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Going with the flow


Ray T

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CRT Press Release

 

1st September 2022

                                                                                                

Going with the flow: study shows the blend of blue and green space at former industrial canals helps boost your mood

 

·      Time spent by canals and rivers is associated with better mental wellbeing and this association is stronger compared to environments that have greenspaces alone

·      National canal charity says modern-day canals offer wellbeing for millions of people in our towns and cities

·      The powerful mix of blue, green and wildlife-rich space shows that although built for industry, repurposed canals are amongst our most important places for health and wellbeing in our towns and cities.

 

The results of a real time study, the first of its type, carried out by King’s College London, Nomad Projects and J & L Gibbons in partnership with the Canal & River Trust, shows that spending time by canals and rivers is linked to feeling happy and healthy.

 

Researchers report that the combination of blue and green space with wildlife, has a greater impact on wellbeing than spending time in an environment that is characterised by only green space.

 

The researchers used Urban Mind, a smartphone-based app, to collect thousands of real time audits about participants’ location and mental wellbeing.

 

Results showed positive associations between visits to canals and rivers and mental wellbeing, as well as a positive experience for feelings of safety and social inclusion relative to all other types of environments (such as indoors, or outside in an urban environment, or near green spaces).

 

Andrea Mechelli, Professor of Early Intervention in Mental Health, King’s College London, commented: “Canals and rivers contain not only water but also an abundance of trees and plants, which means their capacity to improve mental wellbeing is likely to be due to the multiple benefits associated with both green and blue spaces. Canals and rivers also provide homes to a range of wildlife, and we know from other research that there is a positive association between encountering wildlife and mental wellbeing. Taken collectively, these findings provide an evidence base for what we thought about water and wellbeing and support the proposal that visits to canals and rivers could become part of social prescribing schemes, playing a role in supporting mental health.”

 

The study found that visiting canals and rivers was associated with a greater improvement in mental wellbeing, and this relationship was still present when accounting for individual variation due to age, gender, education, ethnicity, and a diagnosis of a mental health condition. People also reported continued improvements in their mental wellbeing for up to 24 hours after the visit had taken place.

 

Richard Parry, chief executive of the Canal & River Trust, responded: “Once the arteries of the Industrial Revolution, canals are today playing an equally important role in society as green corridors that bring nature into cities, improving community wellbeing and tackling health inequalities, as well as supporting jobs and local economies.

 

“The powerful mix of blue, green and wildlife-rich space shows that although initially built for industry, repurposed canals are today amongst our most important places for health and wellbeing in our towns and cities.

 

“With the 250-year-old canal network vulnerable to climate change, keeping them safe and attractive requires significant ongoing expenditure and – to retain these benefits – it is vital that the necessary funding to maintain their condition is secured.”

 

Dr Amir Khan, Canal & River Trust Ambassador stated: “As a GP and nature lover, it’s great to see that scientific studies have confirmed what many of us intuitively knew: that spending time by water, and canals in particular, is good for your wellbeing.

 

“An astonishing nine million people live within 1km of a canal and whether you’re looking for a free alternative to the gym, a car-free commute to work or the shops, or perhaps just somewhere to hang out with family or friends, I really do urge everyone to find their #HappyPlaceByWater this summer.”

 

For further information on how you can find, and enjoy your local canal, including information on the fantastic places to visit, go to www.canalrivertrust.org.uk/happyplacebywater.

 

-ends-

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15 minutes ago, Victor Vectis said:

Am I wrong, but I can't seem to see any reference to boats or boating in the above?

Possibly because

 

"The researchers used Urban Mind, a smartphone-based app, to collect thousands of real time audits about participants’ location and mental wellbeing."

 

and the odds of many boaters having this app -- or even a mobile phone -- are small. And even if they did, boaters are 0.1% of the population, so their responses would be outnumbered 1000:1 by non-boaters, hence this:

 

“An astonishing nine million people live within 1km of a canal and whether you’re looking for a free alternative to the gym, a car-free commute to work or the shops, or perhaps just somewhere to hang out with family or friends, I really do urge everyone to find their #HappyPlaceByWater this summer.”

 

It's not a survey of boaters.

Edited by IanD
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7 minutes ago, IanD said:

and the odds of many boaters having this app -- or even a mobile phone -- are small.

I'll agree that few boaters may have the app (and likewise presumably also non-boaters), but surely these days, most boaters have a mobile phone (even if a few dinosaurs on here proudly assert their non-smart phone status).

 

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3 minutes ago, David Mack said:

I'll agree that few boaters may have the app (and likewise presumably also non-boaters), but surely these days, most boaters have a mobile phone (even if a few dinosaurs on here proudly assert their non-smart phone status).

 

There was a certain amount of tongue-in-cheek there, based on comments about mobile phones (and modern technology generally) by some posters on the forum... 😉 

 

The fact remains that if they conducted "thousands of real-time audits" they'd be doing well to include even a handful of boaters -- and maybe even not a single one...

Edited by IanD
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13 minutes ago, IanD said:

The fact remains that if they conducted "thousands of real-time audits" they'd be doing well to include even a handful of boaters -- and maybe even not a single one...

Indeed. And if participants were selected on the basis they already had the Urban Mind app, I would suggest that would not represent an unbiased sample - they would mainly be people who are sufficiently interested in mindfulness issues to have downloaded the app in the first place. On the other hand, if participants were selected first to be a reprentative sample of the population, and then asked to use the app, that would be more balanced, but would still exclude the phone dinosaurs.

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1 hour ago, IanD said:

 < snip > I really do urge everyone to find their #HappyPlaceByWater this summer.”

 

It's not a survey of boaters.

 

Yes. I know that. And I understand why CaRT are doing this sort of thing.

 

But my 'happy place' is on the water, not by and like a lot of people I'm getting increasingly unhappy at the way CaRT are running things.

Knowing and understanding something does not stop me getting pizzed orf about it.

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1 minute ago, Victor Vectis said:

 

Yes. I know that. And I understand why CaRT are doing this sort of thing.

 

But my 'happy place' is on the water, not by and like a lot of people I'm getting increasingly unhappy at the way CaRT are running things.

Knowing and understanding something does not stop me getting pizzed orf about it.

 

I agree about being unhappy about how CART are running things, though the biggest problem seems to be lack of funding rather than things that people keep getting excited about like blue signs.

 

But protesting that you can't see anything about boats or boating in the survey just comes over as an "I hate CART" post... 😉

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1 hour ago, IanD said:

 

I agree about being unhappy about how CART are running things, though the biggest problem seems to be lack of funding rather than things that people keep getting excited about like blue signs.

 

But protesting that you can't see anything about boats or boating in the survey just comes over as an "I hate CART" post... 😉

At the moment, quite a lot of us wot like being on it are stuck with just being by it!

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1 hour ago, Victor Vectis said:

Yes. I know that. And I understand why CaRT are doing this sort of thing.

CRT are doing this sort of thing to persuade Government that they have wider social benefit, not just a subsidy for affluent boaters, and therefore still deserve funding. BW used to do exactly the same. I like Government paying for the canals, so good luck to them.

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  • 1 month later...

From following the link at the end of the press release, it does appear that people were contacted and asked to use the app for two weeks.

 

Gathering the data

Across the UK, people of varying age, ethnicity, gender and background were asked to document in real-time the locations and their state of wellbeing via the Urban Mind mobile app, for two weeks.

 

What is not obviously stated is the actual number of people who partcipated: thousands of audits is unlikely to be thousands of individuals, each producing a single audit, or the time of year when the audits were made.

Edited by Ronaldo47
typos, time of year added
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