The Landscape of Public Health is possibly one of the most important subjects FOLAR has tackled - not just health, but how public open space and designed landscapes have been used in the past for the benefit of the general public. As populations have becomes increasingly more urban in the 20C, landscape architects and managers working today in this area as academics and practitioners can demonstrate, with confidence and research-based evidence, to landscape and associated professions, local and central government politicians, and the public, what can be achieved today, and how this can be done, and how long term management needs to be part of this healthy uplift for the population. The most important benefit, apart from nurturing a generally healthier population, is reducing the differences in health between the most economically deprived populations and those better off .
One theme for the FOLAR symposia is how the past can inform the present and the future. There is definitely a lot of past when it comes to wise city elders understanding and believing ie knowing the connection between being outside and being healthy. One speaker at this event looks back to ancient civilisations to demonstrate this. But for some time now this ‘knowing’ is deemed not enough to convince leaders today to provide funding to create or maintain green spaces, they want evidence. Another of the speakers says enough - we have more than enough research, stop please! As can be expected - with two or so serial career researchers present – this view was swiftly challenged.
It is not enough to be outside. The quality of public green space has to be of a particular standard, and it has to be accessible for all ages and all people. Green space is equigenic - ie it is associated with reducing the difference in health between the most economically deprived people and those better off. This has been proven through research. And the mechanisms linking landscape and health are explained in the final talk.
This was a thought provoking symposium, and it generated one of the best question and answer sessions we have had so far.
In his introduction Tim Gale stated that 4.6m adults seek help, each year, for mental health difficulties. However, while the need for sunlight, clean air and water, and green open space with trees - fundamental elements not only for sustaining a healthy population, but also for landscape architecture - have always been important in city design, even today, these are not
Read MoreIt was surprising to hear Jan Woudstra start his presentation saying that this is not a subject he has spent time researching (until he received FOLAR’s invitation). The reason is that he always thought in creating good landscapes you are taking care of peoples health, and and that remains his conclusion having prepared this presentation
Read MoreRobert Holden has long been interested in the work of Alfred and Ada Salter and in his presentation he recreates many different aspects of local life in Bermondsey in the early 1900s, from noxious industries, the rise of infectious life-threatening diseases, squalid housing and cramped living conditions. Entering this bleak place are Alfred and Ada Salter
Read MoreThere will not be many people in as good a position as Paul Rabbitts - an experienced Parks Manager and historian of public parks - to talk on this subject. The major park building movement in the UK was enabled by the 1875 Public Health Act, and today there are 27,000 public parks with the majority implemented by 1914.
Read MoreBiophilia has become one of the most popular topics for landscape undergraduates across the world says Jamie Liversedge in his presentation. Biophilia is about recognising people's natural and innate connection with nature, and being able to measure its therapeutic benefits. But there is a void between
Read MoreThe direction Catharine Ward Thompson takes in her research is based on salutogenesis, an approach to human health that examines the factors contributing to the promotion and maintenance of physical and mental well-being rather than disease. Having the types of environment that support good health makes much better economic and cost effective sense for public health.
Read MoreTim Gale provides a summary of key points from each of the talks, and then steers the Q+A and discussion. This looked at the benefits of parks, the standards set by the green flag awards, quality of place counts for more than quantity, how in Norwich developing a hierarchy of parks based on dominant function is the strategy now being adopted. Who should we be influencing in society today?
Read MoreRead Tim Gale’s suggestions for taking forward some of the thinking from this symposium
