The past year and a half has been rife with challenges and uncertainty, causing untold suffering the world over. While it’s been important to reflect on and acknowledge these hardships, I’ve also found solace in focusing on the small yet meaningful positives that have emerged in my own life. Some of the most important shifts have been the opportunity to spend more time at home with my children during the weekdays and being able to walk my dog every single day, rather than only on the weekend.
I’m lucky to live in a very green part of London. There's a large common close by, as well as a small nature reserve only a few minutes away that’s quietly tucked behind a block of flats, hidden from view and relatively unknown and unused. These two places have become real havens for me, and our daily walks a source of joy and contentment.
One of the things I love the most is seeing how these places evolve as the year passes and we move from season to season. After the long British winter, spring really does feel like an awakening. And I never cease to be amazed by how quickly greenery takes over; tiny green shoots become huge billowing clouds of cow parsley within the span of a few short weeks. It always feels like a sudden - but certainly welcome - change.
A great joy of this time of year is seeing the wild flowers and poppies open up, punctuating the green with vibrant bursts of colour. This morning at the nature reserve, as I paid a visit to a patch of poppies and watched bees happily buzzing about, I felt so lucky to have this place on my doorstep.
I’m not alone in feeling this way. It’s well known that access to green space improves our mental wellbeing while offering a range of additional health benefits (not to mention climate change adaptation benefits!). And yet the Committee on Climate Change (2017) figures show that urban green space in England declined from 63% to 56% between 2001 and 2016 (you can read more about this here and here).
At the same time, we also know that ‘not all green spaces are created equal.’ Green spaces that are featureless and composed only of short grass will have low ecological value with little or no biodiversity benefits.
The relationship between green space and health has often been investigated through proximity of people to green areas. However, there are a growing number of academics and policymakers who contend that quality is as important for mental health as quantity (i.e. that living close to parks or green spaces that are lacking in biodiversity does not confer the same benefits as a park that is teeming with flowers and wildlife). This fascinating study conducted surveys with park users in Bradford, Yorkshire, to quantify psychological restoration and found that restorative benefit is predicted by biodiversity and that the benefits were unrelated to age, gender and ethnic background. Another study led by the University of Sheffield also demonstrated “measurable positive associations between the species richness of urban greenspaces in Sheffield and the well-being of greenspace visitors” with “the degree of benefit positively related to species richness of plants and birds.” The authors of that study conclude that the “successful management of urban greenspaces should emphasise biological complexity to enhance human well-being in addition to biodiversity conservation.”
So, how do we ensure that green spaces are high quality and biodiverse and provide the restorative benefits that are so important to our wellbeing? Well, one school of thought is that a lot can be achieved by simply allowing nature to flourish. Over the last few years we’ve started to become more and more aware of the benefits of allowing nature the freedom to grow and regenerate. A famous example is Knepp Wildland, where their ethos is that ‘nature is given as much freedom as possible’ which has resulted in extraordinary increases in wildlife.
The rewilding project at Knepp estate via www.theguardian.com
At a more local level, councils have started to reduce their maintenance and cutting regimes, allowing grass verges and areas of parkland to grow and wildflowers to spring up with amazing effect (here’s an excellent example of this). More and more local authorities are also planting wildflower meadows and then allowing those meadows to flourish by minimizing the amount of maintenance they do. There is also now a No Mow May campaign that urges local authorities (as well as gardeners) to down tools and avoid cutting their lawns and verges for the benefit of flowers and pollinators.
All of that said, we need to remember that green space doesn’t just mean parks and commons. Street trees, planters, green roofs and parklets all enhance the quality of an area, provide important corridors for nature, support wellbeing and impact how people feel about their local area. That’s why it’s great to see an increasing number of initiatives such as this one in Waltham Forest, that encourages communities to adopt or manage a local green space or flower bed.
Whilst our work at DG Cities is focused on how technology and data can benefit cities, we’ve been coming up against some of these topics of green space and biodiversity in our recent work. We recently collaborated with our Greenwich Council colleagues on drafting the Housing and Homeless Strategy and we led on the section of the strategy that is focused on creating local neighbourhoods that are “vibrant, sustainable and resilient and which meet the aspirations of our residents today and in the future.” Creating new, high quality green spaces as well as improving existing green spaces will be a huge part of the Council achieving this aim. We also submitted an exciting proposal to the GLA’s Future Neighbourhood 2030 programme, which has climate adapted, resilient and green neighbourhoods at its core.
We’re truly excited to have the opportunity to expand our work into this area and we’ll continue to develop these innovative projects and programmes that will benefit both people and the planet alike. As for me, I have no doubt that my regular dose of nature therapy will serve as an endless source of joy and inspiration; a daily reminder of just how important it is for us to work towards creating greener and more resilient cities.
