Heat: How Much Can the Human Body Stand?
Courtesy of UC San Diego Health
Record-breaking heat waves are pummeling the United States and the world, causing many to wonder how much of this a body can take and still survive.
The limit is somewhere between 104 and 122 degrees Fahrenheit if you’re sitting perfectly still, according to a small study conducted in the United Kingdom. Researchers say they are starting to hone in on the high temperatures that begin to overwhelm the human body’s defenses against heat, or what they call the upper critical temperature.
While this study is a good start, experts said more needs to be done to understand the body’s response to high temperatures. For example, this experiment was conducted with people who were lying still, Weintraub said. Studies need to be done in people who are working or exercising in high temperatures.
Read more:
https://myhealth.ucsd.edu/RelatedItems/6,1662078929
Building cool parks to beat the urban, heat-island effect
Courtesy of Parks and Recreation Business
By Rupsa Roy, Julie Eaton Ernst, and Indrani Ghosh
Parks and open space function as critical infrastructure for public health as well as for mitigating and adapting to climate change. This is especially evident where there is limited vegetation, paved surfaces, and dense development. These compounding factors result in higher temperatures when compared to those in rural surroundings—a phenomenon known as the “urban heat-island” (UHI) effect—along with increased stormwater-runoff volumes, velocities, and pollutants that exacerbate urban flood events.
UHI modeling can identify areas within parks that are most susceptible to high temperatures and develop strategies to mitigate those effects. Modeling can identify areas with high heat absorption, where increasing the amount of shade, through planting trees or installing shade structures, may reduce temperatures. The effectiveness of different materials proposed for paths, seating areas, and other park features in reducing heat absorption and retention can also be assessed.
Read more:
https://www.parksandrecbusiness.com/articles/moakley-models-the-way
New ways to measure trail use could transform how outdoor recreation is developed and managed
Courtesy of Headwaters Economics
Headwaters Economics has developed a new approach to measure recreational trail use more accurately by applying advanced statistical methods to data from infrared trail counters and cloud-based sources. The new method can dramatically increase the number of trails with use estimates compared to traditional approaches and can better account for variations in use over time or due to changes in weather and air quality.
For this new analysis, we applied more sophisticated statistical methods to our original approach. These new models allow us to predict trail use across complex networks. Our most recent refinements use an innovative statistical approach to combine data from multiple sources:
- User counts from on-the-ground trail counters,
- User counts from the fitness tracking app Strava,
- Hits to a trail’s website on AllTrails, and
- Geographic and physical factors that are known to affect trail use, such as distance from town, weather, and air quality.
Read more:
https://headwaterseconomics.org/outdoor-recreation/new-ways-to-measure-trail-use/
When Green Spaces Displace Residents, Our Cities’ Health Suffers
Courtesy of Next City
By Viniece Jennings, Alessandro Rigolon, Na’taki Osborne Jelks
Hoping to combat green gentrification, many cities are exploring “parks-related anti-displacement strategies.” Other strategies involve inclusionary zoning near large parks, which require new developments to allot a percentage of units (for example, 20%) to become deed-restricted affordable units. However, some critics argue that a higher percentage of units should be dedicated to affordable housing.
Another approach involves competitive grants to fund green space projects that incentivize cities to implement anti-displacement strategies and in-depth community engagement to identify potential displacement risks beforehand. In Los Angeles County, cities applying for grants to fund parks and green infrastructure are encouraged to adopt such strategies, but it is too early to determine whether these incentives have been successful.
Read more:
https://nextcity.org/urbanist-news/when-green-spaces-displace-residents-our-cities-health-suffers
How Civic Infrastructure Creates Shared Prosperity
Courtesy of Medium.com
While many of us know that public spaces are good for local economies, what most policymakers and public space practitioners do not understand is how strategic investments in public space can perform much better than conventional economic and community development practices often focused on targeting tax incentives toward large businesses and employers.
Communities should “lean in” to their comparative advantages — amenities like a natural environment, recreational opportunities or a specialty product to keep and attract people. Weinstein contrasted these findings with the traditional view of most economic development professionals, which holds that companies (usually large ones) must be wooed with tax incentives and other economic enticements, that in the end do not do much for local economic growth and on average, do more harm than good for the economy.
For too long, most communities have relied on this approach, with leaders expecting “Superman,” (the big company wooed by lower taxes) to save them. “I tell leaders all the time that there is no Superman coming to save us,” said Weinstein. “We have to be the super heroes.”
Read more:
https://medium.com/reimagining-the-civic-commons/how-civic-infrastructure-creates-shared-prosperity-367d741005
Celebrating and Protecting Biodiversity
Courtesy of NRPA
By Clement Lau
Created in 1944, the L.A. County Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR) meets the park and recreational needs of residents and visitors through programming, facilities, land acquisition and stewardship, and other activities. DPR has a dual role of being the municipal parks agency for the one million residents living in unincorporated areas and the regional parks agency for the more than ten million residents countywide. As such, DPR operates and maintains a wide variety of facilities, ranging from local parks to regional parks to multi-use trails to natural areas and wildlife sanctuaries. Described below are a few ways that park agencies celebrate and protect biodiversity, with specific examples of how DPR carries them out.
Read more:
https://www.nrpa.org/blog/celebrating-and-protecting-biodiversity/
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in Parks and Recreation Report
Courtesy of NRPA
In early 2023, the NRPA Research team surveyed park and recreation leaders to gain a better understanding of their agencies’ efforts surrounding diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) practices. The survey, a follow-up from a similar 2021 study, took inventory of park and recreation agency DEI activities, the professional development opportunities provided to staff, and the challenges organizations face in their efforts to promote DEI practices. The survey’s responses from park and recreation leaders across the United States are the basis of this report.
Read more:
https://www.nrpa.org/publications-research/research-papers/diversity-equity-inclusion-in-parks-and-recreation-report/
A building-design framework that promises minimal energy use
Courtesy of Parks and Recreation Business
By Timothy Lock
As early adopters of the German “Passive House” building-design framework, we have always paid close attention to how designs respond to local climate. Unlike LEED, the Passive House design prioritizes only one thing—the use of as little energy as possible to have a simple, comfortable building that is easy to operate, mitigates the relationship between our bodies and the elements, and allows the building systems to shrink to the background. It’s not easy, but the benefits to the occupant and owner are enormous. First, and sometimes foremost, the reality of spending 90 percent less on fuel or electricity for a building can be a total game-changer.
Read more:
https://www.campbusiness.com/articles/passive-projects
