- Title
- The green we need: an investigation of the benefits of green life and green spaces for urban dwellers' physical, mental and social health.
- Creator
- Holbrook, Allyson
- Relation
- http://www.newcastle.edu.au/research-and-innovation/centre/sorti/about-us
- Publisher
- University of Newcastle
- Resource Type
- report
- Date
- 2009
- Description
- It is widely believed that green spaces in urban areas are of benefit to health and well being. Yet finding and making available high quality research in this area to urban planners and health professionals has been identified as an ongoing concern. A journal mapping project 'The Green We Need' has focused on this issue. The project was commissioned by the Nursery and Garden Industry Australia (NGIA) and conducted by the Centre for the Study of Research Training and Impact (SORTI) at the University of Newcastle, Australia. The aim behind the brief was a need to build an accessible information base to serve future debate and support future research into the health impacts of urban green spaces. The project also used journal rankings as a guide to the quality of the published research. The project identified 171 articles produced in 75 academic journals since 2000 that presented new data on health, quality of life and social impacts of access to green space. The research grouped articles according to the type of green space studied such as home gardens, school and community gardens, parks and forests, and the type of health impact such as physical or mental health, social interactions and public health Key areas of developing knowledge, research trends and gaps in the research were identified. Collation and grouping the articles revealed a building momentum in research linking health and green space since 2000. That humans 'need' green nearby for many aspects of healthy living is strongly supported in a growing number of studies internationally. Research also establishes the direct relevance of green for engagement in physical and social activity and a direct relationship between proximity to green space and its use for recreation and other daily activity such as walking to work in inner city areas. There is also a well established body of research that identifies preferences for different types of green spaces and shows that response to green space is complex and dynamic particularly because of the multiple levels of use and meaning attached to such spaces. The report revealed concentrations of research about: physical activity linked to public green spaces such as parks and woodlands; mental health and restoration linked to hospital and residential care; well-being in relation to access and proximity to green spaces; a growing body of work exploring the garden as a social and transformational space; educational outcomes linked to school and community gardens and social impacts linked mostly with community garden spaces. There are still very significant gaps in knowledge. Of note, was the scarcity of research linking private gardens and health, and using 'hard facts and figures' to support the health benefits of green space. There is virtually no work reported in journals on physical health impacts of gardening. Also noted is the dearth of Australian research in the areas of school and community gardens. Other recommendations arising from the journal mapping project include a need for academics to encourage applied research which results in useable knowledge for those making decisions relating to public health and urban design.
- Subject
- urban green spaces; public health; urban design
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1058993
- Identifier
- uon:16498
- Identifier
- ISBN:9780980603422
- Language
- eng
- Full Text
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