Wageningen University - Wageningen, Netherlands
apply before June 4, 2023
Tasks: Planning & Design, Research
Topics: Policies and Cooperation, Public Space & Landscape, Urban Transformation
Type: Full-time
Experience required: Experienced
Language: English is sufficient
Nature-based solutions to reduce socioeconomic health disparities
Objectives
Examining how, and to what extent, public urban green space can be a tool to advance health equity, which types of green spaces have stronger stress-reducing effects for low-income and racially/ethnically minoritized groups, and how health disparities can be reduced by making optimal use of the stress-reducing qualities and health-promoting associations of contact with nearby green space.
Task 2.1: Identify and review existing research evidence relating to health-associations of various types of green space for disadvantaged groups, including green space proximity and access factors; Design of an experimental research protocol to investigate stress-reduction and general health-associations from different types of natural environments in real settings.
Task 2.2: Experimental study during visits in real settings, including physiological stress measures and food choices directly after the visit.
Task 2.3: Epidemiological study, to a large extent making use of already available data, to investigate whether the short-term effects observed in Task 2.2 lead to long-term benefits in terms of health, and to assess the size of such benefits.
Expected Results
- Types of urban green space having stronger health-associations for disadvantaged groups in real-life settings.
- Size of the stress and health-related benefits of neighbourhoods greening.
- Policy recommendations and design guidelines for the proximal greening of residential neighbourhoods to reduce existing health disparities for low income and racially/ethnically minoritized groups.