Welcome to our new SPE Research Centre Members

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Welcome to our new SPE Research Centre Members who have joined UWE in the past year. We continue to grow as a research centre in capacity and outstanding research endeavours.

We are very pleased to welcome our new members as they take on and excel in their different roles.

Reem Elnady

I am a passionate and fully funded PhD researcher at the Centre for Sustainable Planning and Environment, having embarked on this academic journey in June. My focus lies in unravelling the diverse experiences of women refugees as they navigate host communities, with a particular emphasis on the dynamic context of Bristol city.

Before joining the Centre for Sustainable Planning and Environment, I was an urban researcher at the Egyptian Sustainable Urbanism Lab (ESU-LAB), delving into the intricacies of informal settlements, participatory approaches, and urban narratives in unplanned areas across the Middle East. My academic background includes a Master’s in Architecture from Egypt, where I honed my expertise in understanding and addressing the challenges faced by marginalized communities.

Reem Elnady

Owain Hanmer

I started as a Research Associate at SPE in August 2023. My research foundations are in the politics of urban agriculture/gardening and food, which gradually snowballed to encompass other related themes—community development, alternative forms of governance, and retirement/ageing. I am particularly interested in exploring the mundane practices of ‘commoning’—which involves critically engaging with the everyday practices that potentially exist despite or beyond neoliberal value-practices and framings.

I completed my PhD (funded by the ESRC) at Cardiff University where I focused on commoning amongst retired urban gardeners. I then worked on the project ‘Infuse’ (also Cardiff University), focusing on public sector innovation, experimental governance, and community development. I am really looking forward to developing these areas and working alongside colleagues at SPE to develop new projects.

Owain Hanmer

Sam Pinnock

I am a fully funded PhD student with the SPE, having joined in the Summer of 2023. My study is part funded by the Welsh Government and is focused on economic regeneration strategy in the South Wales Valleys with a particular focus on communities in proximity to disused coal tips. I am interested in the strategy formulation process and how stakeholder groups like local communities and government collaborate.

I have also recently completed a Master’s in Urban Planning at UWE where I wrote my dissertation on the concept of ‘Beauty’ in the current planning context of UK government planning guidance and how subjective terminology provides less certainty.

Sam Pinnock

Joy Pedro

I am currently a postgraduate student at the Centre for Sustainable Planning and Environment. My research aims to develop the knowledge that facilitates the co-designing of green spaces to improve use and mental health of young people in Abuja Nigeria. I have a bachelor’s degree in architecture and a master’s degree in Environment Design. I am also a certified project manager with Project Management Institute (PMI) with at least a decade industry experience in design, planning and project management. My research interests are around green infrastructure, smart cities, healthy places.

Joy Pedro

Swati Sood

I am presently a fully funded PhD researcher at the Centre for Sustainable Planning and Environment for Faculty of Environment and Technology. My study focuses on improving “End of life management for onshore wind turbine by employing circular economy principles.”

I acquired a master’s degree in building information modelling (BIM) with distinction from UWE, and my dissertation on the circular economy in the built environment was published in the UWE library repository. I worked as a construction specialist for urban design and constructed developments for more than a decade before earning my master’s degree. In addition, I hold a certification in interior design and worked on project management for different architecture and interior projects.

Swati Sood

Katy Karampour

I joined UWE in January 2023 as a lecturer in Urban Planning. Prior to joining UWE, I was a Research Associate in Planning and Housing at the Cambridge Centre for Housing and Planning Research, the Land Economy Department of University of Cambridge. I have a PhD in Urban Planning and an MSc in Urban Regeneration form the Bartlett School of Planning, UCL and an MA in Architecture with specialism in Urban Conservation from University of Tehran.

At UWE I’m a co-programme leader for our BSc Urban Planning programme. My teaching activities include PhD supervision, undergraduate and postgraduate dissertation supervision, and teaching modules from level 1 to postgraduate (M level). I am an experienced qualitative researcher interested in carrying out innovative research in relation to policy and practice, providing an evidence base for making positive changes to policy and process to achieve societal aims. Whilst at the University of Cambridge, I conducted policy-oriented research around housing and planning, developing an interest in how the planning system in the UK could adapt to the challenges of net zero transition. Recently I have completed an ESRC Impact project on the role of the planning system in delivering net zero new homes in the UK.

Katy Karampour

Aditya Ray

I joined UWE Bristol in January 2023 as Lecturer in Human Geography. My work explores the intersections between digitalisation, urbanisation, migration and sustainable development.

 My research, supported by different institutions, has looked at labour geographies of Information Technology-enabled services outsourcing. I have led an international research project documenting coping practices of apps-based platform drivers in the aftermath of COVID-19 pandemic in India. I am working with colleagues at the Open University on understanding gender and transnational mobility in Tech sectors in the UK and India. I am also forging collaborations with other partners on projects exploring digital platforms and automation, and their relationship with work, welfare and sustainability.

I have taught previously at Queen Mary University of London as Lecturer in Development Geography, and at the University of Sheffield as postgraduate supervisor in the Digital Media and Society programme. 

Aditya Ray

Jenna Dutton

I am an ambitious and passionate researcher and professional urban planner with over fourteen years of experience working in collaboration with and for academia and local governments. I started my PhD in January 2023 in the topic Gender inequality in cities: the role and potential of urban planning.  In my previous role as Senior Social Planner, I led various projects including those focused on climate and equity, childcare, and accessibility.

As an advocate for equity and inclusion in urbanism I contribute to global planning efforts as Co-chair of the Commonwealth Women in Planning Network and leading research on various topics including Feminist Planning and Urbanism. I was named one of The Planner Magazine’s Women of Influence 2023.

Jenna Dutton

Bringing Art Closer to Science: Re-designing and changing smart cities from a focus on digital and basic services to experience and liveability

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by FateN Mostafa Hatem

The relationship between art and science is closer than we used to think especially in the context of the built environment. In my recent article “The role of art in smart cities research and making”, I explain how art could play an important role not only in shaping the experience of our cities but also in improving research activity and understanding of their affects, needs and relations.

This is necessary to produce new and vital knowledge instead of recycling same views in the literature and to do so we need new creative methods and ways of thinking. Therefore, it is important to bridge the gap between art and science. Such a change in basis for the making of smart cities has a higher potential to enable us to avoid mixed outcomes and contradictory results by providing more human-centred approaches to what smart could mean and do on the ground. By providing more creative research methods and approaches, the making of Smart is improved and in turn, the impact that cities have on residents is shaped to be that of stronger attachment, better attitude and more engaging atmosphere. I believe that the meaning of Smart and progress could be better enhanced to go beyond empty signifiers and labels to realise better results on the ground, especially in terms of the experience and liveability of the city. After all, we are all excited to unravel the mysteries of the relationship between humans and surrounding environments and to obtain insights into this, maybe we need to change our ways first.

A close up of a human; source: iStock.com/cosmin4000

Promoting art based methods and research is done throughout the paper with the intention of making the most out of rethinking innovation and knowledge production methods. Given the famous power of art in communication, references were made to engaging participants, reflecting on direct observation as well as the need for reflexive approaches in research on urban and built environment. Examples were presented in a from of comparative cases or observations to examine the positivist visions of Smart,  changes on the ground and progress direction, while revealing the impact on lost or gained attachment over time, the actual potential of offering a better-lived experience and the contradictory outcomes brought by certain changes, rationalities or thinking patterns.

A pixilated image VS. Atmospheric image of the city, free royalty adapted image

With the hope that this work inspires more networking and cooperation, it provides reflections on the importance of focusing on aspects and factors that impact what Smart Urbanism does and what it can achieve. This complies with the complex nature of cities in terms of tangible and intangible affects and performance rather than of a mere utilization of the notion in a worldwide trend towards becoming a smart city. The main motive behind such focus and promotion is to establish a new meaning for urban progress by moving beyond improving the basic services of the city to enhance the actual human experience, which is essential for the development of authentic smart cities.

You can find out more on the subject by reading my article, also available here https://link.growkudos.com/1eywmbg4xs0 and by visiting my website: Art Works | Faten Mostafa Hatem

The feature image of this blog is an original artwork by the researcher.

Reflections on the Levelling Up and Regeneration Act

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by Amanda Ramsay

One in four UK homes is estimated to currently be at risk of flooding, with an average of £60,000 worth of damage inflicted per home when floods hit hardest. I learned this while contributing to a parliamentary roundtable this summer, hosted by Shadow Minister for Flooding, Oceans and Coastal Communities Emma Hardy MP (Kingston-Upon-Hull West) in partnership with Aviva the insurance company.

Representatives from national bodies involved in planning, flooding, adaptation to climate change, plus cross-party parliamentarians, myself as a researcher, and insurance experts convened to discuss how deficiencies in planning rules could be tackled to help the UK build sustainably for the future.

The roundtable was strategically organised to attempt to influence the parliamentary scrutiny stages of the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act (LURA), hence forth called The Act.

The Act has changed the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) with the introduction of National Development Management Plans (NDMPs). These new instruments have a statutory footing and must be adhered to alongside local development plans, since The Act received Royal Assent in October. While the NPPF will remain focussed on plan-making principles and requirements, NDMPs will outweigh Local Plan policies in the event of conflict. This is important because NDMPs will take precedence over both local and neighbourhood plans (where they conflict with national policy).

Source: https://media.istockphoto.com/id/1375574486/photo/bewdley-floodwater-being-pumped-from-riverside-residential-homes-near-bewdley-bridge.jpg?s=2048×2048&w=is&k=20&c=TIH-xuNE88f4KDFBahs2UZsgZBPMKJLTgpdW13AxTFI=

Back in July, there was much agreement at the parliamentary roundtable that the then proposed reforms needed to be strengthened by amending the scope of NDMPs.

One emerging theme was the need to have legislative protections so as to build homes fit for a changing future, in terms of climate change in the UK, including storms and flooding. We need national minimum requirements for flood mitigation and protection measures baked into new builds.

Despite horrific scenes witnessed on news coverage, tens of thousands of houses are still being built in high flood-risk areas. Many more are being built without the necessary flood protections, sometimes against the advice of the Environment Agency.

Many social inclusion issues are at stake here, not least because people most likely to live on a flood plain are the most socially deprived.

Sustainable drainage systems (SuDs) are vital, it was pointed out by attendee Ruth Jones MP (Newport West), Shadow Minister for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. Also, of note was that storm water needs to be managed locally (as close to its source as possible), to mimic natural drainage and encourage its infiltration.

It was decided to send a joint lobbying letter to the Planning Minister, at the Department for Levelling-up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC). The consensus being that planning rules be tightened to prevent new developments going ahead in current and future flood-risk areas. Where development elsewhere is not possible, planning should be subject to enforceable conditions around flood mitigation and resilience at area and property level.

This, we pointed out, would require additional government investment though, for local planning authorities (LPAs) to be able to afford enforcement.

A consensus emerged during our Westminster discussion around the need to align planning rules with the UK’s legally binding Net Zero and Environmental targets, to consider carbon assessments, and take account of nature both in terms of adaptation and mitigation. However, none of these recommendations were adopted by the Government.

What was approved by the House of Lords was an amendment to the then Bill, to prohibit LPAs from granting planning permission for residential buildings on a floodplain (Flood Zones 3a and 3b). Ultimately, this was defeated by the Government though in the Commons so did not make it into the final Act of Parliament. But the amendment can be seen as helpful in raising the issue strongly and could give a platform to influencing future consultations.

Critics of The Act see LURA as a missed opportunity. One reason being that the new legislation fails to confirm and clarify a Net-Zero duty in plan-making nor extend it to decision-making. Without this statutory change, there remains a risk of plans, policies and decisions paying no more than lip service to tackling climate change or continue to be challenged and overturned on appeal.

It is also argued that central government can now issue its own planning policies through NDMPs to be used in plan-making decisions by local authorities in England without sufficient scrutiny. A far cry from the espoused decentralising philosophy of the Conservative-led Coalition’s Localism Act (2011) NDMPs represent a distinct move to centralisation. National government will be able to impose top-down planning policies on local communities.

This makes NDMPs quite controversial as whilst there must be advance consultation, the Secretary of State’s powers to bring in NDMPs are relatively untouchable. The Government will conduct a consultation on these new NDMPs and there will then be a governmental response. This will cover what they should include, existing NPPF guidance (on flooding, greenbelt etc.) and which new areas should be added (i.e. Net Zero). Early political debate has revealed an appetite that they cover issues like floodplain development, resilience and to align planning rules with the UK’s Net Zero strategy. This consultation process could provide an opportunity to push for improved rules.

Lessons from Stockholm – a landscape architect and PhD student’s impressions

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by Yarden Woolf

A few weeks ago, I arrived in Stockholm for the International Federation of Landscape Architects (IFLA) World Congress. This was both my first time in Sweden and my first international conference, as well as the first time I would be presenting my research to professionals and academics from outside of the UK. One of the most unique aspects of this congress was that it was held simultaneously in Stockholm and Nairobi, Kenya. Throughout the three-day events, I got to listen to traditional live Swedish and African music, try some local dishes and hear from leading planners about projects in both countries, from conservation efforts aimed at saving the landscapes of the Masai Mara, to the challenges of the climate crisis and how they affect and transform contemporary Swedish landscape architecture.

One key-note lecture that left a particular impression on me, was delivered by Hitesh Mehta, an architect and landscape architect and President of HM Design. Hitesh spoke of the importance of AI, but not the one you are probably thinking of. You see, by AI he means Ancestral Intelligence – the knowledge of elders, of history, and how that can and should influence the way we plan and design for a sustainable future. As examples, Hitesh spoke of case studies he was involved in, such as the Masai master plan to protect local landscapes, Aitong Sustainability Centre (Masai Mara Centre for Sustainability – Olmanyara), and the first visitors’ centre to ever be designed in a national park in Kenya, at the base of Mt. Kilimanjaro. In all these examples, he emphasised the community engagement aspect of design, and particularly the importance of incorporating the knowledge of the elder members.

Image 1 – Hitesh Mehta (from IFLA website Keynote speaker: Hitesh Mehta – IFLA2023)

During the second day of the conference, I had the opportunity to present my research so far. I described my literature review, research aims and questions, and shared details of my upcoming methodology and plans for the next year at UWE Bristol. This was a great opportunity for me as I received feedback as well as answered questions and made new personal and professional connections with those who attended my lecture. As part of this session, I also had the privilege of hearing from other landscape architects about their research and projects across several countries, such as Sweden, Indonesia, and China.

On the last and final day, I joined a tour of the Stockholm seafront, guided by landscape architects and architects from Nivå Landskapsarkitektur and Sveriges Architecter. This tour focused on Djurgården Royal Park and the surrounding developments and canal. To me, the most fascinating landmark was Gravitational Ripples, the Swedish 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami Memorial by Lea Porsegar. The design for the hidden memorial site was taken from the ‘gravitational waves’ phenomenon, first predicted by Albert Einstein. These waves occur when two celestial bodies orbit each other, spinning closer and unleashing energy which creates ripples in space-time itself. The memorial was built to represent this pulsating movement, and I found it to be both beautiful and emotional. As I walked in and around it, I felt serene and inspired, and this reminded me of how landscape design can shape experience and emotion. These are some of the topics my PhD research is focusing on.

Image 3 – Gravitational Ripples, the Swedish 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami Memorial by Lea Porsegar (source – me)

As I left Stockholm, I reflected on my time in this wonderful city, the connections I have made and how I hope my thesis will encompass some of the fascinating lessons I learned here. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the SPE, and particularly my Director of Studies, Prof. Danni Sinnet, for making this trip possible.

Wear your shoes, tie your laces; we whizz off to study greenspaces!

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by Zaky Fouad

On January 13th 2023, I asked chatGPT what are greenspaces? It answered:

“Greenspaces are areas of natural or semi-natural land, such as parks, gardens, and other open spaces, that provide a range of benefits for people and the environment. These benefits can include improved physical and mental health, increased biodiversity, and reduced air and noise pollution”.

I repeated the question five months later (July-3rd):

“Greenspaces, also known as green spaces or green areas, refer to open, undeveloped land or areas that are predominantly covered with vegetation, such as parks, gardens, forests, meadows, and other natural or landscaped areas. Greenspaces are often characterized by their abundance of plant life, including trees, shrubs, grass, and flowers. Greenspaces serve several important functions within urban and rural environments. They provide recreational spaces for activities like walking, jogging, picnicking, and playing sports. These areas also contribute to the overall well-being and quality of life for residents by offering opportunities for relaxation, social interaction, and connection with nature.”

Like human minds (or at least mine), AI does not define greenspaces without referring to uses and health benefits. Nevertheless, this intuitive view (of the positive impact) does not match the inconsistencies in research findings which either confirms, rejects, or shows no positive association. Hereby, we become sceptical and ask a wicked question: Did previous studies accurately quantify the society’s exposure to greenspace, before testing the association to health outcomes?

For that question, we embark on a journey to explore different measures of greenspace exposure and their association with health-related outcomes. We developed two datasets. Firstly, the health-related outcomes comprise frequency of visits to greenspace, level of physical activity using GPAQ, connectedness to nature score, and wellbeing (ICECAP-A score), self-reported through an online survey for residents of the West of England (figure 1) during the 2020 lockdown. The second dataset encompasses the measures of greenspace exposure, calculated using GIS-software courtesy of one key survey data-entry: the residents’ postcodes.

Figure 1: Area of study; Source: Generated by the author using Office for National Statistics (ONS). Open Geography Portal [GeoPackage], Open Government Licence v.3.0. 2022. Available online here; accessed on 13 March 2023

Regarding greenspace measures, let’s imagine you want to know the amount of greenery around your house. So, you buy a drone, fly it high, take an image and calculate percentage of greenery in it. This is similar to how we evaluate the degree of greenness, using satellite images to calculate Normalised-Difference-Vegetation-Index (NDVI), although it is more complicated since NDVI does not capture greenness but the difference between red (absorbed by greenery) and infra-red (reflected by greenery). In your experiment, flying the drone higher (or lower) leads to a wider (or smaller) image catchment area. In our analyses, we do not fly satellites higher or lower; instead, we define how far we look, i.e., a catchment radius for NDVI terms (r200m, r300m, r500m-walking-route, r1000m and r2000m) from the postcodes (figure 2). Those radii are suggested by Natural England’s Accessible Greenspace Standards (AGS) to represent greenspaces closeness to homes: doorstep-greenspace=200m, local-greenspace=300m, neighbourhood-greenspace=1000m and wider-neighbourhood-greenspace=2000m.

Figure 2: Catchments Radius-300m from postcodes, each gets NDVI-value from background map. Source: Generated by the author using Copernicus Sentinel 2 Colour Infrared (Bands 843) [TIFF Geospatial Data], Scale 1:20,000, Tiles: Sr,ss,st,su,sv,sw,sx,sy,sz. Updated: 11 February 2020, to Be Added, Using: EDINA Pilot Digimap Service. Available online here; accessed on 24 February 2023.

Let’s say you would rather define your greenspace exposure as how close you live to greenspaces. For that, you get a map, draw a straight-line from home to the nearest greenspace entrance and measure it. This is the ‘Euclidean distance to the nearest greenspace’. You could improve your measurement by drawing another line from home, along the streets you walk reaching the greenspace, because your real-life journey does not cut through buildings but follows the streets. This is the ‘Network distance to the nearest greenspace’. In both calculations, your measurements are towards the greenspace entrance, not its centre nor boundary, which accurately represents your distance to access greenspaces while excluding the journey travelled inside the greenspace that is relative to the greenspace size (figure 3). You could expand your dataset to calculate distances to specific greenspace sizes, suggested by Natural England’s AGS: distance to the nearest 0.5ha doorstep-greenspace, 2ha local-greenspace, 10ha neighbourhood-greenspace or 20ha wider-neighbourhood-greenspace.

Figure 3: How Euclidean vs Network distances are calculated. Source: Created by the author.

Findings on the exposure measures:

  • NDVI increases as catchment increases; greenery increases when capturing wider areas.
  • Average network distance to greenspaces (333m) > average Euclidean distance (190m); walking along streets > the virtual straight-line.
  • Average distances to greenspaces > AGS standards for doorstep-greenspaces (275m>200m) and local-greenspaces (374m>300m).

Findings on participants health explain the impact of lockdown on behaviours and wellbeing:

  • 38% increase in visits to greenspaces during lockdown than before.
  • 9% increase in physical activity during lockdown.
  • 16% decrease in wellbeing (ICECAP-A score) during lockdown.

Findings on the relationship between greenspace exposure measures vs health outcomes:

  • Residents are more aware of the greenery within their immediate context, which impacts their connectedness to nature.
  •  Residents visited greenspaces more frequently and did more physical activity when living within a greener context or closer to greenspaces.
  • Health-related outcomes relate to exposure measures of the immediate context (NDVI 200m and 300m) and to proximity to the nearest or small greenspaces (0.5ha); but not to the wider context (NDVI 1000m and 2000m) nor proximity to larger greenspaces (10ha/20ha).

In the end, I see different measures of greenspace exposure as different types of shoes. You could try to wear heels to cycle, derbies to ski, or sandals to a muddy hike. You might avoid injuries, but surely you would experience a bad day. All shoes cover feet (fully or partially) but serve different purposes. Similarly, all measures quantify greenspace exposure but capture unique perceptions of the relationship between society and greenspaces at different scales.

This blog is based on the paper ‘Measures of Greenspace Exposure and Their Association to Health-Related Outcomes for the Periods before and during the 2020 Lockdown: A Cross-Sectional Study in the West of England‘ by Danielle Sinnett, Isabelle Bray, Rachael McClatchey, Rebecca Reece and myself.

The Beasts Below: Empowering Professionals in the British Virgin Islands to Monitor Soil Biodiversity

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by Heather Rumble

Soil: Most of us rarely think about it and are likely unaware that the global degradation of soils is one of the biggest threats we face as a species (Gupta, 2019). Healthy soils provide the food we eat, filter the water we drink, protect us from natural disasters and pollution and form the basis of our habitat. Almost all soils on the planet have been altered and degraded by humans in some way; Even our last bastions of “natural” soil, in our virgin rainforests and at the poles, are under threat from commercial and illegal forestry, oil exploration and climate change.

A healthy soil is a living layer that changes everything that touches it. A teaspoon of soil from your back garden contains thousands of individuals comprising hundreds of species, all busy making soils work. But as fast as we’re discovering what lives in the soil, we are losing species. Nowhere is this fact more acute than on islands: Tropical islands punch well above their weight in terms of hosting biodiversity but suffer from the pressures of urbanisation, tourism and extreme weather events, with less scope to recover because of their isolation from the mainland.

A drive to understand more about soils, alongside the vulnerability of islands, is why I was in the British Virgin Islands this summer, working on a Defra Darwin Initiative project. The aim of the project was to undertake a basic survey of soil types across some of the 50 islands of the British Virgin Islands but also, crucially, to enable professionals in the British Virgin Islands to add to this map over time. To do this we set up a soil analysis laboratory within the Lavity Stoutt Community College, the first point of call for many islanders embarking on voyages of educational discovery in the BVI. My role was to set up a soil biodiversity lab, to train members of the civil service and college in basic soil ecology and to work with the National Parks Trust to understand how soil biodiversity monitoring could help them answer key conservation questions across the islands.

Gaffer gaiters a must!

While in the BVI, I had the opportunity to speak to islanders about the biggest challenges facing people and wildlife there: Intensive cattle grazing in the past has likely damaged the soils, not helped by the hordes of feral goats still roaming. Water availability is a key issue, with climate change noticeably reducing the availability of fresh water. One person told me that one of the ways they connect with nature is by growing things in their garden, but that this was getting more and more difficult with less rain and the slightly salty water provided by the desalinisation plant. Others waxed lyrical about the ways home composting was helping them tackle nutrient and water deficiencies in their gardens.

The National Parks team helped me take soil samples from three sites in the BVI: A desert island, dominated by cacti; A tropical forest a stones throw from the main town; and the Botanic Gardens, where the flora of the islands is well represented. It takes five days to process these in the lab and many more days to examine the catch!

Soils consist of many, many different kinds of organism including bacteria, protists, fungi, nematodes and microscopic insect-like creatures called microarthropods. It is the latter, or soil beasties as I like to call them, that I was focussing on in the BVI. They can be processed with basic kit and analysed with less taxonomic knowledge than some of the other soil groups. This makes them ideal as a monitoring tool for the community in the BVI.

The Tullgren funnels set up in the lab; This is the kit that extracts soil beasties from the soil.

With help from the participants in the training workshop we held at the end of the course, we recorded 17 different groups of organisms from across the three sites, likely encompassing over a hundred species. Even the desert sites supported soil biodiversity, albeit mostly hardy armoured mites of the kind that I also frequently find in cities. This illustrates how resilient this community of organisms is and the potential for recovery bound up in the soil; A little less compaction, a little less pressure from grazing on plants and the plants and soil will aid in each other’s recovery even in this harsh place.

Left image: A collection of soil beasties (mite top left; ant left and beetle right). Right image: Another mite, this one capable of tucking its legs under its shell. All at magnification. Images by Nandi Christopher and Joe Wells.

As well as the usual array of amazingly different coloured mites with whacky body shapes and the charismatic springtails (tiny relatives of crustaceans that can catapult themselves into the air), we also found pseudoscorpions, tiny relatives of scorpions with no stinger but perfectly formed little claws; and bristly millipedes, miniscule soil millipedes with, as the name suggests, tufty hairs in various exciting shapes. Both of these were a first for me as I usually work in harsh, low diversity environments (cities!).

One of the many pseudoscorpions encountered, shown actual size (left image) and under magnification (central image). Right image is a bristly millipede, Polixenida, under magnification.

But the biggest privilege of this trip was introducing others to the crazy world of life beneath our feet and working with such an engaged community of learners. Participants posed interesting questions, hypothesised about how this information could be applied and taught me new ways to photograph what I see under the microscope.

The trip is over but the lab and the knowledge of how to use it lives on in the BVI and forms part of their new soil analysis capability. I’m really glad to have been able to share our subterranean world with others and to have passed on some of the skills we need to employ to protect it. If some of the participants at the workshop, and perhaps those reading, look at the soil in their backyard a little differently from now on I will be a happy ecologist!

Many thanks to Richard Teeuw (PI, University of Portsmouth) and Melanie Daway (Dept. for Disaster Management, BVI) for organising the trip and making sure everything ran smoothly; Susan Zaluski (H. Lavity Stoutt Community College) for providing space, equipment and knowledge in relation to the lab; Nancy Pascoe (National Parks Trust) and the rest of the National Parks Team for organising site visits; Tom Heller and Sara Barrios (Kew Gardens) for the gaffer tape and plant knowledge and Nandi Christopher and Joe Wells (H Lavity Stoutt community College) for taking some amazing photographs. And, of course, to all the workshop participants for your enthusiasm and dedication! The project was funded by the DEFRA Darwin Biodiversity fund (DPLUS-160: BVI Multi-Purpose Soil Survey: informing environmental management and climate change mitigation).

References: Gupta, S. G., (2019) Land Degradation and Challenges of Food Security. Review of European Studies, 11(1), 63.

Designing for Children & Young People: A Toolkit for practitioners

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by Rachel Alcock-Hodgson

I am an active travel professional who has worked for Sustrans since 2015. I now work for Sustrans Scotland as a grant funder in the Places for Everyone team and I am also completing an Urban Planning Masters at UWE. Places for Everyone is Sustrans’ permanent active travel infrastructure fund for Scotland. Supported by Transport Scotland, we provide funding and expertise to help deliver walking, wheeling and cycling improvements across the country.

We currently have more than 250 projects at various stages of development, ranging from multi-million pound transformations in Scotland’s cities to new walking routes between some of Scotland’s smallest communities.

Two axis of child-friendly planning. Adapted from the work of Marketta Kyttä by Tim Gill (2021)

In 2022, we published a toolkit for practitioners to support the design of walking, cycling and wheeling* specifically for children and young people. The toolkit contains an overview of the policy context in Scotland. It sets out two foundations and twelve dimensions for designing for children and young people.

The toolkit then presents several case studies of projects that speak to the foundations and dimensions. The foundations are: 1. Improved access for walking, wheeling, and cycling and 2. Create space to pause, stay, and play. The dimensions fall under these headings.

Dimensions for designing for children and young people, from Designing for Children & Young People.

This is something I am passionate about. As we say in the toolkit: “Since the 1970s, there has been a steady decline in the reported distances children are allowed to travel without parental supervision in the UK. We have also observed several instances where teenagers have been specifically excluded and discouraged from using public spaces.

At a time when private car use has been prioritised over the needs of people walking, wheeling and cycling for everyday journeys, this has only served to make neighbourhoods across the UK increasingly unsafe, inaccessible and unpleasant for play and socialising.

Planning and transport policies are now focused on reducing traffic volumes in many areas, including residential neighbourhoods, and providing spaces for young people to enjoy. This is in response to the climate emergency and the need to reduce emissions, to improve population health through encouraging greater mobility, and increasing community resilience as a response to the Covid pandemic.

Strategically, this is an important step in increasing children and young people’s independent mobility and will play an important part in improving their active travel opportunities.

Children and young people have a right to use public space. Those of us involved in planning, design, and sustainable travel can enable this right by providing quality environments that are safe to access, reflect children and young people’s needs and encourage them to thrive.”

In April 2023, Places for Everyone held its first in person event for partners since the pandemic: Designing with Children and Young People. It included sessions led by councils showcasing their projects and outlining what they have learned, as well as sessions going into engagement techniques to use as part of the design process. The sessions from the day can be viewed here and the live illustration of the event captured by Jenny Capon is shown above.

The event was a success. A wide range of partners attended. 54 delegates from 18 organisations including community groups and variety of local authority teams, from engineering to those specialising in behaviour change. 87% felt that their knowledge of designing with children and young people improved as a result of attending.

Overall, Jenny Capon’s illustration sums it up well. Designing with Children and Young people is complex and multi-faceted, just like the built environment itself, but we have a shared responsibility as planners and designers, and we need to work together to achieve transformative change.

*getting around with for example, a wheelchair, buggy or scooter.

Key Links:

Link to the event page: https://www.showcase-sustrans.org.uk/engage-inspire-learn/dcyp-event-page/?cn-reloaded=1

Link to the Designing for Children & Young People toolkit: https://www.showcase-sustrans.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Children-and-YP-tools-and-approach-v.18_DIGITAL.pdf

References:

Gill, Tim (2021) Urban Playground: How Child-Friendly Planning and Design can Save Cities. RIBA Publishing: London.

My UWE internship: a diary 24th-28th of April

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by Sinead Ryan

I am currently carrying out an internship with UWE Bristol’s World Health Organisation Collaborating Centre for Healthy Urban Environments. As part of my internship programme with UWE Bristol, I had the pleasure of attending a series of activities led by Dr Michael Buser in collaboration with the Voices of Children, a Ukrainian charity who were invited to UWE, where we attended events relating to creative art therapy over the course of a week.

On Monday, the founder of the Voices of Children, Olena Rozvadovska presented at UWE Bristol, joined with five of her colleagues, to showcase the work that they do. Ukraine has been in conflict since 2014 and Olena formally set up the charity in 2019. The Voices of Children are a charitable organisation who have worked to provide psychological and psychosocial support to children in Ukraine who are traumatised by war. The group recounted how after the invasion in February 2022, the lives of children in their country have become dominated by the war, with no child able to escape this reality. The VOC charity offers several support services which include online counselling, mobile teams of psychologists and facilitate camps for children and families affected by war. They also support rehabilitation services for children with special needs such as cerebral palsy and autism disorder. They discussed how children with autism can be highly affected by the disruption of war and the noise of bomb shelling’s can impact them to a greater extent. The group also offer training for psychologists, on how to specifically help children with PTSD, as many professionals had not dealt with such high-stakes counselling before.

Olena Rozvadovska (Voices of Children) presenting at the Arnolfini on Friday 28th April 2022.

Olena described how they strive to deliver a potential option for children to attend 10 sessions of therapy. Therapy is not a one-stop shop, that can cure trauma in one dose. It is a gradual and ongoing process that requires patience and commitment. Children who are victims of war trauma need several therapy sessions to heal from their wounds and to grow from their experiences. The VOC team highlighted how the hardest part of the job, is not having the financial means to pro-long treatment or services for those who need them longer. The VOC group works tirelessly to give a voice to those most vulnerable victims of war – children. The children of Ukraine have faced displacement, unimaginable loss, witnessed violence and had disruption to their routine. Olena advocates for the importance of these children maintaining socialisation while they are deprived of their ordinary school routine and extra-curriculars.

The VOC group use traditional psychotherapy but also contemporary therapy approaches, including art therapy and engaging with nature. They described how being in nature was one of the most healing experiences they see for children. For these children, their green spaces are corrupted or unsafe, and the freedom to roam in a safe natural environment is abundantly healing. The VOC services help thousands of young people across Ukraine to reclaim their childhood and their future. The group were keen to develop their art therapy approaches and learn from the activities currently available in Bristol and to bring ideas for interventions back to Ukraine.

On Wednesday, I accompanied the group to a workshop at UWE Bristol with Julia Matthews, an art therapist who leads art expression groups in Bristol. She demonstrated some of the art therapy techniques which she uses in her group art sessions. Her colleague Nicola Holt, a psychologist here at UWE, discussed how she has been helping Julie to evaluate these classes and analyse how they benefit participants mental health. While this is not explicitly ‘art therapy’, whereby participants divulge trauma in the groups, they instead allow the art to become a healing process itself. She discussed how they have noticed improvements in mood and wellbeing after the classes and can measure this using evaluation forms.

A group discussion at the Arnolfini in Bristol

Later that day, we took a trip to Barton Hill Settlement, in Bristol, to meet the Hope Asylum Seekers and Refugee Trauma Service, an NHS organisation who provide support for young refugees and asylum seekers, typically unaccompanied minors. Here, we met with two clinical psychologists, Juliet, and Anna, who discussed the approaches of therapy that they offer for those with severe trauma, including narrative exposure therapy, group therapy and creative therapy methods which they have found to be effective at dealing with PTSD. The therapy offered here is centred around grounding and creative a safe environment where one would be empowered to participate in psychotherapy. They discussed working with translators, widely varied cultures and working against the resistance to share vulnerability and how art can be a useful tool for this.

On Thursday, we attended Bath Spa University where we met with Agata Vitale, a psychologist who has adapted a narrative therapy method based on Ncube’s ‘Tree of Life,’ in settings of trauma. Agata ran through a how these therapy sessions would be conducted with this symbolic tree representing different aspect of one’s life. We participated in drawing and describing our own trees, and throughout the activity there was a sense of reflection, focusing on and realising the positives in our lives. It was useful to do in a group setting as we could all share our stories and celebrate the uniqueness and diversity in our lives, while still finding common ground to connect with. Agata described that this would naturally occur in her workshops, with participants often finding a sense of camaraderie or friendship between each other along the journey. At the end of the activity, we all agreed it felt healing and we could understand how Agata had used the therapy in previous settings to heal trauma and allow people to focus on the positives in their lives.

On Friday, the Voices of Children gave a final presentation at the Arnolfini in Bristol, where members of the public were invited to join. After a formal presentation by Olena, an informal discussion group encouraged attendees to ask questions about the organisation. Overall, the week showcased the ways that various forms of art therapy are being used in settings of trauma, to heal both adults and children and the potential for this form of psychological support. This demonstrated the real-life benefits of art therapy, and the promise of its cultural sensitivity, flexibility and how it is befitting in these environments of PTSD. Through all the workshops, which discussed different mechanisms of art therapy, similar themes emerged, suggesting it was a tool for building resilience, connecting with the human experience, and offering a platform to work through trauma. It was a privilege to hear the stories of the Voices of Children charity group, who are working in extensively difficult circumstances, yet still work with a message of hope and determination to keep fighting and a strong mission to provide opportunity for the next generation of Ukraine.

CELEBRATING HABIBA EID (The Egyptian Jane Jacobs)

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by Amir Gohar

Background

As a specialized urbanist, I have had a long career of working professionally in participatory design and planning. I directed projects scaled from detailed design interventions to master planning; these included coastal urban planning in the Red Sea; urban design in Senegal; design agro-farms with local community in arid areas in Saudi Arabia; work with community in cross-province river trail in Norway; oasis design for tribes in East Libya; urban guidelines for historic Cairo, the design for Cradle of Humankind National Park in South Africa; site planning for ecolodges in the Kalahari Desert; waterfront development in Doha, Qatar; and urban design in Portoviejo, Ecuador. Throughout my career, I have been fortunate to select working on projects that comply with the social values and even more fortunate to have most of them implemented and built with the local communities.

Placemaking in the Global South

This is not to undermine the wonderful efforts done by colleagues and friends in democratic countries in the North, but rather to shed the light on challenges of placemaking in the Global South. My projects have engaged a full range of interdisciplinary professional skills in highly diverse international settings, and always involved a complexity of constituents, ecologies, and cultures. In my professional career, I completed projects that required me to work closely with local residents within the parameters of government and private institutions to comply with social standards. Without much generalisation, In the Global South, the responsible practice of civic engagement and participatory design require extensive field-based investigations of cultural and social contexts. Little professional or scholarly literature engages these real-world practice scenarios in the these regions, and this motivates my interest to encourage young planners and designers to dig deeper to learn about their own community leaders and those who took the responsibility and cared about their people.

I write this today because I figured out if I didn’t do so, then who else will? I want to share it with a new generation of students and fresh graduates who are currently involved in projects or research that has to do with placemaking, tactical urbanism, civic engagement, participatory design, and all kinds of urban interventions. In several discussions and forums, I find a new generation who takes things for granted is celebrating Jan Jacobs without having full understanding of her challenges, the difficulties she has been through, the threats she encounters and the sacrifices she made to succeed.

Habiba Eid (26 April 1941 – 15 January 2015)

In Ismailia, a small city on the Suez Canal of Egypt, born woman who at a young age got involved in several community initiatives starting from witnessing major relocations because of the war around the Suez Canal cities and throughout the years of peace.

Habiba earned a BA in Arts from Cairo University, a diploma in regional planning from National planning Institute, a MSc in statistics from Cairo University and a diploma in political Science from Suez Canal University. While having all the right qualifications to have an ordinary desk job, she strived to change people’s lives in the field and venture in a world dominated by men in authority. 

During her career she worked closely with almost all governors, local teams, and international expats. Her compass was clear and cantered around serving her people. Throughout her journey she spent more time in the field, in the informal areas, engaging and negotiating and empowering the local people. This has put her in numerous confrontations with authority and higher powers. Her persistence, endurance and clear people-oriented agenda coupled with diplomacy and social intelligence allowed her to implement several projects and initiatives. She gained the respect and appreciation of her local people, the government, as well as the international community. Endless world experts have learned from her projects through their involvement in Hayy El-Salam, El-Bahtini, El-Hallous,… and many other development projects that are only implemented because of her persistence.

A poster I did with Habiba Eid about the mapping of Ismailia Slum Areas with UNDP and UN-Habitat.

Habiba played a vital role for the people of Ismailia. She even saved them of several involuntary relocations and demolitions that they are unaware of. Working closely with her, I witnessed her active engagement on all levels and across many scales. She managed to lead and guide international experts, gain confidence of international donors, convince government officials, and most importantly loved and appreciated by the informal settlement dwellers. I walked with her through alleys in extreme poverty to guide locally-installed water pipes, I observed her humble attitude with the needy and the unlimited support she offered to the local community even from her personal resources.

Women making fishing nets and men making fishing boats in Ismailia 

To celebrate her birthday on the 26th of April, I would encourage friends and colleagues to honour her contribution and also celebrate their own community leaders in the Global South who were influential and dedicated their life to serving the marginalized and under privileged.

Habiba had a purpose for her life till her last day. She was a dedicated woman to her cause to serve her people well.

Celebrate your Jane Jacobs – Celebrate your Habiba Eid

From City Planning to Renewable Energy: Lessons from Sweden’s engagement approach

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by Rebecca Windemer

Arriving in Sweden, I was excited to learn more about their impressive renewable energy production and heat networks. Sweden has been a leader in this area, aiming to generate 100% of its electricity from renewable sources by 2040. What I was not expecting during my visits to Gothenburg and Stockholm, was to be so inspired by their approaches to community engagement in city planning. In this blog post, I will discuss how their engagement approaches could inspire new approaches to community engagement in renewable energy planning.

Not everyone will be as excited as me about going to a town planning exhibition! However if you put a huge 3D model of the city in the centre of the room then more people may get on board with the idea. In both Gothenburg and Stockholm, 3D models showing existing and future development formed the centrepiece of the city plan exhibitions. In Gothenburg you could walk around the huge 3D model, meanwhile in Stockholm it was below visitors feet. People seemed excited to see the city in this way – pointing out areas they recognised and being able to see the location and scale of future developments.

City planning model in Gothenburg

Digitalisation was another way that made the planning exhibitions more accessible and fun. Interactive digital screens allowed visitors to select the information and areas that interested them, while digital images showed how areas had developed over time and could potentially develop in the future. If that wasn’t enough, visitors could even play a game in Gothenburg, using an Xbox controller to explore the city in the 1600’s. This was a great way to get people thinking about how the city had changed over time.

Digital exhibition Stockholm
Game in Gothenburg

It wasn’t just the exhibitions that inspired me, it was also the engagement approaches used for projects. Engagement activities for new developments included walking interviews, where people could talk to planners about the area and how they’d like it to change, while walking through the area itself. Another successful approach involved linking community engagement to a community event. For example, one development held a consultation day that included theatre performances for the community, a great way of getting a diverse group along to share their views.

Overall, the two city planning exhibitions took large and complicated development projects and made them accessible. Both exhibitions were on a large scale and were clearly well funded – sitting in central locations with staff on hand to answer questions. Such large long-term engagement projects won’t necessarily be possible for renewables. So, what can we learn from Sweden’s innovative approaches to engagement in city planning, and how can we apply them to renewable energy planning? Here are three key lessons:

  1. Make planning fun: You wouldn’t normally call a planning exhibition a family day out, but it could be. Things such as the huge city maps and games make a planning consultations something that you can bring the family to. There is huge potential for innovative ideas here, for example, could games be created that enable communities to explore different options and scenarios for local renewable energy generation?
  • Allow people to see how a landscape has transformed and could develop in the future: People often forget that their local landscape has transformed over time and that renewable energy development is often just another way of using the landscape for production. Visualising change over time can help new developments seem more acceptable. Likewise, methods that enable people to see the scale of new development (such as the 3D models) help people to imagine what a new development will be like.
  • Make consultations on renewable energy accessible: Not everyone has time to (or wants to) read large bodies of text or to attend a consultation. Walking interviews or linking a project to an event can make it more accessible for the public. Making it easy for people to find the information they are looking for without reading large bodies of text is also key.

Overall, Sweden’s approaches to engagement offer valuable lessons for engaging communities in renewable energy planning. By making planning more accessible and fun, visualising change over time, and making consultations accessible, we can engage more people and get more people excited about renewable developments.

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