Use Of Outdoor Spaces Research Articles

Exploring parental concerns about children's interactions in gated communities: a case study in Istanbul

During the last decade, massive changes in cities in Turkey and elsewhere have significantly impacted on the outdoor interactions of children. High levels of urbanization and the diverse demographic character of city populations have modified urban development structures. Planners and policy makers regrettably do not place priority on children's well-being when making decisions about new urbanization policies. This study explores the concerns of parents for their children's use of outdoor space in a gated community which is separated physically and secured from the surrounding neighborhood. In this qualitative study, face-to-face interviews with parents of elementary school children were undertaken. Parents were asked to describe their attitudes to allowing their children to use the residential quarter for play. Parents reported on four themes to assess the range of influences on (1) safety and environmental factors, (2) level of independence, (3) play facilities, and (4) social aspects. In relation to safety and environmental factors, the focus of questions was on children's access to quarter facilities, internal transportation, pedestrian activity, and security installations. Results indicated that children's mobility directly depends on parental concerns about the conditions of the gated community in relation to safety and environmental factors, security factors, quality of play facilities, and social aspects. The findings of the study regarding parental concerns raise questions about the conditions of gated communities and their impact on children's outdoor experiences.

Outdoor thermal comfort and outdoor activities: A review of research in the past decade

Outdoor spaces are important to sustainable cities because they accommodate pedestrian traffic and outdoor activities, and contribute greatly to urban livability and vitality. In the global context of climate change, outdoor spaces that provide a pleasurable thermal comfort experience for pedestrians effectively improve the quality of urban living. The influence of thermal comfort on outdoor activities is a complex issue comprising both climatic and behavioral aspects; however, current investigations lack a general framework for assessment. This paper presents a review of research over the past decade on the behavioral aspects of outdoor thermal comfort. The article focuses on perceptions of outdoor thermal comfort and the use of outdoor space in the context of urban planning. We further discuss a general framework for assessing outdoor thermal comfort based on behavioral aspects and the need for predicting tools in the design and planning of outdoor thermal comfort.

Young Children and Educators Engagement and Learning Outdoors: A Basis for Rights-Based Programming

Research Findings: This article reports on a study undertaken with 4 early childhood programs in a medium-size city in Canada investigating young children's and educators' perspectives on engagement and learning possibilities outdoors. A rights-based methodology including participant observations and interactive activities with children as well as focus groups and discussion groups with educators reveals the diversity and richness of young children's learning opportunities in the natural outdoor space. Educators also talk about forming more egalitarian and fulfilling relationships with children in outdoor activities. The value educators placed on play in natural spaces led to the creation of opportunities for play outside and motivated educators to support children's interactions outdoors by mediating policy and societal fear of the risk of outdoor play. Practice or Policy: The results of the study highlight the value of a learning community for early childhood educators so that they might support children's full use of outdoor space and the critical role of adult allies in advocating for rights-based programming.

Opening Spaces at Nursing Homes and Assisted Living

Opening Spaces at Nursing Homes and Assisted Living

Physical Activity in Young Children

Young children's regular participation in physical activity is important not only to prevent excess weight gain and avoid chronic health problems but also to promote optimal physical, social, and psychological development. Given the large number of children enrolled in some form of out-of-home child care, this setting holds great potential to make important contributions to the welfare and health of young children, including the promotion of physical activity. The five articles included in this series were originally presented as a symposium at the 2008 American College of Sports Medicine Annual Meeting. Papers review the current evidence on levels of physical activity at child care, techniques for measuring physical activity in this setting, use of outdoor space for physical activity, the influence of child care environment and policies on children's activity, and child care-based physical activity intervention strategies.

Book Review: The Role of the Outdoors in Residential Environments for Aging and Outdoor Environments for People with Dementia

The Role of the Outdoors in Residential Environments for Aging, 2005, Susan Rodiek and Benyamin Schwarz (Eds.), Haworth Press, Binghamton, NY (Copublished simultaneously as Journal of Housing for the Elderly, 19(3/4).Outdoor Environments for People With Dementia, 2007, Susan Rodiek and Benyamin Schwarz (Eds.), Haworth Press, Binghamton, NY (Copublished simultaneously as Journal of Housing for the Elderly, 21(1/2, 3/4).When I was doing work in the area of outdoor environments for older adults back in the mid-1980s, there was very little research to draw upon that gave landscape architects and architects advice about how to approach this topic. Of course the seminal work of Powell Lawton and Roger Ulrich (Ulrich, 1984) had us all thinking about the possibilities. It wasn't until later that books by Carstens (1985), Cooper-Marcus and Barnes (1999), and Tyson (1998), as well as videos by Rodiek (2008), provided good professional advice and varying perspectives on the design and use of outdoor landscapes, gardens, and patio spaces.The two volumes reviewed are further proof of how far we have come. Chock full of advice and wisdom, compelling theory, and empiricism, they outline a range of promising ideas and interventions for the design of outdoor spaces in dementia settings and housing for the elderly. Collectively, there are 25 chapters and slightly more than 550 pages of text and illustrations that describe studies ranging from large sample surveys focused on basic policies and place-making inventories to intimate case studies. They explore the details associated with dysfunctional environments and the improvements necessary to make outdoor landscapes more appealing and useful.There are a number of common themes reflected in these volumes. Some are new, but many were identified decades ago. I personally found the research volume that addresses the needs of the cognitively impaired the more interesting and comprehensive of the two. Perhaps this is because the nature of this disease, which robs one of memory and recall, sets up environmental conditions that are easier to define for this population. The argument for intervention is also more compelling, given the psychological nature of the disease and the fact that many residents have a penchant for walking (or wandering). Closely coupled outdoor garden areas address these conditions.The main difficulty with the first volume, which addresses the use of outdoor space for older, nondemented populations, is that use patterns vary greatly depending on whether a person is a spry independent 70-year-old in a continuing care retirement community or a wheelchair-bound resident in a skilled nursing facility. Both of these people could benefit from high-quality outdoor environments, but their ability to interact and their expectations for meaningful activity vary greatly. Given such differences, it is surprising how easy it is to identify common themes, although younger, more active older adults are definitely under-represented in this collection of research studies.The most powerful common themes and takeaways presented in both volumes include:* An exterior garden design must be an extension of interior plan layout.* Clear visibility from the inside to the outside must be maintained.* Accessibility to and within the garden is very important.* Staff training, motivation, and commitment to use outdoor spaces is essential.* Exercise in outdoor spaces also benefits sleep comfort.* Garden design must address furniture comfort, plant selection and placement, circulation, and support for activities.* Glare and shade control are primary environmental factors that affect use.* Resident safety and security must focus on elopement and walking surfaces.* Resident activities and social opportunities increase engagement.* Circulation pathways that are easy to understand and follow encourage walking and orient residents to place. …

VACANT HOUSE RENOVATION BY THE MIGRATION PROMOTION PROJECT FOR ELDERLY IN NISHINOSHIMA-CHO SHIMANE PRE.

This study aims to clarify some issues and concerns in the system of vacant house renovation, a part of the Migration Promotion Project for Middle Aged and Elderly. Clarified issues include: 1)Although the renovation budget is limited to 1.5 million JPY, if the local government staff and tenants themselves are involved in the renovation, basic housing functions can be guaranteed. 2)By flexibly arranging rooms to meet with their lifestyles and making good use of outdoor space, current tenants are generally satisfied with their housing. However, despite the benefits, tenants are reported to suffer from coldness in winter. Thus, insulation reinforcement of living rooms and bedrooms remains as future work especially for middle aged and elderly tenants.

The Garden-Use Model

The Garden-Use Model is the result of a multi-case study involving five sites that was designed to develop a better understanding and holistic description of the interrelationship among organizational/ programming policies and spatial/physical attributes of the outdoor space in influencing how much this space was used by residents with dementia in long-term care facilities. The protocol replicated at each site involved an initial site analysis, distribution of staff questionnaires, and behavior observations for six days, including five weekdays and Saturday at every site but one. The results of the study discussed the alignment and findings based on descriptive analysis and collected data at each site regarding the following factors: organizational policy, staff attitudes, visual access, physical access and garden design. This paper summarizes the results of the study related to the above factors and use of available outdoor space. The ultimate focus and conclusion of the paper addresses findings and recommendations for designers, healthcare administrators and others interested in achieving optimal use of the outdoor space among residents with dementia in long-term care facilities. The theoretical framework diagrammed in the “Garden-Use Model” is based on data collected and rich description at each of the five sites that made up the study. This model is presented and serves as the structural basis from which discussion of the factors influencing use of outdoor space ensues. The Garden-use Model also serves in the paper as a tool for facilities that seek to increase garden use among residents and to offer a means for evaluation such facilities.

Use of outdoor spaces and microclimate in a Mediterranean urban area

This paper presents some of the findings of the European project, RUROS, concentrating on the effect of microclimatic conditions on the use of open spaces in an urban Mediterranean environment. The findings confirm that there is a strong relationship between microclimatic conditions and use of open spaces. Regarding the users of open spaces, a sensitivity to the summer heat was apparent for the age category > 65 . The spatial distribution of the interviewees demonstrates that in summer, visitors prefer to sit in shaded areas, whereas in autumn and winter sunlit areas are more popular. Observations of the use of space revealed that air temperature and solar radiation were found to be the most dominant parameters in relation to the use of space, with wind speed and relative humidity having a weak effect. In general, people prefer shaded areas at higher air temperatures. However, as high air temperature is a factor contributing to discomfort, overall presence is reduced when air temperature rises significantly. The preference of sun, differs from season to season, depending on the activities taking place in the areas (either designated or not). The diurnal pattern of the use of space also reveals a strong dependency on meteorological parameters. Regarding the time of maximum attendance, this is found in the evening during summer, while there is a transition of the time of maximum attendance towards noon as the season progresses from summer to winter. Daytime attendance figures of autumn and winter are 300–400% higher than in the summer. The need open spaces cover and the social ties provided may also be traced by analysing the social composition of the interviewees and the reasons bringing them in the space.

Nearby Nature and Long-Term Care Facility Residents

As the population in North America continues to age, long-term care facilities for housing the elderly are likely to become even more important. Because one of the primary foci of these facilities is on sustaining and enhancing quality of life while eventually helping patients and families cope with the dying process, both the physical and social environments are critical to the facilities' success and the users' well-being. Healing, or restorative gardens and other designed green spaces have been suggested by many academics and practitioners as important components of these environments, yet there has been relatively little systematic research on the use and benefits of nature in this context. Do elderly residents of long-term care facilities benefit from access to outdoor areas? What are the design characteristics that are most important for this unique population? Forty elderly residents of three different urban long-term care facilities were interviewed about the importance of outdoor green spaces and views within the facility, their use of the facility's outdoor spaces, benefits they derive from those spaces, and barriers to using the spaces. Facilities differed both in terms of the amount of nature in their outdoor spaces and in the design of, scale of, and access to those spaces. Results show that overall residents place a high value on access to green spaces and derive a number of benefits from these spaces, yet they spend relatively little time in these settings. Barriers to greater use of outdoor spaces included physical limitations, lack of staff assistance, and design issues. Implications for the value of nature spaces in long-term care facilities are discussed, along with specific design recommendations.

As Great as All Outdoors

Purpose. Previously, most information on outdoor amenities in nursing homes and the use of outdoor space by nursing home residents has been anecdotal. Using data collected from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) study on Quality of Life (QOL), this paper describes the availability of outdoor amenities in 40 nursing homes and the resident's perception of their use of that space. Design and Methods. Resident data were collected from nineteen hundred and eighty-eight residents in 131 nursing units in 40 nursing homes located in 5 states on a broad array of topics including how often they get outdoors and if that amount was as much as they want, too much, or not enough. For each of those nineteen hundred and eighty-eight residents, staff was questioned on how often the resident participated in planned outdoor activities. Environmental data were collected using theoretically-derived observational tools that were developed to observe in detail the physical environments experienced by those nineteen hundred and eighty-eight nursing home residents at three nested levels: their rooms (112 items), the nursing unit (140 items); and the facility as a whole (134 items). These analyses focus on the presence or absence of items specific to outdoor space at the unit and facility level. Results. Descriptive statistics showed great variation in outdoor amenities and access to those amenities across facilities. The majority, 55.7% (n = 73), of the environments of the 131 units had no items featured on the outdoor amenities index. Of the residents who are physically able to go outdoors, thirty two percent do so less than once a month. Implications. Only recently have the effects of the outdoor environment on well being been systematically studied. This resident-specific data collection on the availability of outdoor amenities and research at the resident level permits hierarchical analysis to examine the effects of outdoor space on resident quality of life.

The Role of Design in Inhibiting or Promoting Use of Common Open Space

Redwood Gardens is a housing project for the elderly on the Clark Kerr campus affiliated with the University of California at Berkeley. A post occupancy evaluation study done in 1994 indicated that outdoor spaces were not well used, and a follow-up set of interviews and observations over a decade later in 2005 shows that the spaces are still underutilized, despite being greatly appreciated as an amenity. This paper explores reasons for the under usage, describes the design of the spaces, and makes proposals for improvements in seating and other environmental props that might facilitate both solo and group use of outdoor spaces. Design and policy recommendations are directed both to this immediate site and other such housing sites elsewhere.

The Fruit of Urban Nature

What makes a neighborhood space vital? This article explores the possibility that the presence of trees and grass may be one of the key components of vital neighborhood spaces. We report 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 and grass is related to the use of outdoor spaces, the amount of social activity that takes place within them, and the proportion of social to 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 neighborhood spaces.

Thermal bioclimatic conditions and patterns of behaviour in an urban park in Göteborg, Sweden.

People in urban areas frequently use parks for recreation and outdoor activities. Owing to the complexity of the outdoor environment, there have only been a few attempts to understand the effect of the thermal environment on people's use of outdoor spaces. This paper therefore seeks to determine the relationship between the thermal environment, park use and behavioural patterns in an urban area of Sweden. The methods used include structured interviews, unobtrusive observations of the naturally occurring behaviour and simultaneous measurements of thermal comfort variables, i.e., air temperature, air humidity, wind speed and global radiation. The thermal environment is investigated through the mean radiant temperature (Tmrt) and the predicted mean vote (PMV) index. The outcome is compared to the subjective behaviour and thermal sensation of the interviewees. It is found that the thermal environment, access and design are important factors in the use of the park. In order to continue to use the park when the thermal conditions become too cold or too hot for comfort, people improve their comfort conditions by modifying their clothing and by choosing the most supportive thermal opportunities available within the place. The study also shows that psychological aspects such as time of exposure, expectations, experience and perceived control may influence the subjective assessment. Comparison between the thermal sensation of the interviewees and the thermal sensation assessed by the PMV index indicates that steady-state models such as the PMV index may not be appropriate for the assessment of short-term outdoor thermal comfort, mainly because they are unable to analyse transient exposure.

上海市の里弄・新村における居住領域意識に関する研究

The purpose of this study is to clarify the actual use of outdoor space and the neighborhood relationship and to compare the residents' consciousness in daily life between Lilong and new residential quarter in Shanghai. It is found that there is a kind of identical relation between the territorial recognition and the urban space structure of residential quarter. It is also found that the residents' consciousness about privacy is different between the above two quarters, that is to say, the consciousness about privacy is opener in Lilong.

Crime and Punishment: An Economic Approach

Since the turn of the twentieth century, legislation in Western countries has expanded rapidly to reverse the brief dominance of laissez faire during the nineteenth century. The state no longer merely protects against violations of person and property through murder, rape, or burglary but also restricts ‘discrimination’ against certain minorities, collusive business arrangements, ‘jaywalking’, travel, the materials used in construction, and thousands of other activities. The activities restricted not only are numerous but also range widely, affecting persons in very different pursuits and of diverse social backgrounds, education levels, ages, races, etc. Moreover, the likelihood that an offender will be discovered and convicted and the nature and extent of punishments differ greatly from person to person and activity to activity. Yet, in spite of such diversity, some common properties are shared by practically all legislation, and these properties form the subject matter of this essay.