Abstract
According to demographic data, the percentage of elderly people within the population is growing, representing a vulnerable group to the effects of increasing heat, but little attention has been paid to developed adaptation measures. In addition, many older people leave their familiar homes and live in nursing homes. The person-centred care pursues creating spaces of high living quality for these people in nursing homes, to which plants and greenery can contribute. Greening is also considered an effective climate change adaptation measure. To create healthy conditions for this vulnerable group of elderly, both technical and social factors must be considered, and accordingly, a successful solution can only be achieved in an interdisciplinary way. The research and development of the project “Green: Cool & Care” dealt with this outset from a building physics, social, and nursing science perspective, and concepts to integrate greening measures in nursing homes were developed jointly by researchers, planners, staff, volunteers, and residents. For this purpose, measurement campaigns of air quality parameters, individual interviews and focus groups, as well as co-creative workshops were conducted aiming to include the objective building conditions as well as the subjective needs in developing and, in a further step, implementing greening measures.
Highlights
Climate change, causing, inter alia, longer lasting heat waves during summer months, can negatively impact living quality, overall human wellbeing, and even lead to physical health consequences, especially for vulnerable groups, such as the elderly, sick, and disabled people.According to demographic data, the percentage of older people within the population is increasing
These implementations incorporate the results of the co-creative workshops as well as the results of building physics and social science research presented in the previous sections
Interdisciplinary research and development regarding the quality of living and indoor environment in a nursing home for the elderly were conducted at an example of four nursing homes in Lower Austria, of which two exemplary case studies have been presented in this article
Summary
Climate change, causing, inter alia, longer lasting heat waves during summer months, can negatively impact living quality, overall human wellbeing, and even lead to physical health consequences, especially for vulnerable groups, such as the elderly, sick, and disabled people. The percentage of older people within the population is increasing. 24.4% of the Austrian population is more than 60 years old (2017), and according to the prognosis, it is about to reach up to 35% by 2080. With an ageing population across Austria and Europe, the importance of care provision for older people is widely recognised. Care and nursing homes are growing in importance and are challenged by an increasingly dependent clientele [1,2].
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