing Stress

Experiences in nature benefit humans in a variety of ways, including increasing health and well-being, reducing stress, inspiring creativity, enhancing learning, and fostering environmental stewardship values. These experiences help define the relationship people have with nature which is often correlated with a person’s level of environmental concern as well as their engagement in pro-environmental behaviors. A more informed understanding of the ways in which interactions with the natural environment can foster connection to nature requires that we are able to measure our perceived relationship to the environment. Dozens of tools measure people’s connection to nature—the strength of those perceived relationships with the natural world. Although the tools have been primarily developed to answer research questions, practitioners are increasingly interested in understanding whether and in what ways their work—in areas including environmental education, urban planning, and park management, for example—influences people’s connection to nature. In 2018, we launched a participatory process involving researchers and practitioners in a review of existing connection to nature assessment tools with the intention of identifying tools that would be useful to practitioners, as well as defining needs in research. This paper chronicles the process’s outcomes, including a discussion of opportunities for future research.

scholarly journals Social Interaction in Public Spaces and Well-Being among Elderly Women: Towards Age-Friendly Urban Environments

2022 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 746
Author(s):  
Yingyi Zhang ◽  
Ge Chen ◽  
Yue He ◽  
Xinyue Jiang ◽  
Caiying Xue
Keyword(s):  
Social Interaction ◽  
Public Space ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Elderly Women ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
Field Investigation ◽  
Urban Environments ◽  
The Social

The world’s population is aging and becoming more urbanized. Public space in urban areas is vital for improving the health of the elderly by stimulating social interaction. Many urban design projects are advertised as age-friendly but ignore the real needs of the elderly, especially elderly women, for social interaction in urban public spaces. Insufficient attention is paid to the physical and psychological characteristics of elderly women when shaping public space. This analysis addresses the question: What are the qualities of urban spaces which facilitate health-improving social interaction for elderly women? Methods include a case study in Beijing, field investigation, mapping, and qualitative and quantitative analysis. The survey was carried out in April 2021, and concerned 240 women aged 55–75 years. Results indicate that the social interactions of older women relate to both their physical and psychological situations. Public spaces can positively impact the psychological well-being and social participation of elderly women. Conclusions include insights regarding the relationship between social interaction and well-being among elderly women, as well as proposing a series of principles for shaping public spaces for an age-friendly urban environment.

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