Private Outdoor Research Articles

Courtyard outbuildings and architectural planning of private outdoor areas in wooden architecture of Vologda

Courtyard outbuildings and architectural planning of private outdoor areas in wooden architecture of Vologda

Engaging Spanish-Speaking Latinos with Urban Parks in Salt Lake City

This study seeks to deepen our understanding of how Spanish-speaking Latinos interact with and view public lands and parks to shape policies that meet their needs. Employing Salt Lake City as a case study, a focus group was used to gather insights on community experiences with an emphasis on the importance of the proximity, maintenance, and safety of parks. The study supports findings found in existing literature regarding the significance of diversity, accessibility, inclusivity, livability, and cultural vibrancy in parks. However, it also brings attention to challenges that Spanish-speaking Latino communities encounter, such as lower usage rates, less diversity of people, and the necessity for parks to serve as substitutes for limited private outdoor areas. Furthermore, Spanish-speaking Latinos expressed concerns about losing parks to new developments in their community because of gentrification. The study emphasizes that addressing these issues is crucial for public lands and parks that promote stewardship, inclusivity, equity, and community welfare.

Numerical investigation of evaporative cooling strategies on the aero-thermal performance of courtyard buildings in hot-dry climates

In hot and dry urban environments, courtyards help mitigate extreme heat and influence the urban microclimate. These structures not only provide light and private outdoor spaces but also aid in mitigating the urban heat island (UHI) effect through improved airflow and evapotranspiration. Courtyards, being central open-air areas enclosed by buildings, are crucial in creating opportunities for natural ventilation driven by wind and buoyancy-induced forces, thus serving as a microclimatic regulator. This study investigates the role of courtyards in modulating their microclimate and adjacent indoor areas by integrating evaporative cooling strategies to enhance cooling in these spaces. While numerous studies have been conducted on the role of water bodies in evaporative cooling, the aero-thermal impact on adjacent indoor spaces remains less understood. Addressing this gap, the present research explores the effect of an evaporative cooling system on the wind and thermal conditions within a courtyard and examines different natural ventilation modes, namely, single-sided and crossflow ventilation, in indoor spaces. A computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model, validated against wind tunnel experimental data, was employed to simulate various evaporative cooling water spray configurations. The results reveal complex courtyard microclimates with diverse cooling effects influenced by room orientation and floor level. Specifically, in single-sided ventilated courtyards, water sprays significantly improved the indoor thermal environment, with the average temperature across all rooms decreased by 2.06 °C, and humidity increased by 4.29 %. However, in cross-ventilated courtyards, water sprays' cooling and humidifying effects were relatively less effective. This research underscores the potential of evaporative cooling technology in improving the microclimate of courtyards, with practical applications extending to urban design and architecture. By tailoring cooling strategies to specific courtyard configurations, urban planners and architects significantly improve indoor comfort levels and energy efficiency.

Designing Private Outdoor Spaces for Socio-Environmental Sustainability:

Designing Private Outdoor Spaces for Socio-Environmental Sustainability:

“Are these girl ladybugs or boy ladybugs?”: An exploratory study on gender in nature-based education

In this exploratory study, we examined the ways gender is communicated, experienced, and constructed in nature-based education (NBE), which involved 30 h of fieldwork at one private outdoor preschool and two public elementary school garden clubs. In our analysis of the data, we found four sites where gender socialization happens in NBE: materials, spaces, conversations, and educators. While gender may be communicated, experienced, and constructed differently outside because there tends to be fewer gender-coded human-made objects, we argue that environmental educators must be intentional and explicit about curating and maintaining a gender decoded learning space. To decode gender, environmental educators must realize that gender is being constructed by and for children as well as the ways in which it is communicated and experienced. Moreover, they must be able to foster healthy understandings of gender beyond the binary. Ultimately, environmental educators must sustain a culture of gender inclusivity and affirmation long-term.

The children-nature interrelationship in outdoor early childhood education: when children and bamboo co-construct a ‘secret hideaway’

ABSTRACT The growing interest in outdoor early childhood education, even in countries with a weak environmental tradition such as Portugal, tends to be associated with a concern over the alienation between urban/Western children and nature. While educational projects in nature criticize this separation, they still maintain a bad culture vs good nature dichotomy to which we object. Resorting to such different fields as critical childhood studies, new materialisms, posthumanisms, and ecological epistemologies, we converge on the inseparability of nature/children and the material/discursive world. We then pay attention to the experiences which children and more-than-human beings shared during ethnographic research in a private outdoor kindergarten. Through photos and excerpts from the field notes, we tell stories of children and bamboo playing in a place free of adult interference, a ‘secret hideaway’ in which they co-produced their nature-cultures by being collectively with the world and from which we have much to learn.

A motion‐detection based camera trap for small nocturnal mammals with low latency and high signal‐to‐noise ratio

Abstract Camera traps are useful for monitoring wildlife populations, but traps may not always trigger when targeting small, nocturnal species. Motion‐detection techniques have advantages over time‐lapse and heat‐triggered traps, but need to be deployed to maximize signal‐to‐noise ratio. As part of a study of flying squirrels (Glaucomys) in urban environments we developed motion‐detecting camera traps using a raspberry pi microcomputer and camera and a 940 nm IR illuminator on a tree‐mounted wooden platform. The system was built from commercially available parts and was comparable in cost to a consumer camera trap, although this cost did not include a waterproof housing. We compared the performance of our system to commercial trailcams. Four pi cameras successfully documented visits by Glaucomys and other animals to bait placed on the platform over three nights at four wooded sites: suburban and rural backyards, a private outdoors club and a small urban nature reserve (16 camera X site combinations, 48 trap nights). The traps showed low latency, with an average of <1 night until detection of Glaucomys at each site. Data collected had a high signal‐to‐noise ratio; of 2,182 capture events 55% documented Glaucomys, 40% documented non‐target mammals, 1% were caused by large insects and the remaining 4% were unknown. Commercial camera traps placed at the sites failed to capture many of these events. The low cost and high signal‐to‐noise ratio of this system may make it easy to adapt for other small animal applications. The main modification required to deploy this system in new situations will be in locating or providing a fixed or static background against which animals can be observed and in using masking techniques within motion‐detection software.

Self-immolation Suicide in Greece: A Forensic Psychiatric Autopsy Study between 2011 and 2019.

Self-immolation is a rare suicide method in the developed countries of the western world (0.06-1%); however, it has relatively higher prevalence rates in the developing countries of Asia and Africa (6-57%). The present study aims to examine self-immolation suicides within the Greek mainland (Attiki, Thrace, and Peloponnese) over a period of 9 years (2011-2019) in order to investigate the phenomenon in the Greek population forensically, identify the characteristics and motivations of suicide victims, explore its associations to socio-cultural or psychiatric factors, and describe a fatal case of suicide by self-immolation that was partially recorded on camera. The medical files (autopsy reports) of cases performed at the Departments of Forensic Medicine of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Democritus University of Thrace, and the Forensic Service of Messinia-Peloponnese were retrospectively examined yielding 19 cases of suicides by self-immolation. A 3.7% prevalence of suicide by self-immolation among suicide fatalities within the Greek population was estimated. A distinctive feature of the Greek population regarding self-immolation was disclosed that it is being practiced predominantly by the elderly (mean age 2-3.5 decades higher than other countries). The phenomenon correlated strongly with poorly controlled mental disorders (mostly affective and adjustment disorders). Unlike other countries, there was no significant association with domestic or sexual violence, social or political protest, or religious issues. Therefore, the suicide victims preferred secluded or private outdoor locations (not public). Findings deriving from the examined variables localize Greek population culturally between the Western European and Asian African countries, but with its own idiosyncrasies.

Housing preferences for adaptive re-use of office and industrial buildings: Demand side

Vacant and derelict buildings represent an insufficiently exploited resource. Several frameworks have proposed how to assess an adaptive reuse potential of a building towards more sustainable and resilient urban areas. Views of experts stand central in them. However, the literature lacks the end-users perspective that supports expert views. This study explored the methodology that can validate and facilitate the implementation of a performance-based adaptive reuse framework, in particular in two focal aspects, building usability and economic sustainability.An online experiment faced 220 respondents, of different age and household composition, with a choice of renting a housing unit in an adapted reused office or industrial building. Five discrete choice models were used to measure the preferences for living in an adapted building and test correctly for observed and unobserved taste heterogeneity. The results highlight that nearly 70 % of respondents favoured renting a unit in an adapted building while being reasonably ambivalent towards its first use. Having a private outdoor and the size of the unit emerged as the most influential attributes. Also, younger singles are the most probable occupants of these buildings when studios and one-bedroom apartments are available housing units in the Netherlands.

Thermal analysis of solar-assisted heat pumps for swimming pool heating

The present work analyzes the technical feasibility of solar-assisted heat pumps for swimming pool heating in South Brazil. The methodology is based on computer simulations for four configurations of heating systems for private outdoor pools that are located in Florianopolis, SC, Brazil. The simulations were performed using TRNSYS software. The four configurations considered herein include a conventional heat pump in which ambient air is used as the heat source for an air-to-water heat pump (ASHP), a parallel configuration between the solar collectors and an air-to-water heat pump (SA-ASHP), a series configuration in which the solar collectors are used as the heat source for a water-to-water heat pump (SA-WSHP), and a combination of the last two systems (SA-DSHP). The simulation results indicate that the solar-assisted heat pump systems can achieve a significantly better performance than a conventional heat pump system. The proposed schemes can reduce energy consumption up to 48%, and the systems can achieve a seasonal performance factor between 6.7 and 8.2. Therefore, a proper design of the solar field is determined through a detailed economic assessment by combining the cost and performance of all of the system components. However, the results of the evaluation shows that only SA-ASHP and SA-DSHP are economically feasible.

Društveni i ekološki aspekti dvorišta u narodnoj arhitekturi Kipra

Central courtyards emerged in many civilizations of the world. Cyprus was no exception as courtyards formed important architectural features throughout the centuries in the residential architecture of the island. The erection of dwellings attached to each other, the need for a private outdoor protected space due to the introverted character of societies, as well as the climatic conditions, i.e. warm Mediterranean climate, led to a widespread use of the courtyard in nearly all traditional residences of the island in the last two centuries. Apart from vernacular architecture, courtyards appeared in earlier historic periods and, in some cases, they were found to be used in the residential architecture of more recent decades. This paper presents an analytical study of the social and environmental aspects of courtyards in the vernacular dwellings of Cyprus. The research underlines the role of the courtyard as an important social gathering area, as well as a microclimate regulator in the residences. Moreover, it highlights its bioclimatic significance in enhancing the integration of nature's elements into the design and overall architectural concept of the dwelling.

Restorative Design Features for Hospital Staff Break Areas

The study investigated the main restorative components of staff break areas in healthcare facilities, by assessing usage patterns, verbal/visual preferences, and perceived restorative qualities of specific design features found in break areas for hospital staff. Nurses are extremely important to the healthcare industry, and maintaining the quality of nursing care is a central concern for healthcare administrators. While healthcare leaders are concerned about improving nurses' satisfaction, performance, and job retention, they may overlook the importance of respite for nurses and underestimate the value of designing staff break areas to maximize their restorative potential. A multi-method approach combined qualitative explorations (focused interviews and narrative survey questions) with quantitative measurements (discrete survey questions and a visual ranking of break-room spaces), and the results were compared and triangulated. It was found that staff break areas are more likely to be used if they are in close proximity to nurses' work areas, if they have complete privacy from patients and families, and if they provide opportunities for individual privacy as well as socialization with coworkers. Having physical access to private outdoor spaces (e.g., balconies or porches) was shown to have significantly greater perceived restorative potential, in comparison with window views, artwork, or indoor plants. The results of this empirical study support the conclusion that improvements in the restorative quality of break areas may significantly improve nurses' satisfaction and stress reduction, potentially leading to improved care for the patients they serve.

How Presenting Problems and Individual Characteristics Impact Successful Treatment Outcomes in Residential and Wilderness Treatment Programs

This research expands the examination of the effects of individual characteristics on client treatment outcomes at private Residential Treatment Centers (RTCs) and Outdoor Behavioral Healthcare (OBH) programs. A sample of 1,058 participants was used from the NATSAP Practice Research Network. Logistic regression analyses found that within OBH programs females were significantly more likely to have clinically significant improvements than males. RTC participants reporting a history of sexual abuse were more likely to achieve clinically significant improvements than those with no history. All other presenting problems within RTCs and OBH programs were nonsignificant, demonstrating equally beneficial treatment effectiveness with all other individual client characteristics.

Socio-Environmental Dimensions of Private Outdoor Spaces in Contemporary Palestinian Housing

Traditionally, in Palestine, outdoor spaces played a crucial role in organizing and improving the living quality of the living units, while this important role in modern housing design is lost by a stark separation between internal and private external spaces (balconies, verandas and yards). This separation is disconnecting private inside and outside spaces whereas in the traditional courtyard houses there was a continuity between the inside and the outside. This paper investigates the socio-environmental criteria and characteristics of private outdoor spaces that could play an improving role in the living quality of future housing design. So, a comparative study between contemporary and traditional outdoor spaces characteristics was carried out in two different cities in two different climatic zones of Palestine. The contemporary housing was evaluated by conducting a survey over 300 dwellings of different housing typologies (detached houses/apartment flats), while the characteristics of traditional design were analyzed from the old historical part of these cities. The results of this paper demonstrate that the private outdoor space is a major contributor to enhance housing sustainability. It presents the distinctive qualities of courtyard concept, which ought to be reintroduced consciously into the design of future housing in order to improve the living quality. The paper also identifies the most important factors that ensure those qualities and forms the basis for further research.

DEVELOPMENT OF LIGHTING METHOD FOR STRENGTHENING SURVEILLANCE AND TERRITORY IN RESIDENTIAL AREAS

���������������� ������������ �� �� *��� �� **��� �� *** Crime prevention is an important issue in residential areas because the crime significantly influence on Quality of Life (QOL), especially at nighttime. The author paid much attention to the augmentation of “surveillance” and “territory” in Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED). In this research, new lighting methodologies were proposed to strengthen the “surveillance” and “territory”, deploying private outdoor lights and indoor lights from the gap of curtains with wireless sensor networks. To verify the proposed methods, the author executed the impression evaluation experiment, making a 3DCG model of a residential area, showing it to 33 people, and asking questions. The experiment showed that the proposed methods were effective.

Analysis of an open-air swimming pool solar heating system by using an experimentally validated TRNSYS model

In the case of private outdoor swimming pools, seldom larger than 100 m 2, conventional auxiliary heating systems are being installed less and less. Solar heating is an option to extend the swimming season. The temperature evolution of an open-air swimming pool highly depends on the wind speed directly on the water surface, which at the same time is influenced by the surroundings of the pool. In this paper, the TRNSYS model of a private open-air pool with a 50-m 2 surface was validated by registering the water temperature evolution and the meteorological data at the pool site. Evaporation is the main component of energy loss in swimming pools. Six different sets of constants found in literature were considered to evaluate the evaporative heat transfer coefficient with the purpose of finding the most suitable one for the TRNSYS pool model. In order to do that, the evolution of the pool water temperature predicted by the TRNSYS pool model was compared with the experimentally registered one. The simulation with TRNSYS of the total system, including the swimming pool and the absorber circuit integrated into the existing filter circuit, provided information regarding the increase of the pool temperature for different collector areas during the swimming season. This knowledge, together with the economic costs, support the decision about the absorber field size.

The effect of type of water supply on water quality in a developing community in South Africa

Efforts to provide water to developing communities in South Africa have resulted in various types of water supplies being used. This study examined the relationship between the type of water supply and the quality of water used. Source (communal taps, private outdoor and indoor taps) and point-of-use water samples were examined for heterotrophic plate counts (HPC), total and faecal coliforms, E. coli, and coliphages. Ten percent of samples were also analysed for enteric viruses, Giardia and Cryptosporidium. Approximately 320 households were included in a case-control study. In addition, a cross-sectional study was conducted. Both studies examined the relationship between different types of water facilities and diarrhoea among pre-school children. The source water was of good microbial quality, but water quality was found to have deteriorated significantly after handling and storage in both case and control households, exceeding drinking water quality guideline values by 1-6 orders of magnitude. Coliphage counts were low for all water samples tested. Enteric viruses and Cryptosporidium oocysts were not detected. Giardia cysts were detected on one occasion in case and control in-house samples. Comparisons of whether in-house water, after handling and storage, complied with water quality guideline values demonstrated households using communal taps to have significantly poorer quality than households using private outdoor or indoor taps for HPC and E. coli (χ2 = 14.9, P = 0.001; χ2 = 6.6, P = 0.04 respectively). A similar trend (although not statistically significant) was observed for the other microbial indicators. The cross-sectional study demonstrated an apparent decrease in health risk associated with private outdoor taps in comparison to communal taps. This study suggests that a private outdoor tap is the minimum level of water supply in order to ensure the supply of safe water to developing communities.

The effect of type of water supply on water quality in a developing community in South Africa

Efforts to provide water to developing communities in South Africa have resulted in various types of watersupplies being used. This study examined the relationship between the type of water supply and the quality of water used. Source (communal taps, private outdoor and indoor taps) and point-of-use water samples were examined for heterotrophic plate counts (HPC), total and faecal coliforms, E. coli. and coliphages. Ten percent of samples were also analysed for enteric viruses, Giardia and Cryprosporidium. Approximately 320 households were included in a case-control study. In addition, a cross-sectional study was conducted. Both studies examined the relationship between different types of water facilities and diarrhoea among pre-school children. The source water was of good microbial quality, but water quality was found to have deteriorated significantly after handling and storage in both case and control households, exceeding drinking water quality guideline values by 1–6 orders of magnitude. Coliphage counts were low for all water samples tested. Enteric viruses and Cryptosporidium oocysts were not detected. Giardia cysts were detected on one occasion in case and control in-house samples. Comparisons of whether in-house water, after handling and storage, complied with water quality guideline values demonstrated households using communal taps to have significantly poorer quality than households using private outdoor or indoor taps for HPC and E. coli (χ2 = 14.9, P = 0.001; χ2 = 6.6, P = 0.04 respectively). A similar trend (although not statistically significant) was observed for the other microbial indicators. The cross-sectional study demonstrated an apparent decrease in health risk associated with private outdoor taps in comparison to communal taps. This study suggests that a private outdoor tap is the minimum level of water supply in order to ensure the supply of safe water to developing communities.

On the evaluation of housing areas

Systematic interviews with residents in areas developed under different planning principles and involving different problem solutions may provide valuable information, to be used by planners and politicians in other housing developments. Two specific aspects of this are discussed on the basis of a study of four housing areas in the Norwegian town Drammen: (1) Does resident opinion concerning traffic safety vary with the design of the traffic system in the area? (2) Which factors help determining residents’ satisfaction with the private outdoor areas connected to their houses? According to our analysis, satisfaction with the traffic safety situation grows with the size of the areas around the houses forbidden to motor vehicles. The desire for more vehicle restrictions is greatest among residents in traditional, one‐family house areas with drives up to the houses. Satisfaction with private outdoor areas varies with plot size and house type. This implies that in new developments, the house types chosen shoul...