Abstract
In the past decade, city living has made a tremendous comeback. Across the country, people have returned to urban centers and suburban areas have become more urbanized. As concerns increase about urban sprawl and our carbon footprint, as transit-oriented development encourages living closer to transit, work, retail, education, and cultural attractions, and as we redesign cities up rather than out, one critical element is missing: an engagement with nature. Specifically, what's missing are natural outdoor environments that connect children with nature in their daily lives; nurture active, healthy children; and grow nature-connected children who will become conservation-minded adults, passionate about the health of the biosphere and prepared to act to conserve the earth for future generations.
Our challenge is recognizing the interdependence of the health of our environment and the health of people, and turning that recognition into action by creating new kinds of outdoor environments with an urgent focus on engaging children with nature. This requires a shift in thinking away from manicured park lawns and manufactured play equipment (however high quality), toward recreating the natural environment that once existed—restructured for child play. In their planning, design, and management, neighborhood parks can become community gardens, outdoor learning environments, and urban wild spaces, the centers of our “natural neighborhoods.”
This paper discusses the role that well-designed neighborhood parks can play in children's physical health and human development and, ultimately, the health of planet Earth. Through three examples of park transformations, it shows how cities are re-developing existing urban parks into neighborhood natural areas. The paper provides guiding principles and performance requirements for developing outdoor environments, and, finally, it provides resources to help achieve the vision of effective natural spaces.