Reviewed research reveals a lack of young people's voices articulating if and how urban nature supports their mental health and wellbeing. This paper presents qualitative research with young ...multi-ethnic urban residents living in a northern UK city and offers an important counter-narrative to the pervasive notion of childhood nature-deficit disorder. Using interviews and creative arts workshops, we explored the value of urban nature for the mental health and wellbeing of 24 young people aged 17–27 years, 9 of whom had lived experience of mental health difficulties. Trees, water, open spaces and views were frequently experienced nature typologies offering benefits. Deteriorating landscapes, young people's shifting identities and perceived time pressures disrupted support. Young people expressed how urban nature encounters were experienced as accepting and relational, offering a: stronger sense of self; feelings of escape; connection and care with the human and non-human world.
•Young city residents gain mental health support through everyday urban nature.•Such support was felt by ethnic minority youth and those in deprived urban areas.•Benefits included: a stronger sense of self; feelings of escape, connection and care.•Benefits were not universally felt and were undermined in certain situations.•Creative qualitative methods offer new understandings of youth mental health and place.
Urban green spaces can provide habitat and resources for urban dwelling fauna. Suburban green spaces occur most commonly as parks and roadside vegetation, but as human populations grow and space in ...cities becomes increasingly limited, space-efficient green solutions like green roofs and walls in metropolitan areas are becoming increasingly common. However, the efficacy of these forms of green infrastructure in attracting and promoting biodiversity remains limited. To address this, we compared arthropod, gastropod, and avian species richness and diversity between green and conventional roofs on neighbouring and identical buildings in metropolitan Sydney, Australia. By monitoring local biodiversity using motion sensing camera traps and regular insect surveys, we found that the green roof supported four times the avian, over seven times the arthropod, and twice the gastropod diversity of the conventional roof. Only the green roof attracted locally rare species including blue banded bees (Amegilla Cingulata) and metallic shield bugs (Scutiphora pedicellata). Our results suggest that green roofs, like other urban green spaces, can have ecological significance by attracting and supporting urban fauna that may then add important functional capacities to previously depauperate spaces. This study demonstrates the potential for the widespread adoption of green roofs to create more biologically diverse cities.
Display omitted
•Biodiversity was compared between similar buildings with and without green roofs.•Faunal communities were monitored using motion-sensing camera traps.•The green roof was substantially more diverse than the conventional roof.•The green roof attracted locally rare arthropod species.
1. Cities are rapidly expanding world-wide and there is an increasing urgency to protect urban biodiversity, principally through the provision of suitable habitat, most of which is in urban green ...spaces. Despite this, clear guidelines of how to reverse biodiversity loss or increase it within a given urban green space is lacking. 2. We examined the taxa- and species-specific responses of five taxonomically and functionally diverse animal groups to three key attributes of urban green space vegetation that drive habitat quality and can be manipulated over time: the density of large native trees, volume of understorey vegetation and percentage of native vegetation. 3. Using multi-species occupancy-detection models, we found marked differences in the effect of these vegetation attributes on bats, birds, bees, beetles and bugs. At the taxa-level, increasing the volume of understorey vegetation and percentage of native vegetation had uniformly positive effects. We found 30-120% higher occupancy for bats, native birds, beetles and bugs with an increase in understorey volume from 10% to 30%, and 10-140% higher occupancy across all native taxa with an increase in the proportion of native vegetation from 10% to 30%. However, increasing the density of large native trees had a mostly neutral effect. At the species-specific level, the majority of native species responded strongly and positively to increasing understorey volume and native vegetation, whereas exotic bird species had a neutral response. 4. Synthesis and applications. We found the probability of occupancy of most species examined was substantially reduced in urban green spaces with sparse understorey vegetation and few native plants. Our findings provide evidence that increasing understorey cover and native plantings in urban green spaces can improve biodiversity outcomes. Redressing the dominance of simplified and exotic vegetation present in urban landscapes with an increase in understorey vegetation volume and percentage of native vegetation will benefit a broad array of biodiversity.
Towards Open World Recognition Bendale, Abhijit; Boult, Terrance
2015 IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR),
06/2015
Conference Proceeding
With the of advent rich classification models and high computational power visual recognition systems have found many operational applications. Recognition in the real world poses multiple challenges ...that are not apparent in controlled lab environments. The datasets are dynamic and novel categories must be continuously detected and then added. At prediction time, a trained system has to deal with myriad unseen categories. Operational systems require minimal downtime, even to learn. To handle these operational issues, we present the problem of Open World Recognition and formally define it. We prove that thresholding sums of monotonically decreasing functions of distances in linearly transformed feature space can balance "open space risk" and empirical risk. Our theory extends existing algorithms for open world recognition. We present a protocol for evaluation of open world recognition systems. We present the Nearest Non-Outlier (NNO) algorithm that evolves model efficiently, adding object categories incrementally while detecting outliers and managing open space risk. We perform experiments on the ImageNet dataset with 1.2M+ images to validate the effectiveness of our method on large scale visual recognition tasks. NNO consistently yields superior results on open world recognition.
This study investigated perceptions and behavioral patterns related to urban green space (UGS) in Italian cities, during the period of national lockdown imposed due to the outbreak of SARS-CoV-2 in ...the spring of 2020. A survey was used to examine the responses of population groups in different municipal areas, comparing those in government-defined “red zones”, mostly in the northern regions of the country, with “non-red zones” in the rest of the country, where the rate of infection was much lower. A total of 2100 respondents participated in the survey. The majority of respondents declared themselves to be habitual users of UGS, especially of parks or green areas outside the town – mainly visiting for relaxation and physical exercise, but also for observing nature. In the northern regions people more commonly reported the adoption of sustainable practices, in terms of the utilization of tools for "green mobility". During the lockdown, habits changed significantly: only one third of respondents reported visiting UGS, with frequent visits made mainly for the purpose of walking the dog. Other motivations included the need for relaxing, mostly in the red zones, and for physical exercise in non-red zones. The reduction in travel to urban parks was accompanied by increased visitation of gardens and other green spaces in close proximity, as social distancing and other regulations imposed restrictions on movement. In all regions, respondents who could not physically access UGS expressed a feeling of deprivation which was exacerbated by living in towns located in red zones, being a usual visitor of UGS and having no green view from the window. The extent to which these visitors missed UGS depended on the frequency of visitation before the pandemic and the UGS distance, as well as the type of previous activity. In fact, those activities that were most common before the pandemic were missed the most, reinforcing the importance of green areas for social gathering, sports, and observing nature – but simply “spending time outdoors” was also mentioned, even by those who visited UGS during the lockdown, as the time outdoors was not enough or not fully enjoyed. The feeling of missing UGS was only partially alleviated by the green view from the window – only a more open view to a natural landscape or adaptation to a view with little greenery reduced such feeling.
•The outbreak of SARS-CoV-2 induced a change in UGS visitation for essential motivations.•The feeling of UGS deprivation was accentuated for those with some view of greenery.•Respondents demonstrated heightened awareness of the importance of respect for nature.•Respondents suggested urban policies addressing sustainability and resilience goals for cities.•Respondents suggested UGS expansion, improvement and pocket-greenery within neighborhoods.
•Most areas in Berlin are supplied with more UGS compared to the per capita target value.•Dissimilarity in UGS provision by demographics, such as immigrant status and age exists.•The UGS ...Berlin-Tempelhof can provide more than 180,000 inhabitants with 300ha UGS in a catchment area of 1500m.•An underuse of Tempelhof by immigrants and older age groups was identified.•Efficient UGS planning requires an increased understanding on preferences of UGS that includes cultural contexts and individual perspectives.
Urban green spaces (UGS) have been shown to provide a number of environmental and social benefits relevant for a higher quality of life of residents. However, population growth in cities combined with urban planning policies of (re)densification can drive the conversion of UGS into residential land. This development might result in an unequal distribution of UGS in a city. We present an analysis of UGS provisioning in Berlin, Germany in order to identify distributional inequities between UGS and population which are further discussed in light of variations in user preferences associated with demographics and immigrant status. Publicly available land use and sociodemographic data at sub-district level are applied in a GIS, dissimilarity index and cluster analysis approach. Results show that although most areas are supplied with more UGS compared to the per capita target value of 6m2, there is considerable dissimilarity by immigrant status and age. To address rising concerns about socio-environmental justice in cities and to evaluate the (dis)advantages of applying UGS threshold values for urban planning, visitor profiles and preferences of a site-specific case, the park and former city airport Berlin-Tempelhof are analyzed. Results from questionnaire surveys indicate that the identified dissimilarities on sub-district level are not the same as socio-environmental injustice in Tempelhof, but point to a mismatch of UGS and user preferences. In addition to evaluating UGS distribution, the match between quality of a park and specific cultural and age dependent user needs should be considered for successful green infrastructure planning rather than focusing on target values.
Public Open Spaces (POSs) such as streets and squares, in our cities are characterized by spatio-temporal variations of users' vulnerability and exposure in view of the hosted social, governmental, ...religious, and commercial functions. Single or multi-risks conditions in POSs can hence vary over time. This work proposes a methodology to perform local-scale analyses on use patterns in real-world POSs, pursuing a quick-to-apply approach based on remote analysis tools and easy-to-apply surveys, to be also used by non-expert technicians. Main literature-based factors concerning users' vulnerability/exposure and methods for their collection are identified. Rules to define typological (that is recurring) scenarios are provided through specific key performance indicators relating to overall POS use and daily/hourly temporalities. The methodology capabilities are preliminary assessed through a sample of 56 squares in historic Italian cities, considering working days and holidays. Results trace the overall typological characterization of the squares sample adopting a “robust-to-outliers” approach, and provide bases for expeditious assessment of users' vulnerability and exposure scenarios. The typological scenarios can be then used to support rapid risk assessment actions in POSs by safety designers and local authority technicians, and employed as input in simulation-based analyses to include the users' features in the related evaluations.
•A method to quickly assess patterns in users’ vulnerability and exposure in public outdoor spaces (POSs) is proposed.•Users number and typologies over space and time are derived by intended uses and temporalities of POSs and facing buildings.•Key performance indicators characterize such POSs features in a general, daily and hourly manner.•The method is applied to a sample of historical squares of the Italian context as significant POSs.•Results offer typological POSs scenarios on users’ vulnerability and exposure for working days and holidays.
Soil contamination is one of the main threats to ecosystem health and sustainability. Yet little is known about the extent to which soil contaminants differ between urban greenspaces and natural ...ecosystems. Here we show that urban greenspaces and adjacent natural areas (i.e., natural/semi-natural ecosystems) shared similar levels of multiple soil contaminants (metal(loid)s, pesticides, microplastics, and antibiotic resistance genes) across the globe. We reveal that human influence explained many forms of soil contamination worldwide. Socio-economic factors were integral to explaining the occurrence of soil contaminants worldwide. We further show that increased levels of multiple soil contaminants were linked with changes in microbial traits including genes associated with environmental stress resistance, nutrient cycling, and pathogenesis. Taken together, our work demonstrates that human-driven soil contamination in nearby natural areas mirrors that in urban greenspaces globally, and highlights that soil contaminants have the potential to cause dire consequences for ecosystem sustainability and human wellbeing.
Public open spaces (POS) have an essential positive impact on cities and their residents. These spaces play a critical role in enhancing users’ physical, mental, and social wellbeing. In addition, ...POS improve city resilience and economic value, and act as part of the city’s visual amenities. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is taking many approaches to enhance quality of life in all its cities through initiatives such as increasing the POS area per capita. Several studies have examined the importance of the accessibility of POS in addressing users’ needs. In this study, we measured the per capita area and accessibility of POS in the three megacities Riyadh, Dammam, and Jeddah. We also collected data on user preferences for the use of POS through semi-structured interviews, observations, and an online questionnaire. This study suggests that the country needs to establish its own POS planning approach based on users’ desires and behaviors when using POS, as well as the country’s social characteristics, and to depend not only on standard international planning approaches. The paper recommends considering the possibility of increasing POS by creating typologies of these spaces based on each city’s landscape characteristics. This proposal will have a major impact on city planning and design in Saudi Arabia. In addition, it will make the Saudi cities livable and have a positive impact on the physical, mental, and social wellbeing of the population.
Abstract
Green open spaces in the cities are expected to improve overall biodiversity in urban area. Birds are known as an indicator of biodiversity. Guild as ecological group is considered more ...practical than species diversity in representing a community structure. This study aimed at examining bird diversity and guild composition in five urban parks in DKI Jakarta. The study was conducted from April to May 2023. Data was collected in Cagar Buah Condet, Taman Tebet Eco Park, Hutan Kota Monas, Hutan Kota Srengseng and Taman Hutan Kota Penjaringan. Birds were surveyed using point count method while vegetation data was collected using plots. Bird and vegetation diversity was calculated using Shannon-Wiener Index (H’), while guilds are categorized using
a priori
method. Data was analysed using descriptive method. There was a total of 38 bird species from 26 families and 6 feeding guilds. Guild composition consisted of insectivores (42.1%), frugivores (18.4%), granivores (13.2%), piscivores (13.2%), omnivores (7.9%), and nectarivores (5.3%). Despite having lowest bird diversity, Hutan Kota Srengseng (
H
’= 1.944) was used by all feeding guilds. Hutan Kota Monas have highest bird diversity(
H
’=2.603). Tree diversity was highest in Hutan Kota Monas (
H
’= 2.843) and the lowest was in Cagar Buah Condet (
H
’=1.467).
PDF
