Healthy in Nature

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The Built Environment: Designing Communities to Promote Physical Activity in Children

  • Author(s): Committee on Environmental Health
  • Organization: Pediatrics
  • Date Published: January 1, 2009

Factors such as school location have played a significant role in the decreased rates of walking to school, and changes in policy may help to increase the number of children who are able to walk to school. Environment modification that addresses risks associated with automobile traffic is likely to be conducive to more walking and biking among children. Actions that reduce parental perception and fear of crime may promote outdoor physical activity. Policies that promote more active lifestyles among children and adolescents will enable them to achieve the recommended 60 minutes of daily physical activity.

http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/123/6/1591.full.pdf+html

The Earth Only Endures On Reconnecting with Nature and Our Place in It

  • Author(s): Jules Pretty http://www.julespretty.com/
  • Date Published: February 4, 2010

For most of human history, we have lived our daily lives in a close relationship with the land. Yet now, for the first time, more people are living in urban rather than rural areas, bringing about an estrangement. This book, by acclaimed author Jules Pretty, is fundamentally about our relationship with nature, animals and places.

A series of interlinked essays leads readers on a voyage that weaves through the themes of connection and estrangement between humans and nature. The journey shows how our modern lifestyles and economies would need six or eight Earths if the entire world’s population adopted our profligate ways. Pretty shows that we are rendering our own world inhospitable and so risk losing what it means to be human: unless we make substantial changes, Gaia threatens to become Grendel. Ultimately, however, the book offers glimpses of an optimistic future for humanity, in the very face of climate change and pending global environmental catastrophe.

http://www.publish.csiro.au/pid/6362.htm

The Economic Impact of Canada’s National, Provincial & Territorial Parks in 2009

  • Author(s): The Outspan Group Inc. (www.outspangroup.com )
  • Organization: Canadian Parks Council (http://www.parks-parcs.ca/ )
  • Date Published: April 1, 2011

This study estimated that Canada’s national, provincial and territorial parks created over 64,000 full time equivalent jobs resulting in $2.9 billion in labour income and a $4.6 billion contribution to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the fiscal year 2008/09. In British Columbia, almost 9,900 full time equivalent jobs were created resulting in $544 million in labour income and a $728 billion contribution to the province’s GDP.

The Economic Impact Model for Parks used by this study is publicly available at http://174.143.205.154/miep-eimpa/.

http://www.parks-parcs.ca/english/cpc/economic.php

The Fruit of Urban Nature: Vital Neighborhood Spaces.

  • Author(s): William Sullivan, et al.
  • Organization: Journal: Environment and Behaviour. http://eab.sagepub.com/
  • Date Published: September 3, 2004

What makes a neighbourhood space vial? This article explores the possibility that the presence of trees and grass may be one of the key component of vital neighbourhood paces. This research reports on 758 observations of individuals in 59 outdoor common spaces in a residential development. Twenty-seven of the neighborhood common spaces were relatively green, whereas 32 were relatively barren. Results indicate that the presence of trees an grass is related to the use of outdoor spaces, the amount of social activity that takes place within the,, and the proportion of social t nonsocial activities they support. The findings improve and broaden our understanding of the physical characteristics that influence social contact among neighbors and provide evidence that nature plays an important role in creating vital neighbourhood spaces.

http://www.willsull.net/Publications_files/Sullivan,%20Kuo,%20DePooter.pdf

The Health Benefits of Urban Green Spaces: A Review of the Evidence

  • Author(s): ACK Lee, R Maheswaran
  • Organization: Journal of Public Health
  • Date Published: January 1, 2011

There is weak evidence for the links between physical, mental health and well-being, and urban green space. Environmental factors such as the quality and accessibility of green space affects its use for physical activity. User determinants, such as age, gender, ethnicity and the perception of safety, are also important. However, many studies were limited by poor study design, failure to exclude confounding, bias or reverse causality and weak statistical associations. Most studies reported findings that generally supported the view that green space have a beneficial health effect. Establishing a causal relationship is difficult, as the relationship is complex. Simplistic urban interventions may therefore fail to address the underlying determinants of urban health that are not remediable by landscape redesign.

http://jpubhealth.oxfordjournals.org/content/33/2/212.full.pdf+html

The Impact of Community Design and Land-use Choices on Public Health: A Scientific Research Agenda

  • Author(s): Andrew Dannenberg, Richard Jackson, Howard Frumkin, et al.
  • Organization: American Journal of Public Health
  • Date Published: January 1, 2003

Results of the research described in this report may help identify best practices and help communities to avoid making design decisions that have unintended negative consequences. Research results are important both for the design of new communities and for the revitalization of existing communities. Overall, it is hoped that such research will help guide local community design decisions and favorably influence the health of the public.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1448000/pdf/0931500.pdf

The Importance of Nature to Canadians: The Economic Significance of Nature-related Activities

  • Author(s): Federal-Provincial-Territorial Task Force on the Importance of Nature to Canadians chaired by Luis Leigh. Report written by Elaine DuWors and Michel Villeneuve.
  • Organization: Environment Canada (http://www.ec.gc.ca/default.asp?lang=en )
  • Date Published: January 1, 2000

While older than the two previous reports, this study assessed the economic significance of a broader group of nature-related activities. Canadians and visitors from the United States spent an estimated $11.7 billion on nature-related activities in 1996, supporting 215,000 jobs and $5.4 billion in government revenue from taxes. Major areas of expenditures included $7.2 billion for general outdoor activities in natural areas, $1.9 billion for recreational fishing, $1.3 billion for wildlife viewing and $800 million for hunting.

http://www.ec.gc.ca/Publications/default.asp?lang=En&xml=B4A93DCC-B23E-44AD-A18D-6CBC77063C3E

The Importance of Play in Promoting Healthy Child Development and Maintaining Strong Parent-Child Bonds

  • Author(s): Kenneth R. Ginsburg
  • Organization: American Academy of Pediatrics (http://www2.aap.org/)
  • Date Published: January 9, 2007

” This report addresses a variety of factors that have reduced play, including a hurried lifestyle, changes in family structure, and increased attention to academics and enrichment activities at the expense of recess or free child-centered play. This report offers guidelines on how pediatricians can advocate for children by helping families, school systems and communities consider how best to ensure that play is protected as they seek the balance in children’s lives to create the optimal developmental milieu.”

http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/pediatrics/119/1/182.full.pdf