Working long hours and want to make the most of time with your children? Your local park is an ideal place for sharing experiences that benefit the whole family.
The Ohio City Farm in Cleveland provides low-cost land, shared facilities and technical assistance to support entrepreneurial farmers.
Horticulture Group/Flickr
Four out of 5 Americans live in cities, so urban planning can make a big difference in our lifestyles – especially if it promotes healthy diets and physical activity.
Sea Line Park, one of the shortlisted entries in the competition to design a new park for the Melbourne of 2050.
Future Park Design Ideas Competition
Some might scoff at the free-ranging ideas sparked by a competition to design future parks for Melbourne. But the legacy of a radical idea to green a CBD street in 1985 shows why we need such thinking.
Protecting land from being developed intuitively may seem like a drag on local economies, but research in New England finds that it has the opposite effect.
Grass surfaces require a lot of maintenance, especially in high-traffic areas.
Jason Henderson
Weeds are serious problems on sports fields, parks and other sites covered with turfgrass. A new strategy uses mechanical force to kill them instead of chemical herbicides.
Contact with nature reduces stress and aggression, one reason scholars say urban green space may reduce violence.
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Some parks reduce violence in the local vicinity. Other parks attract crime. The difference has to do with how these urban green spaces are designed, programmed and managed, experts say.
Parks are places where children make their own decisions, explore their imaginations and expand their abilities.
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Parents are more willing to let children do their own thing in parks. It’s a chance for children to make their own decisions, explore their abilities and imaginations, and weigh up risks.
Hadrian’s Wall in Northumberland National Park, UK.
Dave Head/Shutterstock
Research shows that access to urban green space makes people and neighborhoods healthier. But parks can’t work their magic if their design ignores the needs of nearby communities.
Elephants in Kakoi village, Burunge Wildlife Management Area.
Credit: Alex Wunsch
Australia has guidelines for designing safe parks, but the stories of many women show these are not enough. We must involve women in co-designing these shared public spaces.
Hiking the Savage River Loop in Denali National Park and Preserve, Alaska.
Lian Law/NPS
Many studies have shown that time outdoors is good for our physical health. Three wilderness education experts explain why periods alone in nature also provide mental and spiritual benefits.
A sculpture of William Ricketts looms over those of Arrernte and Pitjantjatjara men at the sanctuary in Victoria’s Dandenong Ranges.
Chris Haych/flickr
A mossy sanctuary in Victoria’s Dandenong Ranges houses 92 sculptures, mostly of Arrernte and Pitjantjatjara men, women and children. They are steeped in primitivism, yet the park is a popular tourist attraction.
Being in a park tends to make people feel more positive, although the time of day and the season also affect their moods.
leungchopan/Shutterstock
The positive mood of tweets varies with time of day and season, but it’s consistently higher in parks than in built-up areas, where people are more likely to express anger and fears.
Overflowing bins are one way to spoil the amenity of public space, but sensors can now alert councils when bins need emptying.
Wikimedia
Researchers are installing sensors to collect data about the use of public spaces. This can improve the management and public amenity of these places, but will users see the technology as intrusive?