A recent wave of research in public health finds associations between the proximity of an individual to greenspace and various health outcomes, including obesity, cardiovascular disease rates, depression, and anxiety. Based on these associations, it is sometimes assumed that better access to parks will lead to improved health outcomes. My project addresses this assumption by focusing on an issu...

BACKGROUND Three cross sectional studies suggest that neighbourhood greenspace may protect against incident diabetes. This study uses data from a longitudinal study with a large sample size to investigate the association between greenspace and the occurrence of incident diabetes over time. METHODS Data was from the European Prospective Investigation of Cancer Norfolk, UK, cohort, recruitment ...

Since water resources of desert Naein City are very limited, a approach which saves water resources and meanwhile meets the needs of the greenspace for water is to use city’s sewage wastewater. Proper treatment of Naein’s sewage up to the standards required for green space uses may solve some of the problems of green space development of the city. The present paper closely examines available st...

There is a lack of information on the environmental effects of urban change and the dynamics of greenspace. Such information is essential for a better understanding of the sustainability of urban development processes, both planned and unplanned. We therefore investigated the changes in land use and land cover of 11 residential areas in Merseyside, UK, using aerial photographs taken in 1975 and...

The majority of the world's population now lives in towns and cities, and urban areas are expanding faster than any other land-use type. In response to this phenomenon, two opposing arguments have emerged: whether cities should 'sprawl' into the wider countryside, or 'densify' through the development of existing urban greenspace. However, these greenspaces are increasingly recognized as being c...

OBJECTIVE To investigate the relationship between neighbourhood greenspace and type 2 diabetes. DESIGN Cross-sectional. SETTING 3 diabetes screening studies conducted in Leicestershire, UK in 2004-2011. The percentage of greenspace in the participant's home neighbourhood (3 km radius around home postcode) was obtained from a Land Cover Map. Demographic and biomedical variables were measured...

BACKGROUND Many studies suggest that exposure to natural environments ('greenspace') enhances human health and wellbeing. Benefits potentially arise via several mechanisms including stress reduction, opportunity and motivation for physical activity, and reduced air pollution exposure. However, the evidence is mixed and sometimes inconclusive. One explanation may be that "greenspace" is typicall...

The environment has long been associated with physical activity engagement, and recent developments in technology have resulted in the ability to objectively quantify activity behaviours and activity context. This paper reviews studies that have combined Global Positioning Systems (GPS), Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and accelerometry to investigate the PA-environment relationship in chi...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Both the social environment and the physical environment are increasingly recognized as important to childhood diseases such as asthma. This study tested a novel hypothesis: that living in areas high in greenspace may help buffer the effects of difficult family relationships for children with asthma. METHODS A total of 150 children (ages 9-17), physician-diagnosed wi...

BACKGROUND Low-income African American adults are disproportionately affected by obesity and are also least likely to engage in recommended levels of physical activity (Flegal et al. JAMA 303(3):235-41, 2010; Tucker et al. Am J Prev Med 40(4):454-61, 2011). Moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) is an important factor for weight management and control, as well as for reducing disease ris...