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Informal green spaces (IGS) such as overgrown vacant lots and urban brownfields constitute a considerable amount of green resources in the city. Given that the increasingly competitive land use of the urban area, enhancing the potential ecosystem services (ES) of IGS through design and management practices is of critical importance. This literature review paper provides an overview of ES delivered by urban IGS: What types of IGS have been discussed? Which ES have been identified in IGS, what interrelationships among different types of ES have been identified, and how can the potential of IGS be enhanced by urban design practices? 112 scientific papers were analyzed for their 1) IGS terms applied, 2) ES studied, 3) current or potential ES discussed, 4) ES trade-offs, and 5) ES assessment methods. Through the review, we found that although different types of ES have been identified in IGS, most studies did not consider ES synergies and trade-offs. The few studies assessing trade-offs of ES in IGS mostly focused on large-scale IGS such as urban brownfields rather than on small-scale IGS such as vacant lands/lots. The literature review highlights two knowledge gaps for future research: the first one is to explore the design and management knowledge that integrate multiple ES in small-scale IGS based on the assessment of potential ES trade-offs and synergies; the second one is to develop the spatial assessment of ES trade-offs and synergies, which is the key to envision design and management interventions that optimize the benefits of IGS. The literature review promotes the acknowledgement of the term IGS through highlighting their value in ES provisioning and further outlines future research directions on small-scale IGS such as vacant lands/lots and patches of spontaneous vegetation.

PurposeThe purpose of the article is to present some preliminary findings and discussions points from a symposium on Public Outdoor Spaces and COVID-19 organised in Wageningen, The Netherlands, in June 2021.Design/methodology/approachThe article argues for a salutogenic perspective on infrastructure planning and design, dealing with the interplay between the ideas and practices of infrastructure planning and design and the outcomes of those ideas and practices for health.FindingsWithin that perspective, the coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis is seen as an opportunity to revive the importance of infrastructure in promoting health and well-being.Originality/valueThe salutogenic approach adds a much-needed new perspective on infrastructure planning and design, and also involves challenges both in research and practice, for the application of holistic principles to the design of new environments.

Outdoor microclimates vary among different urban neighbourhoods depending on their morphological variations. The Local Climate Zone (LCZ) framework is a well-developed typomorphological classification used to capture the variation that characterises neighbourhood microclimates. However, it does not include detailed morphological parameters within neighbourhoods that have synergistic effects on microclimates. It is thus essential to develop neighbourhood typologies with detailed spatial descriptions. This study first identifies the LCZ in Amsterdam, London and Paris with the highest Land Surface Temperature (hereinafter referred to as the most heat-prone areas). Subsequently, parameters which are not covered by the LCZs were analysed, including building block's floor area ratio and shape factor, street canyon's orientation and Height-to-Width ratio, street total length, green space area, and tree cover ratio. The results show that LCZ 2-compact mid-rise areas are the most heat-prone. Employing K-means cluster analysis, four neighbourhood typologies are distinguished within the LCZ 2: mainly wide streets with N-S and E-W orientations, mainly narrow streets with N-S and E-W orientations, mainly narrow streets with NE-SW and NW-SE orientations, mainly wide streets with four orientations divided by 45°. These generalised neighbourhood typologies can be used as the basis for design interventions aiming at climate adaptation in heat-prone urban areas.

Natural areas are now known to be important resources for the health and wellbeing of urban dwellers, through, for example, the opportunities they provide for cognitive and emotional restoration. However, urban populations have also been found not to engage with these spaces and to display some form of biophobia which may hinder them from perceiving any of these benefits. This concept of biophobia is thought to entail both our innate physiological responses to the perceived danger from non-human threats such as spiders and snakes and our cultural attachment to material comfort. The word is often used with derogatory connotations, even if it is part of an evolutionary mechanism honed over thousands of years to keep humans alive. This review presents the current state of knowledge on urban biophobia as well as evidence of instances in which built and mixed urban environments were found to be more restorative than natural ones for the urban population, in order to assess any connection within the two. A series of recommendations for further research but also for the practical implementation of natural areas in cities capable of attracting a wide variety of people regardless of their fears or preferences are also formulated. Only by investigating the psychological and physiological responses of urban dwellers to their daily environments can we hope to design interventions which will remain relevant for the modern world.

The health benefits of urban green spaces have been found to vary for different populations, such as people of different socio-demographics or different cultures. Among these populations, one remains understudied although its numbers are growing: Chinese international students. Indeed, more and more Chinese students choose to go abroad for higher education but face specific challenges, often resulting in them experiencing high levels of stress and poor health. This study explores the link between Chinese international students’ use of local green spaces and the effect on their perceived stress and health. An online survey was created to collect data from 186 Chinese international students studying in Edinburgh, Scotland (UK). The data covered the participants’ reported health status and their perceived stress levels, the strategies they use when coping with stress, their awareness of the benefits of visiting green spaces as well as their self-reported use of and access to local green spaces. The findings show a significant correlation between access to and use of urban green spaces and the self-reported wellbeing indicators. Some of the barriers experienced by participants in visiting green spaces were also explored. By investigating the specific behaviors of this emerging and vulnerable population, this study expands the corpus of existing evidence for the role played by urban green spaces in supporting wellbeing. Some recommendations to support the health of this community using urban green spaces can therefore be proposed.

There are concerns about mental wellbeing in later life in older people as the global population becomes older and more urbanised. Mobility in the built environment has a role to play in improving quality of life and wellbeing, as it facilitates independence and social interaction. Recent studies using neuroimaging methods in environmental psychology research have shown that different types of urban environments may be associated with distinctive patterns of brain activity, suggesting that we interact differently with varying environments. This paper reports on research that explores older people’s responses to urban places and their mobility in and around the built environment. The project aim was to understand how older people experience different urban environments using a mixed methods approach including electroencephalography (EEG), self-reported measures, and interview results. We found that older participants experience changing levels of “excitement”, “engagement” and “frustration” (as interpreted by proprietary EEG software) whilst walking between a busy built urban environment and an urban green space environment. These changes were further reflected in the qualitative themes that emerged from transcribed interviews undertaken one week post-walk. There has been no research to date that has directly assessed neural responses to an urban environment combined with qualitative interview analysis. A synergy of methods offers a deeper understanding of the changing moods of older people across time whilst walking in city settings.