Towards the integration of urban planning and biodiversity conservation through collaboration

Despite aspirations to halt biodiversity loss by 2020 under the Aichi Biodiversity Targets, urban development continues to negatively impact UK wildlife and habitats. Reasons behind continued biodiversity decline are examined through the use of semi-structured interviews with ecologists, statutory regulators and land developers.. It is found that despite strict legislation and best practice, for both planning and ecology, there is still much room for subjectivity regarding the protection of specific ecological features and the implementation of the mitigation hierarchy. Interviews also revealed that such subjectivity often facilitates the prioritisation of commercial over ecological benefits during site design. Furthermore, many felt an over reliance on the protection of individual animals, as opposed to maintaining functional connectivity for conservation of wider populations was detrimental to both the development industry and ecology. Our findings support the case for further research into the development of innovative geographical information systems to allow spatial deliberation, and collaborative decision-making between the three stakeholder groups

Regular Doses of Nature: The Efficacy of Green Exercise Interventions for Mental Wellbeing.

This study investigated the efficacy of medium-term Green Exercise (GE; being physically active within a natural environment) interventions for improving wellbeing, by pooling data collected at the start and end of participants' engagement with a range of GE interventions. Hypotheses were that (i) interventions would show good efficacy for improving wellbeing in the overall sample; (ii) compared to participants reporting 'average to high' wellbeing at the start of their project, participants with 'low' starting wellbeing would report greater improvements post-intervention; and (iii) improvements would significantly differ between age groups. The pooled dataset was categorized in line with UK norms (n = 318) and analyzed using a standardized meta-analysis approach. Effect size was large: g = 0.812 (95% CI [0.599, 1.025]), and differences in wellbeing changes associated with project duration, age or sex were not statistically significant. Compared to those reporting 'average-high' starting wellbeing, participants reporting 'low' starting wellbeing exhibited greater improvements (BCa 95% CI [-31.8, -26.5]), with 60.8% moving into the 'average-high' wellbeing category. GE can play an important role in facilitating wellbeing and can provide alternative pathways for health and social care practice. Public health commissioners should consider integrating such interventions for patients experiencing low wellbeing or associated comorbidities

Modification of the Rosenberg Scale to Assess Self-Esteem in Children

Rosenberg's scale (RSES) is widely used to assess global self-esteem (SE) in adults and adolescents but is not validated for children 0.05); but were significantly reduced in children aged 9–10 and 11–12 years compared to children aged 7–8 years. The global SE score was significantly correlated (r = 0.51; P < 0.001) with LS. The current version of the CRSES can reliably examine global SE in children aged 7–12 years; extending the use of the RSES to allow tracking across the life course

The Impact of Therapeutic Community Gardening on the Wellbeing, Loneliness, and Life Satisfaction of Individuals with Mental Illness

Background: literature on the mental health benefits of therapeutic community gardening is not specific to individuals with mental illness and reports short-term outcomes. The impact of the coronavirus pandemic on intervention effectiveness is also unknown. This study examined the impact of therapeutic community gardening prior to and across the pandemic on the wellbeing of individuals referred for support with their mental illness. Methods: garden members (n = 53; male = 36, female = 17) aged 47.38 ± 13.09 years reported their wellbeing at baseline and four follow-up points (FU1–FU4) across the pandemic. Results: there was significant quadratic growth in wellbeing (−1.248; p < 0.001) that varied between genders (p = 0.021). At baseline, male wellbeing scores were significantly lower (p = 0.020) than the UK population norm, but there were no significant differences at any other follow-up point. Female wellbeing was significantly lower than the UK population norm at baseline (p < 0.001), FU1 (p = 0.012) and FU2 (p < 0.001), but not FU3 and FU4. Conclusion: therapeutic community gardening can improve and maintain the wellbeing of individuals with mental illness, even when wellbeing is deteriorating nationally. Future research should further demonstrate the long-term and cost-effectiveness of interventions

Increased Wellbeing following Engagement in a Group Nature-Based Programme: The Green Gym Programme Delivered by the Conservation Volunteers

The wellbeing benefits of engaging in a nature-based programme, delivered by the Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise sector, were examined in this study. Prior to attending The Conservation Volunteers’ Green Gym™, attendees (n = 892) completed demographics, health characteristics and the Warwick Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Short-Form Scale. Attendees (n = 253, 28.4%) provided a measure on average 4.5 months later. There were significant increases in wellbeing after engaging in Green Gym, with the greatest increases in those who had the lowest starting levels of wellbeing. Wellbeing increases were sustained on average 8.5 months and 13 months later in those providing a follow up measure (n = 92, n = 40, respectively). Attendees who continued to engage in Green Gym but not provide follow up data (n = 318, 35.7%) tended to be more deprived, female and self-report a health condition. Attendees who did not continue to engage in Green Gym (n = 321, 36.0%) tended to be less deprived and younger. These findings provide evidence of the wellbeing benefits of community nature-based activities and social (‘green’) prescribing initiatives and indicate that Green Gym targets some groups most in need.</jats:p

Spatio-temporal challenges in representing wildlife disturbance within a GIS

Assessing the potential environmental impacts of disturbance on protected species during and after the development process is a legislative requirement in most nations. However, the restrictions that this legislation places on developers are often based on limited ecological understanding, over-simplified methodologies, less-than-robust data and the subjective interpretations of field ecologists. Consequently, constraints may be imposed with no transparent methodology behind them to the frustration of, and occasionally large expense to, developers. Additionally, protected species numbers continue to decline and biodiversity continues to be threatened. This paper describes a GIS conceptual model for assessing ecological disturbance vulnerability, based upon a case study development in Scotland. First, uncertainties in traditional methods of recording and representing ecological features with GIS are reviewed such that they may be better accounted for in the disturbance model. Second, by incorporating temporal fluctuations in ecological behaviour into the disturbance susceptibility concept, it is argued that it is possible to synchronise development with conservation requirements. Finally, a method is presented to account for disturbance tolerances at the scale of the individual animal. It is anticipated that this model will enable environmental impact assessors to produce more robust analyses of wildlife disturbance risk and facilitate synchronisation between development and wildlife vulnerability to minimise disturbance and better avoid delays to the works programme

Therapeutic Community Gardening as a Green Social Prescription for Mental Ill-Health: Impact, Barriers, and Facilitators from the Perspective of Multiple Stakeholders

The UK government has invested £5.77 million in green social prescribing to prevent and tackle mental ill-health. Therapeutic community gardening, one type of green social prescription, provides a range of health outcomes. However, for increased accessibility, a greater understanding of how it impacts mental health and the facilitators and barriers to referral, uptake, and attendance by individuals with mental health problems is required. We conducted and thematically analysed interviews with thirteen stakeholders including social prescribing link workers and garden staff; and focus groups with twenty garden members. The mechanisms by which therapeutic community gardening were suggested to impact mental health were by engaging members with nature and the outdoors, providing hope for the future and facilitating social support and relationships. Factors facilitating referral, uptake, and attendance included a holistic and person-centred approach, which is flexible around health needs. Barriers included awareness of the full offering of therapeutic community gardens and accessibility, in terms of physical location and waiting lists. Given that nature-based interventions have the potential to protect and enhance population health and offer cost savings through reduced reliance on other health services; overcoming these barriers is key to ensuring that therapeutic community gardening is more widely available as an additional mental health treatment

The effect of playground and nature-based interventions on physical activity and self-esteem in UK school children

School playtime provides opportunities for children to engage in physical activity (PA). Playground playtime interventions designed to increase PA have produced differing results. However, nature can also promote PA, through the provision of large open spaces for activity. The purpose of this study is to determine which playtime interventions are most effective at increasing moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) and if this varies by school location. Fifty-two children from an urban and rural school participated in a playground sports (PS) and nature-based orienteering intervention during playtime for one week. MVPA was assessed the day before and on the final day of the interventions using accelerometers. Intervention type (p  0.05). The provision of PS influences PA the most; however, a variety of interventions are required to engage less fit children in PA

Neuroanatomical Foundations of Delayed Reward Discounting Decision Making II: Evaluation of Sulcal Morphology and Fractal Dimensionality

Delayed reward discounting (DRD) is a form of decision-making reflecting valuation of smaller immediate rewards versus larger delayed rewards, and high DRD has been linked to several health behaviors, including substance use disorders, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and obesity. Elucidating the underlying neuroanatomical factors may offer important insights into the etiology of these conditions. We used structural MRI scans of 1038 Human Connectome Project participants (Mage = 28.86, 54.7% female) to explore two novel measures of neuroanatomy related to DRD: 1) sulcal morphology (SM; depth and width) and 2) fractal dimensionality (FD), or cortical morphometric complexity, of parcellated cortical and subcortical regions. To ascertain unique contributions to DRD preferences, indicators that displayed significant partial correlations with DRD after family-wise error correction were entered into iterative mixed-effect models guided by the association magnitude. When considering only SM indicators, the depth of the right inferior and width of the left central sulci were uniquely associated with DRD preferences. When considering only FD indicators, the FD of the left middle temporal gyrus, right lateral orbitofrontal cortex, and left lateral occipital and entorhinal cortices uniquely contributed DRD. When considering SM and FD indicators simultaneously, the right inferior frontal sulcus depth and left central sulcus width; and the FD of the left middle temporal gyrus, lateral occipital cortex and entorhinal cortex were uniquely associated with DRD. These results implicate SM and FD as features of the brain that underlie variation in the DRD decision-making phenotype and as promising candidates for understanding DRD as a biobehavioral disease process