Home gardens can be more important than other urban green infrastructure for mental well-being during COVID-19 pandemics.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Marques P
PROVIDER: S-EPMC8414053 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:Urbanization and ageing have important implications for public mental health and well-being. Cities pose major challenges for older citizens, but also offer opportunities to develop, test, and implement policies, services, infrastructure, and interventions that promote mental well-being. The MINDMAP project aims to identify the opportunities and challenges posed by urban environmental characteristics for the promotion and management of mental well-being and cognitive function of older individuals.MINDMAP aims to achieve its research objectives by bringing together longitudinal studies from 11 countries covering over 35 cities linked to databases of area-level environmental exposures and social and urban policy indicators. The infrastructure supporting integration of this data will allow multiple MINDMAP investigators to safely and remotely co-analyse individual-level and area-level data. Individual-level data is derived from baseline and follow-up measurements of ten participating cohort studies and provides information on mental well-being outcomes, sociodemographic variables, health behaviour characteristics, social factors, measures of frailty, physical function indicators, and chronic conditions, as well as blood derived clinical biochemistry-based biomarkers and genetic biomarkers. Area-level information on physical environment characteristics (e.g. green spaces, transportation), socioeconomic and sociodemographic characteristics (e.g. neighbourhood income, residential segregation, residential density), and social environment characteristics (e.g. social cohesion, criminality) and national and urban social policies is derived from publically available sources such as geoportals and administrative databases. The linkage, harmonization, and analysis of data from different sources are being carried out using piloted tools to optimize the validity of the research results and transparency of the methodology.MINDMAP is a novel research collaboration that is combining population-based cohort data with publicly available datasets not typically used for ageing and mental well-being research. Integration of various data sources and observational units into a single platform will help to explain the differences in ageing-related mental and cognitive disorders both within as well as between cities in Europe, the US, Canada, and Russia and to assess the causal pathways and interactions between the urban environment and the individual determinants of mental well-being and cognitive ageing in older adults.
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Project description:Urbanisation is increasing worldwide and is regarded a major driver of environmental change altering local species assemblages. Private domestic gardens contribute a significant share of total green area in cities, but their biodiversity has received relatively little attention. Previous studies mainly considered plants, flying invertebrates such as bees and butterflies, and birds. By using a multi-taxa approach focused on less mobile, ground-dwelling invertebrates, we examined the influence of local garden characteristics and landscape characteristics on species richness and abundance of gastropods, spiders, millipedes, woodlice, ants, ground beetles and rove beetles. We assume that most of the species of these groups are able to complete their entire life cycle within a single garden. We conducted field surveys in thirty-five domestic gardens along a rural-urban gradient in Basel, Switzerland. Considered together, the gardens examined harboured an impressive species richness, with a mean share of species of the corresponding groups known for Switzerland of 13.9%, ranging from 4.7% in ground beetles to 23.3% in woodlice. The overall high biodiversity is a result of complementary contributions of gardens harbouring distinct species assemblages. Indeed, at the garden level, species richness of different taxonomical groups were typically not inter-correlated. The exception was ant species richness, which was correlated with those of gastropods and spiders. Generalised linear models revealed that distance to the city centre is an important driver of species richness, abundance and composition of several groups, resulting in an altered species composition in gardens in the centre of the city. Local garden characteristics were important drivers of gastropod and ant species richness, and the abundance of spiders, millipedes and rove beetles. Our study shows that domestic gardens make a valuable contribution to regional biodiversity. Thus, domestic urban gardens constitute an important part of green infrastructure, which should be considered by urban planners.
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Project description:The importance of natural ecosystem processes is often overlooked in urban areas. Green Infrastructure (GI) features have been constructed in urban areas as elements to capture and treat excess urban runoff while providing a range of ancillary benefits, e.g., ecosystem processes mediated by microorganisms that improve air and water quality, in addition to the associations with plant and tree rhizospheres. The objective of this study was to characterize the bacterial community and diversity in engineered soils (Technosols) of five types of GI in New York City; vegetated swales, right of way bioswales (ROWB; including street-side infiltration systems and enhanced tree pits), and an urban forest. The design of ROWB GI features directly connects with the road to manage street runoff, which can increase the Technosol saturation and exposure to urban contaminants washed from the street and carried into the GI feature. This GI design specifically accommodates dramatic pulses of water that influence the bacterial community composition and diversity through the selective pressure of contaminants or by disturbance. The ROWB had the highest biodiversity, but no significant correlation with levels of soil organic matter and microbially-mediated biogeochemical functions. Another important biogeochemical parameter for soil bacterial communities is pH, which influenced the bacterial community composition, consistent with studies in non-urban soils. Bacterial community composition in GI features showed signs of anthropogenic disturbance, including exposure to animal feces and chemical contaminants, such as petroleum products. Results suggest the overall design and management of GI features with a channeled connection with street runoff, such as ROWB, have a comprehensive effect on soil parameters (particularly organic matter) and the bacterial community. One key consideration for future assessments of GI microbial community would be to determine the source of organic matter and elucidate the relationship between vegetation, Technosol, and bacteria in the designed GI features.
| S-EPMC6531853 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Climate change is likely to alter the quantity and quality of urban stormwater, presenting a risk to water quality and public health. How might stormwater management practices need to change to address future climate? Answering requires understanding how management practices respond to climate forcing. Traditional "gray" stormwater design employs engineered structures, sized based on assumptions about future rainfall, which have limited flexibility once built. Green infrastructure (GI) uses vegetation, soil, and distributed structures to manage rainwater where it falls and may provide greater flexibility for adaptation. There is, however, uncertainty about how a warmer climate may affect performance of different types of GI. This study uses the hydrologic and biogeochemical watershed model, Regional Hydro-Ecologic Simulation System (RHESSys), to investigate sensitivity of different GI practices to climate. Simulations examine 36 urban "archetypes" representing different development patterns (at the city block scale) of typical U.S. cities, eleven regional climatic settings, and a range of mid-21st century scenarios based on downscaled climate model output. Results suggest regionally variable effects of climate change on the performance of GI practices for water quantity, water quality, and carbon sequestration. GI is able to mitigate most projected future increases in surface runoff, while bioretention can mitigate increased nitrogen yield at nine of eleven sites. Simulated changes in carbon balance are small, while local evaporative cooling can be substantial. Given uncertainty in the local expression of future climate, infrastructure design should emphasize flexibility and robustness to a range of future conditions.
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Project description:Little is known about how stormwater exfiltrates from green infrastructure and few efforts have been undertaken to address this question. This study used tensiometers to monitor water exfiltration from an aggregate-filled storage gallery installed under permeable pavement. An 80-space parking lot was built at Seitz elementary school in Fort Riley, KS under an agreement between EPA and US Army during the summer of 2015. A network of twelve tensiometers and twelve monitoring wells was installed under and south of the storage gallery. Tensiometers were installed a various depths and distances to monitor soil moisture tension. The installation was used to monitor subsurface water flow patterns from the storage gallery under the permeable pavement site. The results of the study showed that soil moisture tension is larger at the shallower depths, decreasing with depth from the ground surface. Larger soil tension was associated with increased distance from the permeable pavement storage gallery. The results showed exfiltration from both the sidewalls and the bottom of the gallery while the changes in soil tension were larger for the tensiometer monitoring exfiltration from the side walls. Both the accumulated water depth inside the storage gallery and groundwater level rise were positively correlated with total rainfall depth. The calculated vertical flow rate was larger than the horizontal flow. The soil water tension change associated with storage gallery exfiltration was measured in a radius of <5 m from the storage gallery. Long-term peak groundwater level rise should be considered for design of the storage gallery depth to maintain the effective exfiltration. Understanding the exfiltration pathways aids with the placement and design the storage gallery. Additional research is necessary to understand how specific local parameters and vadose zone characteristics would affect the long-term exfiltration process.
| S-EPMC7370833 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Functional and biogeographical properties of soil microbial communities in urban ecosystems are poorly understood despite their role in metabolic processes underlying valuable ecosystem services. The worldwide emergence of engineered habitats in urban landscapes-green roofs, bioswales, and other types of soil-based green infrastructure-highlights the importance of understanding how environmental changes affect the community assembly processes that shape urban microbial diversity and function. In this study we investigated (1) whether engineered green roofs and bioswales in New York City had distinct microbial community composition and trait-associated diversity compared to non-engineered soils in parks and tree pits, and (2) if these patterns were consistent with divergent community assembly processes associated with engineered specifications of green infrastructure habitats not present in conventional, non-engineered green infrastructure; specifically, tree pit and park lawn soils. We found that green roofs and bioswales each had distinct bacterial and fungal communities, but that community composition and diversity were not significantly associated with geographic distance, suggesting that the processes structuring these differences are related to aspects of the habitats themselves. Bioswales, and to a lesser extent green roofs, also contained increased functional potential compared to conventional GI soils, based on the diversity and abundance of taxa associated with nitrogen cycling, biodegradation, decomposition, and traits positively associated with plant growth. We discuss these results in the context of community assembly theory, concluding that urban soil microbial community composition and diversity in engineered habitats are driven largely by environmental filtering, whereas stochastic processes are more important among non-engineered soils.
| S-EPMC7291602 | biostudies-literature
Project description:ObjectivesGlobally, the COVID-19 pandemic has overwhelmed many healthcare systems, which has hampered access to routine clinical care during lockdowns. Informal home care, care provided by non-healthcare professionals, increases the community's healthcare capacity during pandemics. There is, however, limited research about the characteristics of informal home care providers and the challenges they face during such public health emergencies.DesignA random, cross-sectional, population-based, RDD, telephone survey study was conducted to examine patterns of home care, characteristics of informal home care providers and the challenges experienced by these care providers during this pandemic.SettingData were collected from 22 March to 1 April 2020 in Hong Kong, China.ParticipantsA population representative study sample of Chinese-speaking adults (n=765) was interviewed.Primary and secondary outcome measuresThe study examined the characteristics of informal home care providers and self-reported health requirements of those who needed care. The study also examined providers' self-perceived knowledge to provide routine home care as well as COVID-19 risk reduction care. Respondents were asked of their mental health status related to COVID-19.ResultsOf the respondents, 25.1% of 765 provided informal home care during the studied COVID-19 pandemic period. Among the informal home care providers, 18.4% of respondents took leave from school/work during the epidemic to provide care for the sick, fragile elderly and small children. Care providers tended to be younger aged, female and housewives. Approximately half of care providers reported additional mental strain and 37.2% reported of challenges in daily living during epidemic. Although most informal home care providers felt competent to provide routine care, 49.5% felt inadequately prepared to cope with the additional health risks of COVID-19.ConclusionDuring public health emergencies, heavy reliance on informal home healthcare providers necessitates better understanding of their specific needs and increased government services to support informal home care.
| S-EPMC7674019 | biostudies-literature