Abstract
Being around nature and green space has frequently been touted as improving peoples happiness and health, especially their physical and mental health. According to the City of Vancouver website, in 2019, 92.7% of Vancouver’s land base was within a 5 minute walk of green space (Access). This implies that people who live or grow up in Vancouver should be happier and healthier. These metrics can be hard to measure though. In order to determine how access to green space impacts people, children’s access to green space and their development was analyzed. This study found that in Vancouver there is a clear division between West and East in terms of total vegetation and green space. There also appeared to be some correlation between children’s early development instrument scores and green space. Increased green space appears to result in improved development for children, seen through higher early learning scores. This supports the notion that access to green space is extremely beneficial for people, especially developing children. As a result, urban areas should strive to have evenly distributed, easily accessible green space.
Table of Contents
Project Members, Affiliation and Date
Brice Jonassen
University of British Columbia
April 24, 2022