RHS sponsored PhD studentship:
Do Front Garden Landscapes Influence
Health and Well-Being?
The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS),
The University of Sheffield, The University of Virginia.
Aim:
To determine if increasing the proportion of vegetation in front gardens has a positive impact on residents’ well-being and other‘cultural’ ecosystem services. It is anticipated the research will centre around two hypotheses.
Hypothesis 1: Introducing plants to front gardens that are currently paved over will improve well-being in residents.
Hypothesis 2: Introducing plants to front gardens that are currently paved over will improve a range of additional culturalservice benefits.
Background:
There is increasing evidence that access to green space and nature can provide a range of benefits including improvements in mental health (e.g. Van den Berg et al., 2010; Roe et al., 2013), physical health (e.g. Mitchell and Popham,2007; Mytton et al., 2012) and social cohesion (e.g. Maas et al., 2009). This evidence has helped formulate and refine theories as to the mechanisms by which green space can influence human well-being, e.g. attention restoration theory (Kaplan, 1995) and the psycho-evolutionary theory (Ulrich, 1986). At a practical level, new interventions are being introduced to utilise green space to help combat current concerns around medical issues such as depression, dementia, obesity, or recuperation from trauma. Terms such as green therapy and eco-therapy have entered the vocabulary, and indeed, horticultural therapy has been used as an intervention for people suffering mental or physical disorders for over 30 years. The vast majority of evidence backing such initiatives, however, has centred around green space in the civic or public sector. Nature reserves are being used as ‘green gyms’, parks for health walks and even ‘forest bathing’ (Lee, 2011) is being advocated in Japan. One significant factor missing in these ‘therapeutic landscapes’ is the value of private space around the domestic dwelling, i.e. people’s own gardens (Cameron et al., 2012).What contribution do gardens add to the health and well-being agenda? This is important because in contrast to most of the scenarios discussed above, this ‘green space’ is immediately accessible to those people who own or can access a garden (thought to be at 50% of the UK population). Moreover the ‘value’ of gardens and front gardens in particular needs to be assessed in a more rigorous manner, as these are increasingly disappearing in the urban landscape, as pressure increases on land for further housing and car parking space (Anon, 2015a, 2015b). In 2015 the RHS revealed that three times as many front gardens are now paved over compared to ten years ago, a total increase of 15 square miles of ‘grey’, and that plant cover in front gardens has decreased by as much as 15%. Over five million front gardens in the UK now have no plants growing in them (that’s one in three for the UK) and four and a half million front gardens (one in four) are completely paved over. The RHS believes it is vital to reverse this trend for a variety of environmental reasons. The impacts on social factors, however, are less well evaluated. In particularly, the consequences of such land form changes with respect to people’s engagement with green space, nature and anyallied therapeutic benefits are largely unknown. This proposed research will help assess this, and provide a better basis on which to value front gardens.
Research Outline:
The aim of this research is to work closely with the RHS Community Engagement Team, to identify one or more residential areas where a large proportion of front gardens have been lost to ‘off-road’ parking space in recent years, and where these ‘paved areas’ would be used in the study. Residents will be interviewed to assess whether they would welcome being involved in the study and potentially having these paved areas re-vegetated (either temporarily or permanently).
The proposed study would be divided into three components –
1/ An assessment of resident’s response to having their front paved area re-converted to garden (permanently) and monitoring emotional transitions during this process. (The garden constructions will be conducted by the RHS and be part of a larger community-based project, which may include coverage by the media).
2/ Re-vegetate’ a proportion of the front gardens using temporary landscape features (i.e. pots and tubs to give immediate impact). This will include greater replication than 1 and a greater degree of flexibility to alter the proportion and type of vegetation used, to provide further depth to the studies.
3/ An assessment of how the transitions affect ‘walkability’ and social cohesion in the wider neighbourhood, for example greater evidence of social interactions around the gardens, more passers-by or more people stopping to view the gardens etc.
For those gardens that are ‘re-vegetated’ the residents will be assessed for changes in mood, activities and feelings of well-being during the ‘horticultural intervention’. If feasible, whole sections of street would be planted-up in an attempt to create a local neighbourhood impact. (In this way, passers-by could also be interviewed to gauge their attitudes to the intervention, and to provide additional data). Other residents (the control group) which received no new garden would also be monitored for changes in well-being over the same experimental period.
Within the second component, there may be opportunities to further explore how aspects of the plantings affect well-being, for example, the influence of garden colour or form.
Applicants should have an understanding of human response to landscape/nature and the implications for health and well-being. Previous practical experience on psychological / sociological methodology is desirable. Students will be expected to conduct both quantitative and qualitative approaches to data collection and analysis, and be competent in citizen-orientated research. Some knowledge of horticultural practices and landscape design would be beneficial. Applicants should be excellent organisers and communicators, as robust methodology will need to be matched with a flair for information presentation and dissemination.
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Student stipend: £14,000 pa
Selection Criteria
Criteria / Level / TestedEssential (E) / Desirable (D)
Bachelors degree in relevant discipline / E / Application
Masters degree in relevant discipline / D / Application
Understanding of human response to green space / nature, esp. in relation to health and well-being / E / Application / Interview
Understanding of appropriate research methodology (quantitative and qualitative) / E / Application / Interview
Understanding of context – current health / environmental agendas / D / Application / Interview
Problem solving skills / E / Application / Interview
Evidence of innovative approaches / thinking / D / Application / Interview
Organisational skills / E / Application
Ability to work independently, but also to collaborate work in teams as necessary / E / Application / Interview
Determination / focussed approach to work / E / Interview
Written communication skills / E / Application
Verbal communication skills, including working with wider RHS teams, the public and potentially media bodies such as the BBC / E / Interview
Statistical knowledge / skills / E / Application
IT skills (Word / Excel / PP or similar) / E / Application
Location: Student will be based primarily in Sheffield.
Anticipated start date: January 2016
Supervisory team and expertise:
Dr Paul Alexander – Environmental Horticulture and Dr Alistair Griffith – Social and Therapeutic Horticulture (Royal Horticultural Society)
Dr Ross Cameron (Dept. of Landscape, Sheffield) – Landscape Design and Management.
Prof Jenny Roe, Professor of Design and Health, (School of Architecture, University of Virginia) – Environmental Psychology.
References:
Anon (2015a). BBC News - The decline of the British front garden. [Accessed 21 July 2015].
Anon (2015b). Greening grey Britain:
Cameron, R. W., Blanuša, T., Taylor, J. E., Salisbury, A., Halstead, A. J., Henricot, B. & Thompson, K. (2012). The domestic garden–Its contribution to urban green infrastructure. Urban Forestry & Urban Greening, 11(2), 129-137.
Grahn, P. & Stigsdotter, U. K. (2010). The relation between perceived sensory dimensions of urban green space and stress restoration. Landscape and urban planning, 94(3), 264-275.
Kaplan, S. (1995). The restorative benefits of nature: Toward an integrative framework. Journal of environmental psychology, 15(3), 169-182.
Lee, J., Park, B. J., Tsunetsugu, Y., Ohira, T., Kagawa, T. & Miyazaki, Y. (2011). Effect of forest bathing on physiological and psychological responses in young Japanese male subjects. Public health, 125(2), 93-100.
Maas, J., Van Dillen, S. M., Verheij, R. A. & Groenewegen, P. P. (2009). Social contacts as a possible mechanism behind the relation between green space and health. Health & place, 15(2), 586-595.
Mitchell, R. & Popham, F. (2007). Greenspace, urbanity and health: relationships in England. Journal of Epidemiology and community health, 61(8), 681-683.
Mytton, O. T., Townsend, N., Rutter, H. & Foster, C. (2012). Green space and physical activity: an observational study using health survey for England data. Health & place, 18(5), 1034-1041.
Roe, J. J., Thompson, C. W., Aspinall, P. A., Brewer, M. J., Duff, E. I., Miller, D., ... & Clow, A. (2013). Green space and stress: Evidence from cortisol measures in deprived urban communities. International journal of environmental research and public health, 10(9), 4086-4103.
Thompson, C. W., Roe, J., Aspinall, P., Mitchell, R., Clow, A. & Miller, D. (2012). More green space is linked to less stress in deprived communities: Evidence from salivary cortisol patterns. Landscape and Urban Planning, 105(3), 221-229.
Ulrich, R. S. (1986). Human responses to vegetation and landscapes. Landscape and urban planning, 13, 29-44.
Van den Berg, A. E., Maas, J., Verheij, R. A. & Groenewegen, P. P. (2010). Green space as a buffer between stressful life events and health. Social science & medicine, 70(8), 1203-1210.