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Urban green spaces, values and human wellbeing in Ghana

The modernist National Theatre building in Accra, Ghana

The project in Ghana will explore how:

  • (i) green space has changed within urban cities (Accra & Kumasi)
  • (ii) how communities value different elements of green space and nature
  • (iii) how different elements of subjective wellbeing (hedonic & eudaimonic) associate with access and relatedness to green space and nature, and
  • (iv) how the values of different community groups are, or are not, represented within the governance of green space and contested areas in an urban context.

Geospatial analysis using Planet (3m resolution) images will explore the changing landcover of Accra and Kumasi from 2016-2024. The focus will be on identifying areas that have either maintained green space or are experiencing substantial loss. These areas will be the focus of the survey, capturing households’ demographic and socioeconomic characteristics, nature relatedness, access/use of green space, hedonic/eudaimonic wellbeing and values of urban green spaces.

Values will be interpreted using the IPBES framework (instrumental, intrinsic, relational), whilst also acknowledging the potential for “disvalues” and the negative impacts of nature upon human health and wellbeing. Statistical analysis will explore associations between green space and wellbeing of urban residents.

Quantitative methods will be accompanied by qualitative fieldwork, including semi-structured interviews and focus groups, alongside participatory mapping to visualise the geographic configuration of different values. The qualitative methods help further the understanding of the statistical results, with a particular focus on different communities’ relationships with nature, and how these have altered over time or following migration.

The project aims to add to the understanding of relationships with nature and green space within urban Ghana, a research area heavily dominated by Western studies. By capturing values of different groups, the research aims to detect whether the well-documented mechanisms of improved wellbeing in the Western context are also applicable in a low-and-middle-income context in Africa.