Promoting incidental physical activity and social interactions in public space

Overview

The World Health Organisation recently raised the alarm on the critical importance of physical activity and social interactions for mental and physical health, highlighting the need for active environments that support people to engage in healthy activities. In order to address the high-rates of physical inactivity and social isolation, we need additional research evidence to design high-quality public spaces that promote health and wellbeing for all ages. This study lies at the intersection of built environment, human behaviour, and health and wellbeing research and practice to better understand if and how nudges in public space can change behaviour and prompt social and physical activity. Nudges are small cues in our environment that encourage people to make healthy decisions such as taking the stairs or walking, without taking away their choice. This research aims to understand how people interact with and respond to nudges within public spaces, and whether nudges can prompt incidental physical activity and social interactions.

Research activities

Research activities may include:

• Synthesising existing literature about the use and effectiveness of nudges in public spaces.
• Auditing public urban spaces to assess existing or potential nudges that promote physical activity.
• Conducting observations of the response to nudges in public spaces.

Outcomes

The outcomes may include:

• A report (or research article) about the use of nudges in public space and the potential effectiveness of certain nudge designs.
• Initial recommendations for potential nudge designs within public space.

Skills and experience

Students should be interested in the design of public spaces, and ideally have experience in landscape architecture, urban design, planning or related fields. Students should be detail oriented and have experience conducting literature reviews or assessing research literature. Training will be provided as needed.

Scholarships

You may be eligible to apply for a research scholarship.

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Keywords

• public space
• physical activity
• health and wellbeing
• landscape architecture
• urban design

Contact

Contact the supervisor for more information.  Additional supervisors will be involved as appropriate.