Lecture 6: Reading Flashcards
What are some adverse influences of green space on health?
- spread of pollen from increasing green space
-habitat for disease
-more green space would be harder to survey, might increase crime
-Urban greening could lead to increased property rents & tax areas
-Increased skin cancer
-Physical damage to infrastructure from growing roots or fallen trees
How does green space reduce harm (mitigation)?
Consensus that air pollution is lower around greenspace
This is because most emissions of primary pollutants are not present in green spaces (traffic, factories, buildings etc)
Vegetation may directly and efficiently remove air-pollutants
Greenspace has higher concentrations of ozone due to the absence of citric oxide emissions which serve to quench ozone via atmospheric reactions
How does green space reduce exposure to heat?
vegetation absorbs direct solar radiation, changes albedo of background surfaces and has a cooling effect through evaporation which is different to
How does green space reduce exposure to heat?
Vegetation absorbs direct solar radiation, changes albedo of background surfaces and has a cooling effect through evaporation which is different to dense urban environments which contribute to rise of air temp (called Urban head island) (Voogt & Oke, 2003)
Studies have found that heat-related mortality is lowest in the greenest area.
How does greenspace reduce noise exposure?
Buffers traffic noise
Lack of artificial noise in green areas means less noise in general
Studies have compared the effects of vegetation on noise annoyance under acoustic conditions and found significantly reduced noise annoyance in people who have greenspace near their homes
How do green spaces encourage physical activity & social cohesion?
Provides a safe, accessible and attractive setting to be physically active
Provides settings for contacts with neighbors, which are likely to increase social cohesion within a neighborhood - when individuals feel respect towards one another, there is no danger posed and individuals may help one another (this is different to social capital).
Social cohesion linking greenspace and health is true for mainly mental and general health.
What are some challenges and opportunities of greenspace studies?
Most studies use cross-sectional designs (cannot draw causality from such studies and cannot select Ps appropriately)
Exposure to green space needs to be improved
Vegetation indices assess the overall level of vegetation only ad do not differentiate between structures and unstructured vegetations (Parks Vs street trees)
What are some approaches to studying visual landscape quality?
Ecological model: objectivist approach which defines landscape quality as independent of the observer & entirely independent of the observer
Formal Aesthetic model: Objectivist approach which characterizes landscape in terms of formal properties, such as form, line, unity, variety etc
Psychosocial model: takes a position in between objective & subjective - aims to establish relationships between measured physical characteristics of a scene (taken from photographs or geographical databases)
Psychological model: subjectivist approach that characterizes landscape in subjective terms by relying on human subjective terms by relying on human judgements, mystery, legibility etc
How can we measure and map scenic beauty?
Scenic beauty estimation (SBE) method is a psychophysical method which estimates scenic beauty judgements for images of various nature scenes
VisuLands framework: links visual indicator to theories of landscape perception & preference - identifies 9 characteristics (naturalness, stewardship, disturbance, historicity, visual scale, imageability, ephemera, complexity, coherence
What is the evolutionary origin of restorative nature experiences?
Proposed natural features & landscapes offer ancestral resources & promote survival, we have a biological readiness to have +ve affective reactions to these natural elements
However, the studies that exist on restoration are predominantly carried out on undergraduate students from western countries
How does micro-restorative experiences and restorative effects work?
Brief sensory contact with nature
These accumulate overtime - they can significantly improve wellbeing and buffer against negative impacts of stress.
