The Trust for Public Land

The great Indian heat wave broke all records. It scorched a vast swath of the country, from Gujarat and Rajasthan in the west, eastward across Uttar Pradesh and Bihar to West Bengal. In rural areas and in the megacities of Delhi and Lucknow, the temperature climbed above 40°C and the humidity above 60%; they hovered there for days, with little relief at night. Power plants and water systems stopped functioning. The combination of heat and dehydration killed hundreds of thousands in just a few days. In one city in Uttar Pradesh, thousands of people had sought refuge in the water of a shallow local lake. But the water was hotter than their body temperature. When the heat wave finally subsided, one of the most grisly tasks was removing thousands of corpses from the lake.

Physical activity is a well-known behavior for promoting health and preventing a variety of chronic diseases. Despite widespread knowledge of the benefits of physical activity, most Americans do not engage in sufficient physical activity. Over the past decade, there has been increasing recognition of the health benefits of spending time in nature, mediated in part through physical activity. This has led to new partnerships across health, parks and recreation, public lands, and environmental organizations to increase time spent, and physical activity, in natural settings. This review assesses the current evidence around physical activity in natural settings (PANS), strategies for promoting PANS including health professional engagement, and current gaps in the research literature.

BackgroundTime spent outdoors and in nature has been associated with numerous benefits to health and well-being. We examined relationships between park access and mental health for children and parents during the COVID-19 pandemic. We also explored associations between park access and co-participation of parent and child in time outdoors, and child and parent physical activity.MethodsWe used data from 1,000 respondents to a nationally representative U.S. survey of parent–child dyads during October–November 2020. Park access was defined as an affirmative response to: “do you have a park that you can safely walk to within 10 min of your home?” Child mental health was operationalized as the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) total difficulties score. The Patient Health Questionnaire-4 (PHQ-4) total score assessed parent mental health and the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) assessed parent physical activity. Child physical activity and co-participation in outdoor activity were reported as number of days in the prior week. Linear regression was used to examine relationships between park access and health outcomes in models adjusted for child and parent characteristics and COVID-19 impact.ResultsOur sample included 500 parents of children ages 6–10 years, and 500 parent–child dyads of children ages 11–17 years. Park access was associated with a lower SDQ total score among children (β: -1.26, 95% CI: -2.25, -0.27) and a lower PHQ-4 total score among parents (β: -0.89, 95% CI: -1.39, -0.40). In models stratified by child age, these associations were observed for SDQ scores among adolescents ages 11–17 and for PHQ-4 scores among parents of children ages 6–10 years. Park access was also associated with 0.50 more days/week of co-participation in outdoor time (95% CI: 0.16, 0.84), and higher levels of parent physical activity (β: 1009 MET-min/week, 95% CI: 301, 1717), but not child physical activity (β: 0.31 days/week, 95% CI: -0.03, 0.66).ConclusionsPark access was associated with better mental health among children and parents, and more parent physical activity and parent–child co-participation in outdooractivity during the COVID-19 pandemic. Access to nearby parks may be an important resource to promote health and well-being, for both individuals and families.

Multifunctional urban green infrastructure (UGI) can regulate stormwater, mitigate heat islands, conserve biodiversity and biocultural diversity, and produce food, among other functions. Equitable governance of UGI requires new tools for sharing pertinent information. Our goal was to develop a public-access geographic information system (GIS) that can be used for comprehensive UGI planning in Washington, DC (the District) and to create an e-tool for UGI in the form of Tableau dashboards. The dashboards allow stakeholders to identify (1) existing UGI and (2) potential areas for new UGI including urban agriculture (UA). They also allow users to manipulate the data and identify priority locations for equitable UGI development by applying population vulnerability indices and other filters. We demonstrate use of the dashboards through scenarios focusing on UA in the District, which currently has 150 ha of existing UGI in the form of documented projects and an additional 2734 ha potentially suitable for UGI development. A total of 2575 ha is potentially suitable for UA, with 56% of that area in Wards 5, 7, and 8, which are largely food deserts and whose residents are primarily Black and experience the greatest inequities. Our work can serve as a model for similar digital tools in other locales using Tableau and other platforms.

Land-use practices on private properties that abut protected areas can have a significant impact on the conservation goals of a park or reserve. In Ecuador, many of the protected areas have private properties within their boundaries, and several share buffer zones with sizeable communities. This paper (1) evaluates incentives for private landowners to assist with meeting the conservation goals of the Condor Bioreserve, and (2) makes recommendations on mechanisms and incentives that may be the most appropriate for generating a commitment from private landowners to manage for conservation values. Currently, the strategy to promote compatible management on private properties relies heavily on voluntary efforts by landowners, with only a small number of programs offering financial or material incentives in return. To create greater long-term stability in land use around protected areas, programs need to create incentives for private landowners to formalize a commitment to long-term sustainable management. We recommend (1) conservation easements and (2) conservation payments, and in special cases (3) private reserves. Solid commitments to manage private lands for conservation effectively extend protected area boundaries and allow management plans to better incorporate the ecosystem role and services that private lands provide.