Urban Green Spaces: Why does community need them?

The inspiration to write my blog about this topic came from recently spending my holiday camping in North Wales. We stayed at the Ynys Môn À Mõr campsite where as a family we immersed ourselves in the great outdoors for one week in late September.

It wasn't quite wild camping or self-sustained living but the ethos of being a family-friendly and nature-appreciating campsite left me feeling not only more relaxed but inspired to do more to help reduce the impact of climate change on our environment for the future generations.

It felt like if I could do a bit more and perhaps inspire others in the same way then there is hope for changing mindsets of communities as well. I feel that we need to inspire each other more, partly by engaging and reconnecting with the environment in this sort of way. Not cutting ourselves off from nature, but improving our lives on our doorsteps.

This has led me to want to begin to tackle writing about Urban Green Spaces projects in Swansea as it makes sense to me that if you cannot go on a camping holiday all the time, to get a nature fix, then we need to bring the camping holidays closer to our lives.

Everyone is an environmentalist!

You may not be a camper, but I would definitely argue that urban green spaces (UGS) are needed as much as green spaces elsewhere, due to the larger numbers of people that need to live and breathe in them (57% of the world's population, and 85% of UK's population, live in urban areas).

I aim to try to prove or disprove that UGS are essential for communities and the environment and the reasons for this in my blog here.

Questions I am asking myself and will aim to find some answers to are:

• Do UGS reduce air pollution?
• What is the impact of air quality on climate change?
• Does the effect of reduced air pollution impact physical and/or mental health of inhabitants of Swansea?
• Do UGS directly affect mental health and wellbeing?
• Do UGS reduce carbon emissions and thereby reduce impact of climate change?
• What are the steps to gaining access to UGS for groups?
• What other possible advantages of having UGS are there such as improving biodiversity, water quality, flood mitigation and reducing urban heat islands (UHI)?

Back to why I feel like I want to write a blog about this topic. I am very conscious that my son is lacking his outdoor time as I am writing this whilst he absorbs more Peppa Pig through the screen which is making him not want to go outdoors at all. So, there is little daylight left and I've got a job to get the screen away from him, but perhaps it's for his own good, as well as my own good. Wish me luck!

So we got out. Spent up to 15 minutes feeling the breeze on our faces. It felt good. We are also really fortunate to have horse fields a short distance away in the suburban neighborhood we live in.

Recovering from severe mental illness and during the lock-downs of 2020 and 2021, I had never been more aware of how lucky I was to be this close to the countryside. 

Fortunately my son has been relatively less restricted, and for that, I am very grateful.

Unfortunately, many people were not as lucky during covid. Even now that there are fewer covid-related restrictions, many living in cities are not able to easily access countryside.

 

Air pollution is said to be reduced by plants, but is that true?

Pollutant modelling shows it is true of some tree species, such as conifer trees, and not as much of others, and can be dependant on the climate conditions also. Some plants actually produce "volatile organic compounds" (VOCs) contributing to harmful aerosols and ozone, under certain climactic conditions.

However, the overall effect of urban vegetation on air quality appears to be good. 

 

What is the impact of air quality on climate change?

The relationship between air quality and climate change is not clear cut. Whilst some pollutants such as ozone warm the climate, other pollutants, such as sulphates, cool the Earth's atmosphere. 

 

Does the effect of reduced air pollution impact physical and/or mental health of inhabitants of Swansea?

I could not find data specific for Swansea, but in Wales, Public Health Wales estimates the long term exposure of air pollutants causes between 1000 and 1400 deaths per year. 

We have known about the harmful impact of air pollution on physical health for some time (4000 people died in the aftermath of the Great Smog of London of 1952) but more recently there is emerging evidence of detrimental effects of air pollution on mental health too.

 

So far, my bit of research seems to suggest that UGS have indirect effects on mental health, by reducing air pollution, but...

Is there a direct effect of UGS on mental health and wellbeing?

In Wales, the "Green-Blue Space Project" identified that those living in greener (and bluer) areas were less likely to seek help from healthcare providers for common mental health problems, with the greatest benefit being for those in more deprived areas. 

 

Do UGS reduce carbon emissions and thereby reduce impact of climate change?

Carbon removed by plants via photosynthesis becomes sequestered in the soil, an effect which is more pronounced in perennial plants as they develop deep roots. In contrast, concrete is responsible for 4-8% of global carbon emissions, and "only coal, oil and gas are a greater source of greenhouse gases". UGS could also indirectly reduce carbon emissions by encouraging more people to ride a bike or walk.

 

What are the steps to gaining access to UGS for groups?

There are many factors affecting people accessing UGS, with deprivation and access to travel being some of the main limiting factors.

In the UK, one in five of us are deprived of green spaces, the most deprived areas having less than 9m² of public green space. 40% of people from BAME backgrounds live in the most deprived green spaces, and children are 20% less likely to spend time outdoors than those in affluent areas. 

I spoke with Ollie Lister, Project Officer at the Environment Centre, a charity that is based in Swansea, to find out more about their Swansea Community Green Spaces Project.

This project includes the Postcode Gardeners Project, which aims to help communities that need nature the most, to create green spaces within their local urban districts, as well as a feasibility study, looking at the challenges groups face to accessing green spaces in Swansea. They will use this study to produce a toolkit to help groups navigate land access issues and establish their green space more easily.

Those deprived of green spaces are not only at increased risk of physical and mental ill health, but also from the effects of climate change such as flooding, with inequalities being more pronouced in coastal communities.

 

What other possible advantages of having UGS are there such as improving biodiversity, water quality, flood mitigation and reducing urban heat islands (UHI)?

UGS can be part of Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SUDS) which keep water out of piped sewers as much as possible as well as do something with it, i.e. feed plants and sometimes relocate it into surrounding soil, depending on soil type. Examples of UGS which also act as SUDS are swales, attenuation ponds and wetlands, rain gardens, soakaways and green roofs. SUDS not only reduce water quantity in urban areas, thereby mitigating flood risk, but also can improve water quality of nearby lakes and rivers by sediment settlement and biological removal of pollutants.

SUDS can reduce flooding, soil erosion, pollution and urban heat islands, and thereby play an important role in adapting to climate change. They can also help to mitigate against biodiversity loss. The biodiversity that these contain can be natural carbon-sinks, providing nature-based solutions to climate change.

 

I believe that community will play a major role in offsetting and reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and as I hope to have demonstrated here, by providing more UGS, they will help to reduce the impact of climate change and improve wellbeing. It is so important that we help to tackle the climate and biodiversity emergency together as a local, and as a global, community, for us and for our planet and our future generations. Personally, I feel at ease when gardening, so the fact that gardening can literally help save the planet is wonderful.

To me, there is nothing better than digging in the soil with my family, growing a beautiful garden, getting away from the TV, and saving the planet all at the same time.

Thank you very much for reading, and I hope that this article has inspired you to get involved in UGS projects within your community.

 

References

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