Children’s interactions with water in city centres: a case study from Sheffield, UK

Bozkurt, Melih; Woolley, Helen; Dempsey, Nicola

doi:10.1080/01426397.2018.1518518

Cited by 14 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…Another observation was that even if children passed by the wet pond, they did not interact with the water because it was either not detected or not attractive. We know that children's interactions with water features are influenced by different parameters such as age, weather, and localities (i.e., Bozkurt, Woolley, & Dempsey, 2019;Kytta, 2002). Yet, it also depends on the socio-cultural practices of authority figures (i.e., the norms and considerations that affect children's perception of affordances largely; Kytta, 2004).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Blue-Green Playscapes: Exploring Children’s Places in Stormwater Spaces in Augustenborg, Malmö

Mottaghi

Kylin

Kopljar

et al. 2021

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The urbanisation of cities increases the demands on, and complexity of, urban land use. Urban densification is challenging urban green space. Cities have responded to this challenge by adopting a multiple-use strategy where different functions share space. Shrinking open space has to contain solutions for everyday functions such as bicycle parking, waste sorting, blue-green stormwater systems, and playscapes. Values and functions that can reinforce and amplify each other are therefore of interest to study.<em> </em>The present article explores the possibilities for blue-green solutions (BGS) to be used as part of children’s playscapes. BGS are aboveground, ecological stormwater facilities, introduced to prevent flooding and support biodiversity while adding recreational and aesthetic qualities to the urban environment. The objective is to discuss the extent to which ecological and social values can reinforce each other in terms of encouraging children to engage with BGS natural elements. The researchers have studied the Augustenborg residential neighbourhood in Malmö. The area was primarily investigated through a postal survey, which identified a remodelled park with a floodable sunken lawn as a potentially attractive area for children’s activities. The park was analysed as a potential playscape and supported by on-site observations. The study shows that even if BGS largely meet children’s play values, due to existing socio-spatial structures, children are not using the offered play features. The article discusses the results in terms of how stormwater management may enhance the actualisation of play potentials in children’s everyday living environment.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Blue-Green Playscapes: Exploring Children’s Places in Stormwater Spaces in Augustenborg, Malmö

Mottaghi

Kylin

Kopljar

et al. 2021

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“…As previously discussed (Bozkurt, Woolley and Dempsey, 2019) no existing tool was suitable for mapping and recording children in public open spaces. Most previous tools have been used to observe children in enclosed spaces, such as school playgrounds (Moore, 1989;; have meant that only a limited number of children could be observed (Moore, 1989; or have observed physical activity and not specifically play (McKenzie et.…”

Section: Data Collection Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A new mechanism, called a Tool for Observing Water Experiences of Children (TOWEC) was designed for hand coding with symbols representing gender, age, and ethnicity. The tool also facilitated the hand recording of information including environmental characteristics; characteristics of children; and passive or active play with water as observations during the pilot study (Bozkurt, Woolley and Dempsey, 2019).…”

Section: Data Collection Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Active and Passive modes of playing with water have been previously suggested (Bozkurt, Woolley and Dempsey, 2019) where active includes running/walking in/under the water; jumping in the water; chasing games; playing with water equipment; walking around the water; feeding animals in the water and passive includes lying around the water; standing around the water; sitting on a bench; sitting on a wall; sitting on grass; and observing the water features.…”

Section: Play With Watermentioning

confidence: 99%

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Let’s splash: Children’s active and passive water play in constructed and natural water features in urban green spaces in Sheffield

Bozkurt

Wooley

2020

Urban Forestry & Urban Greening

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Children's water play in urban green spacesThe value of open spaces to people's lives in cities are many and may relate to the space in its entirety or specific elements within a space. Within urban green and open spaces vegetation and water are elements that are a great attraction for people (Zube, et al., 1983). This is especially the case for water, which children (Yamashita, 2002) consider to have a higher design value than adults (Francis, 1988). Yet, despite water being identified as one of children's five favourite elements of childhood play in an outdoor environment (Brunelle et al., 2016); acknowledged as a natural element by children (Collado et al., 2016;Freeman et al., 2015;Gulgonen and Corona, 2015;Donnell and Rinkoff, 2015); positively correlated with the use of open spaces for boys aged 4-6 (Aarts, et al., 2010) and supporting an increase in the active recreation of girls (Hume et al., n.d.) little research has been undertaken that explicitly seeks to understand children and their interaction with water in urban green spaces. This paper seeks to add to that limited research by providing insights into children's play associated with different types of water features in one civic green space and two neighbourhood green spaces in the City of Sheffield, in the north of England, UK. This paper builds upon (Bozkurt, Woolley and Dempsey, 2019) which developed an observational tool (TOWEC), to observe children's water play Constructed and natural water featuresIn urban green spaces water can be understood to exist in two main forms: constructed and natural. Constructed spaces are those understood to be built for a specific purpose and are sometimes understood in opposition to 'found' (incidental) spaces and for children this might be the difference between playing in the constructed space of a playground or the found space of some steps or other element within an urban landscape (Woolley, 2015). Similarly constructed water features can be considered to be those which are built for a specific purpose and include fountains, usually provided for aesthetic and sometimes auditory purposes, and lakes or ponds for activities such as boating and fishing. Natural water features have been suggested to include features such as rivers (Tapsell, et. al. 2001;Tunstall, et. al. 2004). We contest that some natural water features may be more constructed than is obvious at first sight, for example a river may have been partially re-aligned or had weirs and dams introduced to alter flow rates. Yet to the untrained eye such water features retain a 'natural character' and thus we retain the classification of 'natural' here. Many different types of green and open spaces exist in a city and often differ according to their location such as in a city centre or a (housing) neighbourhood. The attraction to children of water in these different locations is exemplified by the fact that in city centres, where many civic open spaces exist, children prefer water features to statues or sculptures (Woolley, et al., 1999), while in neighbo...

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“…The informal interviews was a complementary method used to extend research and allow for deeper understanding of what was observed. A similar research method was used by Kyttä (2002), Bozkurt et al (2018) or Chaudhury et al (2019). In the sections "Discussion" and "Conclusion" a modification of the taxonomy in comparison with the original table and the alternatives of other authors is evaluated.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Children’s interactions with public space: Observing children’s experienced affordances in a housing estate in Brno, Czechia

Kaplan¹

2021

geogrcas

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The presented paper examines interactions between public spaces in a housing estate and children. Here, the relationship between the child and the environment is interpreted through the perspective of Gibson´s affordances -an approach that has been employed many times since it appeared in different spatial contexts. Affordances are interactions/relationships between humans and the object or human and its environment. This research is focused on a housing estate in the Czech Republic in Brno. A non-participant covert observation was the main research method. Heft's functional taxonomy of children's affordances has been applied as a tool to classify these interactions and they are later confronted with the proposed variation in the taxonomy. The study includes modifications to the original taxonomy, adding a category (snow) and merging another (water). Other influences on children's affordances are adults (caretakers) and temporality as well as child body size, as the spectrum of active affordances differs between bigger and smaller children.

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Children’s interactions with water in city centres: a case study from Sheffield, UK

Cited by 14 publications

References 35 publications

Blue-Green Playscapes: Exploring Children’s Places in Stormwater Spaces in Augustenborg, Malmö

Blue-Green Playscapes: Exploring Children’s Places in Stormwater Spaces in Augustenborg, Malmö

Let’s splash: Children’s active and passive water play in constructed and natural water features in urban green spaces in Sheffield

Children’s interactions with public space: Observing children’s experienced affordances in a housing estate in Brno, Czechia

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