Master of Urban Planning: Open Spaces Impact on Physical Activity

This essay, prepared for a Master of Urban and Regional Planning program, investigates the influence of open spaces on physical activity within the city of Adelaide. It begins with an introduction to urban and regional planning, emphasizing its role in improving the quality of cities and regions throug...Read More

MASTER OF URBAN AND
REGIONAL PLANNING
Master of Urban and Regional Planning 0

Master of Urban and Regional Planning 1
Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Scope of evidence............................................................................................................................3
Distance and quality....................................................................................................................3
Neighborhood built environment.....................................................................................................4
Characteristics and quality...............................................................................................................5
Safety and maintenance...............................................................................................................6
Size..............................................................................................................................................7
Refurbishment..................................................................................................................................8
Amenities for park users..................................................................................................................8
Amenities for different users...........................................................................................................8
Playgrounds for children................................................................................................................10
Natural playgrounds.......................................................................................................................10
Mental health.................................................................................................................................11
Obesity and other health outcomes................................................................................................11
Ecosystem services........................................................................................................................12
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................12
References......................................................................................................................................14

Master of Urban and Regional Planning 2
Introduction
Urban and regional planning refers to improve the quality of regions and cities. Planners at
professional level assist organizations, communities, and government to integrate the economic,
environmental, and aspects at the social level for development from whole regions to small sites
up (Marco, 2016). This deals with a long range of planning as well as statutory and structural
components in relation to building an environment at a natural level and the legislative
framework for controlling land use (Wheeler, 2014).
This allied with the government, commerce, communities, sociology, and ecology disciplines.
The planning institute of Australia recognized the first master level program in Queensland
(Chris, 2013). This produced the familiarity with the concepts, professionally competent
graduates, techniques of planning and ideas. The skill is acquisitive by the practical work of the
project or small-scale exercises (Zhiling, 20165).
This is within public policy and a wider intellectual framework of design. There is a good source
of opportunities for research investigation by an advanced program of research.
Evidence and research for the determination at the social level of health direct attention to
present the sectors with the health affect wellbeing and population of health. The sector of
interest is government at the local level that has been recognized as having significant
involvement in activates aimed at promoting and protecting health (Davidson, 2014).
This is necessary to understand the impact of departments at a social level with the focus on
public health and to reduce the impact of health inequities. The particular government role noted
by the World Health Organization in relation to the quality of health. On the social department of

Master of Urban and Regional Planning 3
health, the commission of WHO of health highlighted the interplay and the importance of
government at the local level (Ruming, 2014).
Open space with quality at a high level encourages open people to supports physical and mental
health by physical activity (Bishop, 2014). Social determinants of health and impact assessment
have been covered in the following discussion.
Scope of evidence
Access at good level means the most homes in a neighborhood are within the walking distance of
a green public exposed space. The network of the street at a social level should be within the
easy distance of walking for a green open community space. To inspire cycling and walking to
these places the system of the street should be convenient, linked and feel safe (Smith, 2016).
With the good entrance to community-exposed space are further likely to gain and use such
spaces to associate with physical benefits of health, mental, and associated physical activity.
Distance and quality
There is a substantial suggestion that alive within ambulatory distance of neighborhoods and in
the park with additional green public exposed space with the link of bigger use of these positive
areas and outcomes of positive health (Hildson, 2016). This is associated with the following
criteria.
Advanced birth masses
Good emotional fitness
Lower possibility of high usual blood pressure in females during pregnancy.

Master of Urban and Regional Planning 4
The benefits of health also been observed with the distance from home to green public open
space.
People live within the areas of Leicestershire, Adelaide with a good amount of green spaces
within the 3km and 5km of home-based. The many readings have absorbed on the association
between physical activities and access to the park, and have an association at a positive level to
support all age groups. The study states as each extra hectare area of the park within the home
improved the probability of an adult to moderate the strenuous physical activity.
The similar study states that living within an attractive open space attracts recreational walking.
This has an impact at a positive level of mental health. This builds a positive and significant
relationship between the areas of the park and total numbers within the measurement of health.
Neighborhood built environment
Walkable and connected networks of the street with neighborhoods inspire the routine of local
green community open spaces. The connectivity of the street at greater level measured as the
destination of intersection in an area with a positive association of park with the use for both
children and adults (Raktim, 2012).
A good network of the environment allows people to travel safely between school, home, work,
and other destination within and between neighborhoods. Practice at good level refers to the
network that is
Connected, safe, priorities cycling, walking, modes of transport for public, opportunities for
planned and incidental physical activities.

Master of Urban and Regional Planning 5
This network of movement is the interconnected system of roads, streets, and paths to
accommodates cyclists, pedestrians, emergency, and private vehicle, and on road transport of
public. This connects activities and places and allows goods and people to reach the intended
destinations and to access the land and private level. This connectivity describes the easiness to
move between location such as work, home, and along with the network of movement. These are
highly connected with the links between destinations and origins
Neighborhood perception to build environment affect people whether individuals will gait to and
usage the park. If the path to green open interplanetary of public apparent as aesthetically
attractive, safe from traffic and crime, adults like to walk in the park.
For adolescents and children, the perception of their neighborhood affect encouraged and
allowed to centers of a walk, and park to cycles. Young people existing in neighborhoods with
connected streets, safe, and access to the park at an easy level and centers of sports are more
likely to use them.
Characteristics and quality
The characteristics of the green community open space affect the activities and use to support
(Razzaghmanesh, 2014). The following characters are important for encouraging physical
activities and use of the park.
Safety
Amenities
Aesthetics
Maintenance

Master of Urban and Regional Planning 6
Proximity
Identification of features that linked with the benefits of health and physical activities can
support practitioners and policymakers to scheme better lime public exposed spaces.
Measuring quality:
The number of a mix of different facilities, features, associations, and amenities with improved
walking and physical activities (Mark, 2018). These qualities have been rummage sale to
generate displays comprising:
Public Park Inspection Device
Public Open Space Device
Parklands
An attractiveness of quality of park with a score of adolescents
Public Open Space Desktop Auditing Device
A Quality Index of Parks for Youth
The parks at high-level are generally provided the feeling of well maintained, safe, and large
enough to add a selection of facilities. Well-maintained vegetation, water features, irrigated
lawns, Make parks attractive. For achieving the greater benefits of health, people like to visit and
be active in the parks with high quality.

Master of Urban and Regional Planning 7
Safety and maintenance
Green community open spaces maintained unwell and do not texture safe to depress persons
from using the park. For instance, a Western Australian study in research got that ambulatory at
recreational was more disorder with lower in parks (Herzlee, 2012).
A survey of people in Adelaide found that the people apparent their gardens to be clean,
providing benefits, and well used to the neighborhood with lower BMI and more physically
active.
Important issues of maintenance that disappoint people from uses of the park.
Dog fasces
Graffiti and Vandalism
Pollution and litter
Lack of lighting
Cracked and broken paths
Maintenance of park is an inequity issue at a social level. A study in Adelaide found that park in
the area of disadvantages was maintained at a poor level and had the disorder at a large level,
compare to more areas of advantages.
Size
Green public open space is more useful and encourages a good level of physical activities. This
relationship has been confirmed by many studies in Australia (Van Den Bosch, 2016).

Master of Urban and Regional Planning 8
Alive close to attractive and large exposed spaces encourages more ambulatory to compare to
small and lower quality of spaces. More walking is associated with the green open public space.
The number of people with large parks has physic that is more active. These parks have more
features like routes of walking, wooded areas, and bike racks. These are more related with the
number of bigger parks, amenities, and varieties.
Refurbishment
Parks can increase and improve their physical activities and use. By installing equipment of
playground or amenities had a reliably positive and strong control on children’s and adult
physical activities (Root, 2014).
The refurbishment of the green in Adelaide with an enclosed area for the playground, track for
walking, dogs, fencing and landscaping, barbeque area, led the increased amount of park
operators, and people detected physical active and walking. By installing, the outdoor gym. This
will lead to a small, but significantly increase in moderate to vigorous activity at the physical
level in older adult part user (Bruce, 2015).
Upgrading the park without consideration of the wider public not have desirable outcomes. This
declined by the fewer organized schedule actions such as tournaments of sport affected by
compact park platform budgets. The refurbished parks provide the facility to feel safer and
encourage people to feel safer.
Amenities for park users
The green public exposed spaces with more facilities are used at a good level to funding a wider
variety of actions and inspire advanced stages of physical activities. The more people throughout

Master of Urban and Regional Planning 9
the varieties of activities use this. In the park with amenities like facilities of sports and
playground people, feel more active (Leonie, 2016).
Amenities for different users
The park should include the amenities at the mix level (Sofoulis, 2011). This attracts all genders
and ages of people to support the specific demographic clutches.
Parks with shaded tracks and shaded sitting for parents and children.
Playground slides, fields of sports, and skate parks for adolescents.
Unpaved and paved trails for all age genders and groups.
The design that promotes security and safety, and prospects for contact and socializing with
nature for older grownups.
These are based on the interviews, surveys, and observation of the use of parks. Organized
amenities of sports like the attraction of basketball courts and physical activities in boys, men,
and adolescents. These features used for functions such as picnic areas, shelters, to attract the
women, men, and adolescents with appealed playgrounds to women and children.
Research has investigated features attractive to specific groups. The attractiveness of the park
includes these features.
Walking paths
Skate Park
Picnic table
Barbeques

Master of Urban and Regional Planning 10
Lighting around equipment
Public access toilets
The number of trees
These features significantly increase the likelihood that is used for physical activities. The
preferences of users at a different level may be conflict. White stake parts are attractive and
adolescent boys. The design of the park should manage the mix of amenities, potential conflicts,
and benefits of health for the whole community.
Playgrounds for children
These are significant article of green open public spaces as these attract families and children
that includes
Cognitive development
Leaning social skills like sharing, turn taking, leadership, and negotiation
In adolescents creative problem solving
For younger children in sensory stimulation
These support physical activities. Children play in diverse location, such as the ground of school,
local parks, and reserved gardens, are bodily active. The features and importance of parks that
may differ according to gender and age. A study in Adelaide found that the existence of a
community playground in a garden was definitely related with the weekend physical activities.

Master of Urban and Regional Planning 11
Natural playgrounds
Playground design affects the benefits provided to children. These parks offer a blend of
environment features, areas, and plants that engage children and built their interest. These
common features include
Digging patches
Creek beds
Vegetation
Rocks and boulders
Quiet areas
Unstructured areas of play like clear slopes and grassed areas
Children favor natural playground as they offer a grade of risk, by making this playground to feel
more challenging and exciting.
Creative, Imaginative, and exploratory areas of play
These green seats have a progressive effect on children's development and mental health.
Mental health
This positively related with the range of perceived and objective actions for mental health. These
are based on the perceptions of mental distress, wellbeing, other types of health-related
outcomes, and stressful experience.

Master of Urban and Regional Planning 12
People lives in lime spaces including personal gardens had higher well-being, lower mental
distress. These areas also led to long-term improvement and significant in mental health. These
green spaces have a positive effect on child mental wellbeing. These found as a positive
association with the green space.
Obesity and other health outcomes
A resident living in more lime spaces are bodily active and less expected to be overweighed or
obese. The results for the association between the lime space and obesity-related fitness
indicators
Without seeing, the aspects for the assembled atmosphere do not lead the good conclusions of
health. The disease of heart and stroke are least with the outcomes of the health. The percentage
of risk was 37% inferior in the high erraticism in greenness.
These contribute to the high variability in greenness like parks inlined streets and parks in the
area with the good connectivity of road. Residence in these areas is more bodily active that
strongly associated with the lower risk of stroke and heart disease.
Ecosystem services
The natural environment provides benefit to humans known as services of ecosystems. In the
environment of urban, areas of vegetated have, many important functions related to the health of
public including quality of air, favorable climate, and reducing the noise of traffic.
These areas are chiller than the nearby built surroundings and have a chilling effect on the
neighborhood. These reduce the urban heat effect of the island, improves social thermal comfort
and the threat of heat-related illness.

Master of Urban and Regional Planning 13
These green spaces affect the ability to cool the environment. Connected vegetated areas have
strong cooling effects. Shades and trees reduce the pollution of air, including the ground level
ozone, smog, and particular matter.
Conclusion
In this section, the need for green technology for modeling, monitoring, and conserving the
resources of nature in order to get environment pollution free is discussed. This chapter covered
the benefits of green technology and the need for green technology with the various aspects and
factors, current trends in the need for green technology. This outlined the roles in the tools for
promotion, various sectors, and current trends in green technology. Innovation in changing the
patterns of production and consumption, a pollution free environment for sustainable living can
be achieved. For understanding the dynamics of population and complexity of the communities,
dynamics change between resources, this is necessary to reveal each of the key factors. There are
many levels to do at the local level to become more environmentally sustainable.
The decision reflects to provide relationship for the community to address the unprecedented
threat of climate change. The old school community garden is a local community place at their
fresh organic produce.
Implementing and developing new processes and policies and tools is the medium to the longer
term, the further integration of management approaches and policies across sectors and
jurisdictions.
Implement and supporting effective programs, policies, and resources. Further testing,
developing, as implementing innovative approaches, appropriate, and initiative that are currently
being developed.

Master of Urban and Regional Planning 14
References
Bishop, M., 2014. Contested Territories. Urban Polices and Research, 2(32), pp. 185-201.
Bruce, T., 2015. Factors Influence Retrofitting. Structural Survey, 02(33), pp. 150-166.
Chris, P., 2013. Urban and Regional Planning Series. 3 ed. Perth: Elsevier.
Davidson, K., 2014. Planning For Sustainability. Plannig Strategy and Urban Policies in
Australia, 4(51), pp. 296-306.
Herzlee, V., 2012. Green Space To Health. Environment and Population, 02(34), pp. 171-193.
Hildson, M., 2016. The Access of Urban Green Space With Population Physical Activities.
Public Health, 12(120), pp. 1127-1132.
Leonie, C., 2016. Impact of An Outdoor Gym on Park User. A Natural Experiment, 3(37), pp.
26-34.
Marco, A., 2016. Urban Green Belts. 1 ed. Adelaide: Routledge.

Master of Urban and Regional Planning 15
Mark, H., 2018. Green Adelaide. [Online]
Available at: https://www.environment.sa.gov.au/topics/green-adelaide
[Accessed 16 06 2019].
Raktim, M., 2012. Neighborhood. Journal of Geography, 01(20), pp. 51-61.
Razzaghmanesh, M., 2014. The Behavior of Intensive and Extensive Green. Science of The Total
Environment, 20(499), pp. 284-296.
Root, E., 2014. The Green Park. [Online]
Available at: https://www.royalparks.org.uk/parks/green-park
[Accessed 16 06 2019].
Ruming, K., 2014. Agenda For Planning. Australian Planner, 02(51), pp. 108-121.
Smith, A., 2016. Hugo Centre. [Online]
Available at: https://www.adelaide.edu.au/hugo-centre/
[Accessed 14 06 2019].
Sofoulis, Z., 2011. Healthy Engagement. Austalia National Conference and Exhibition, 11(201),
pp. 1-8.
Van Den Bosch, A., 2016. Development of an Urban Green Space. Journal of Public Health,
02(44), pp. 159-167.
Wheeler, S., 2014. Sustainable Urban Development. 2 ed. NewYork: Routledge.
Zhiling, L., 20165. Residential Development. The Adelaide, 30(57), pp. 179-192.

Master of Urban and Regional Planning 16