Child Friendly Cities and land use planning: implications for children's health.(Report)

Abstract

The environment surrounding us sends strong messages about how to behave and what to perceive. Planners and decision-makers play a key role in constructing these messages, and therefore help determine how people view and interact with the world. As a result, the living environment and its associated messages can greatly influence the physical, social and mental health of all residents. Since children are just learning about the world, their living environment will profoundly influence almost all aspects of their lives. This puts a great deal of responsibility on the shoulders of planners, who need to balance a number of different issues in urban design to make places more child-friendly. Four major issues that are critical to the creation and maintenance of a child-friendly community are: safety, greenspace, access and integration. The benefits of child-friendly community design range from the promotion of healthier lifestyles, to improving the quality of social interactions to the long-term sustainability of natural spaces. The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) program Child Friendly Cities promotes child-friendly community design and inclusive decision-making. Waterloo, Ontario, a mid-sized Canadian city, has many positive and community-oriented attributes, but could benefit greatly from incorporating child-friendly design procedures and participatory decision-making.

L'environnement dans lequel on vit influence nos comportements et nos perceptions, par les messages qu'il nous transmet. Les planificateurs et les de-cideurs jouent un role capital dans la construction de ces messages qui, par consequent, determinent la maniere don't les gens percoivent le monde et comment ils y interagis-sent. C'est pourquoi l'environnement de vie et les messages qui y sont associes peuvent influer grandement sur la sante physique, sociale et mentale de tous les citoyens. Puisque les enfants apprennent tout juste a connaitre le monde, leur environnement de vie aura une incidence pro-fonde sur la plupart des aspects de leur vie. Cela met une lourde responsabilite sur les epaules des planificateurs, qui doivent equilibrer bon nombre d'enjeux differents en matiere de design d'environnement pour rendre les espaces de vie plus conviviaux pour les enfants. Les quatre en- jeux les plus essentielles a la creation et au maintien de collectivites favorables aux enfants sont la securite, les espaces verts, I'acces et Integration. Les bien-faits de la conception de collectivites accueillantes pour les enfants vont de la promotion de modes de vie plus sains a l'amelioration des interactions sociales, en passant par la durability a long terme des espaces naturels. Le programme Villes adaptees aux enfants du Fonds des Nations Unies pour I'enfance (UNI-CEF) fait la promotion de I'amenagement de collectivites accueillantes pour les enfants et d'une prise de decision inclusive. La ville de Waterloo, en Ontario, une ville canadienne de taille moyenne, possede de nombreuses caracteristiques positives et axees sur la collectivite, mais elle pourrait grandement profiter de procedures d'integration d'un design adapte aux enfants et de prise de decision participative.

Key Words

Children, healthy communities; Child Friendly City, integration, Waterloo, Ontario

Introduction

According to the World Health Organization, "Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity" (World Health Organization, 2007). All facets of this definition of health should be considered when planning living environments. Researchers and practitioners are increasingly recognizing this broader definition and are starting to understand that the way a community is designed and managed has a profound influence on each of them. Community design and management also has a strong influence on the economic, social, and environmental sustainability of the community as a whole. As examples of this changing understanding, consider the following: There has been a recent surge of interest in defining the relationship between human health and the built environment (e.g. Tucs and Dempster, 2007). The Healthy Communities movement has gained momentum over the past few decades, advancing healthy community ideals that include factors such as active participation, equal access to resources, diversity, and the provision of basic needs (OHCC, 2003). The Ontario Professional Planners Institute recently released a report on "Healthy Communities, Sustainable Communities" that acknowledges the links between planning, health and sustainability (OPPI, 2007). Finally, the Ontario Chief Medical Officer of Health's (CMOH) Report, Healthy Weights, Healthy Lives (Basrur, 2004), clearly outlines the connection between the living and built environments and physical health.

The latter report is of particular interest to this paper, because Basrur (2004) draws attention to concerns with respect to the health of children. "Between 15% and 25% of Ontario youth are overweight or obese" (Basrur, 2004: 25) and more than half of Canada's youth are not active enough for optimal growth and development. Children are spending more time indoors watching TV (Basrur, 2004) and less time interacting with the natural environment or exploring the community. Other research indicates that green outdoor areas are disappearing or are restricted and children are often segregated from society.

Many of these issues can be at least partially addressed with changes in policy and design which can encourage walking and cycling, improve access to recreational spaces, and make children and their parents generally feel safer about being outside. Among other considerations, the CMOH report offers suggestions such as these for improving health through changes in community planning policies, community design, and priority setting (Basrur, 2004).

Children's environments directly affect the way they interact with the world. The environment, then, has a significant impact on every child's physical, mental and social health, yet until recently there has been little focus on creating child-friendly communities. Children are often neglected in land use planning in two ways. They are given little consideration when it comes to design--although they see and interact with the world differently than adults do (Matthews and Limb, 1999): There is a lack of planning for children. Second, they are not given an opportunity to participate in decision-making (Bartlett, 2005): There is a lack of planning with children. The combination can result in reduced levels of physical activity and a lack of interest in community engagement. Getting children involved in community planning and decision-making can help promote physical activity as well as improve children's mental and social health through community engagement and empowerment. Children are more likely to venture out into spaces where they feel connected. They also have valuable ideas about how to make spaces actually usable by children.

There are a number of people studying how to involve children in decisionmaking processes (For examples, see: Bridgman, 2004b; Burke, 2005; Lauwers and Vanderstede, 2005). United Nations initiatives such as Child Friendly Cities (UNICEF, 2007) and Growing Up In Cities (UNESCO, 2007) promote inclusive decision-making. Child Friendly Cities give children the right to express opinions, participate in the community, receive basic services, be protected from various forms of violence, walk safely, play, have greenspaces, live in an unpolluted environment and be treated equally (UNICEF, 2007). In addition, the Child Friendly City program provides a framework to guide the process. It includes suggestions such as increasing children's participation, conducting child impact assessments, and creating a children's rights coordinating mechanism (UNICEF: Innocenti Research Centre, 2004).

This paper discusses how planning in urban environments should consider children in two ways: planning for children, and planning with children. When planning for children, at least four main factors should be considered: safety, greenspace, access and integration. Covering each of these in turn, I demonstrate that the way planners deal with these factors has the potential to greatly influence children and, more specifically, their health. These four themes appear repeatedly in the literature and encompass the goals of the Child Friendly City listed above. I use the City of Waterloo as an example of a medium -sized Canadian city to illustrate how certain plans and policies could affect children with regard to each of these themes.

I then discuss the other aspect of planning--planning with children. Involving children in planning is an excellent way to improve integration. It is also a necessary precursor to effective planning for children. It is not a simple process, and takes dedication and a willingness to listen and act. In discussing this aspect, I briefly examine the history of this trend, discuss some "best practices", and give examples of places taking positive steps towards inclusivity. Finally, I suggest possible steps that a city such as Waterloo can take to start the process of creating a Child Friendly City.

Since children comprise a significant portion of our current population, as well as our entire future population, their health and their relationships with the community should be of primary concern in the design and management of our communities.

The City of Waterloo: A Case Study

The City of Waterloo is one of the fastest growing areas in Canada (Region of Waterloo, 2003). Waterloo prides itself on being an "Environment First" community--one at the forefront of the environmental movement. The City's website states that, "The dynamic approach we have taken to address concerns for the environment has won us the respect and praise of the industry, as well as the public's confidence" (City of Waterloo, 2009a). Waterloo has won a number of environmental awards, including a "Service to the Environment" award in 2008 and a "Community Sustainability Award" in 2006 (City of Waterloo, 2009b). In addition, Waterloo has recently been named the world's most Intelligent Community for 2007 (City of Waterloo, 2007b). Waterloo has many child-friendly attributes, as well as many programs and services directed at children. However, while many policies and plans aim to improve conditions for all citizens, less attention has been given specifically to children's needs. Primarily, there are no provisions for including children's voices in decision-making processes. Waterloo could become a Child Friendly City by involving children in decisions and by providing safe, accessible, integrated communities with plenty of greenspace. These changes would promote the physical, social and mental health of Waterloo's children. The City of Waterloo serves as a good case study, as it is a relatively wealthy area of Canada that boasts of its many forward-thinking initiatives. One might expect that it could easily take steps to become more child friendly, but it has not done so yet.

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