Nature experience space

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Nature experience space in the Berlin Park at Gleisdreieck

Spaces for experience of nature ( NER or NER spaces for short ) are green spaces where mainly adolescents, but also adults, can stay and experience nature independently . Children can visit nature experience spaces independently and have priority here. Spaces to experience nature are functionally indefinite, their size depends on the availability of space, but they should be at least 10,000 m².

concept

The concept of urban nature experience spaces was developed as part of a research project commissioned by the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation . The concept is based on the assumption that children in the city are encouraged in their development when they play in natural spaces. The results of childhood research confirm the finding: The direct contact with nature, which is expressed in the spontaneous and unsupervised play of the children, the outdoor play, fulfills important emotional, but also cognitive needs of adolescents:

  • Children want a play area whose character is not determined by technical monotony but by natural diversity.
  • Children want to live out their imagination in play - in free spaces that stimulate their urge to discover.
  • Children want to be able to design the room playfully with their own hands.
  • Children look for unforeseen experiences in rooms in which they can play according to their own ideas - without prohibitions and without educational guidance.
  • Children like risks where they can test their possibilities and limits and further develop their skills. They love challenges on which they can test their strength and skills and which promise them a sense of achievement.

These demands can be met by rooms with the most "wild", undesigned natural dynamics possible. However, this is only possible if there are suitable rooms. An urban nature experience space is a largely natural and device-free green area that older children use as a play area in their living environment. The largely natural development of the area allows design and maintenance interventions to enable diverse activities and to promote ecological diversity. With these cautious interventions, the natural potential for experience and the “wild character” of the room are preserved.

Spaces to experience nature fulfill goals for the benefit of children and nature conservation goals at the same time. The latter goals are firstly promoted through the development and protection of habitats for threatened species that are insensitive to children's play. Second, the playful contact with nature experienced in childhood contributes to an emotionally anchored appreciation of wild animals and plants. This motivates in adulthood to be interested and committed to the interests of nature conservation.

A space to experience nature can be developed from two initial situations: either from areas with non-natural use (arable land, intensive grassland, lawn) or from near-natural fallow land that would otherwise be built over or used for another intensive use.

If the initial situation is too monotonous to be attractive enough for the adolescents to play, an interesting terrain shape can be created on partial areas with a one-time use of excavators or a water area can be created. Adolescents can experience the dynamics of natural processes undisturbed and independently in nature experience spaces and include them in their activities.

features

The following features are characteristic of designated urban nature experience areas:

  • Use: "Nature play area". Recovery has priority. Protected areas only suitable in exceptional cases.
  • Character: Experience largely undesigned nature. Natural succession of flora on about half of the area , the other areas cautiously cared for (no lawn). Richly structured space to increase play value and ecological diversity.
  • Target groups: primarily older children (7 to 12 years old), also older young people, adults and small children.
  • Location: NERaum location integrated into living areas or closely assigned to them. Safe accessibility for older children. Adjacent areas of a different type are desirable.
  • Size: Area at least 1 hectare (= 10,000 m²), if possible more. The minimum size is necessary so that the children playing here can have the feeling of being surrounded by nature. With the surface size mentioned, non-natural optical and acoustic interference can be largely attenuated.
  • Care and design: to keep the area open, restrained care in sub-areas depending on local conditions and visitor frequency. Creation of terrain forms ("natural play mountain") and - as far as possible - opportunities to play on the water. Care should be based on ecological criteria in order to increase the diversity of habitats. For safety reasons, sufficient area observation is necessary in order to avoid hidden dangers.
  • Care: if possible no educational care, children stay among themselves. Exceptions: play activities to get to know each other and reduce fear of the threshold when encountering “wild” nature.
  • No regulation: no prohibitions or requirements. Only compliance with safety standards, for example with regard to fire. Otherwise, all game and sport activities are allowed except motor sports.
  • Planning security: Within the framework of the land-use planning, nature experience areas are to be designated as “green areas with special purpose” in order to protect them from competing land claims. Securing sufficiently large areas near the apartment that are suitable as NE rooms. Conversion of informal to formal NER rooms.

The following are to be clearly distinguished from areas of experience of nature:

  • Playgrounds with equipment made of wood, with large rocks and tree trunks and other natural elements. They do not convey the experience of nature as a complex structure.
  • Adventure playgrounds / "active playgrounds". Technical play elements dominate in them and they require adult supervision.
  • "Nature and water play areas" as part of larger playgrounds. These areas are small-scale and technical.

Testing the concept in practice

An interdisciplinary study of both informal and formally designated nature experience areas in Stuttgart , Karlsruhe , Freiburg and Nürtingen has proven the practicality of the concept. This study found out, among other things, how the playful stay in nature can affect children:

  • Promotion of healthy development: Leisure activities in the home with television and computer games lead to a sedentary lifestyle, which is detrimental to health. Spaces to experience nature motivate older children to exercise outdoors more than conventional playgrounds.
  • Strengthening personal responsibility and social skills: The natural range of nature experience spaces encourages children to role-play and other communal forms of experiencing nature. Children who decide for themselves in play which of the natural adventure and activity offers they want to use and in what way encounter challenges, the mastery of which promotes their independence and personal responsibility.
  • Promotion of creativity: The natural play area can be designed by the children. The playful use of natural materials that are not functionally defined, with living animals and plants as well as with water and soil stimulates the imagination. The joy of discovery and inventiveness are awakened in nature. This strengthens the self-efficacy and develops the children's creativity.
  • Increasing risk literacy: Compared to equipment and designed playgrounds, the surprising and less predictable components and processes in nature experience spaces strengthen the mindfulness of children and their ability to self-assess. Dealing with unsafe situations in a playful way (e.g. when climbing trees) increases the children's ability to deal safely with age-appropriate risks.

In Berlin, as part of a development and testing project carried out from 2015 to 2018, three NERaum pilot areas were created and examined - also with the aim of “making the concept of urban nature experience spaces better known and helping to make them normal in our cities. “Under the project management of the Berlin Nature Conservation Foundation, the associations Spielkultur Berlin-Buch eV, Staakkato Kinder und Jugend eV and the Infrastructural Network Environmental Protection take care of the spaces to experience nature. They use educators on site as contact persons who look after the areas, inform children and youth facilities, make trial offers and provide educational work. The project, which is scientifically supervised by the Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development, is about using the pilot areas to gain knowledge of user groups, user behavior, opportunities for stimulation and influence, the need for supervision and control, and the maintenance and development of the areas. The Berlin Nature Conservation Foundation has put a film online that provides information about urban spaces to experience nature. An exhibition designed by the foundation on spaces to experience nature can be borrowed there free of charge.

Working group for urban nature experience spaces

The nationwide working group urban nature experience spaces was founded in 2000 in the rooms of the German Association of Cities in Cologne with the aim of introducing the idea and concept of urban nature experience spaces more intensively into local practice: by publicizing the area category and information about its qualities, through political persuasion to anchor this category in planning laws, e.g. B. in the Federal Nature Conservation Act and the Building Code , and by participating in local campaigns to create additional NE spaces. The members of the working group - appointed by the board - come from city administrations, state planning offices, university institutes, citizens' initiatives, foundations and associations for nature conservation and child and youth work.

On the initiative of the working group, a nationwide congress on the topic of “Children and Nature in the City” was held in Munich in 2005. The congress resulted in the publication of a manual for politicians, planners, parents and Agenda 21 groups. Using presentations and examples, this brochure summarizes the required information on the theory and practice of nature experience spaces.

On February 23, 2018, at an interdisciplinary symposium in Berlin, a "Resolution for the creation of spaces to experience nature in the city" was passed. In it, the municipalities are called upon to make NE spaces more integral parts of public space than before.

Legal regulation

According to the Federal Nature Conservation Act (BNatSchG in the version that came into force on March 1, 2010), nature experience areas in Germany belong to the open spaces in populated areas and areas close to settlement that are "to be preserved and recreated where they are not sufficiently available" ( Section 1, Paragraph 6).

See also

literature

  • Ulrich Gebhard: Child and Nature. The importance of nature for psychological development. 2nd, updated and expanded edition. Westdeutscher Verlag, Wiesbaden 2001, ISBN 3-531-32529-9 (also: Hannover, Univ., Habil.-Schr., 1992).
  • Konrad Reidl , Hans-Joachim Schemel, Baldo Blinkert: Spaces to experience nature in populated areas. Results of an interdisciplinary research project (= Nürtinger Hochschulschriften. Volume 24). Published by Hans-Karl Hauffe. University Association Nürtingen / Geislingen, Nürtingen 2005, ISBN 3-9809939-0-6 .
  • Hans-Joachim Schemel: Spaces to experience nature. A human-ecological approach for natural recreation in town and country. Results from the R&D project 808 06 009 of the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (= Applied Landscape Ecology. Issue 19). BfN-Schriften-Vertrieb in Landwirtschaftsverlag, Münster 1998, ISBN 3-89624-315-2 .
  • Hans-Joachim Schemel, Torsten Wilke: Children and nature in the city. Nature play. A manual for local politicians, planners as well as parents and Agenda 21 initiatives (= Federal Agency for Nature Conservation. BfN- Skripten 230, ZDB -ID 1476341-2 ). Federal Agency for Nature Conservation, Bonn 2008. ( online ; PDF; 18.4 MB)
  • Alexandra Schwarzer, Hans-Georg Renner: Moving naturally - psychomotor skills in nature. In: Praxis der Psychomotorik. Vol. 33, Issue 1, 2008, ISSN  0170-060X , pp. 19-22.
  • Mareike Treblin: Recommendations for action for spaces to experience nature in Berlin. Thesis. Berlin 2008. ( online ; PDF; 0.8 MB)
  • Christiane Richard-Elsner: Playing outside. Beltz Juventa, Weinheim Basel 2017, ISBN 978-3-7799-3693-0 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Hans-Joachim Schemel: The concept of the area category “nature experience spaces” and the basis for the planning implementation. In: Applied Landscape Ecology. 19, 1998, pp. 207-356.
  2. ↑ Christiane Richard-Elsner: Beltz Juventa play outside , Weinheim Basel 2017, esp. Pp. 19–24.
  3. ↑ Baldo Blinkert: Children's activity spaces in the city. Series of publications by the Freiburg Institute for Applied Social Science eV (FIFAS) 2. Centaurus, Pfaffenweiler 1969.
  4. ↑ M. Gebauer, Ulrich Gebhard (Ed.): Nature experience. Paths to a hermeneutics of nature. The gray edition, Zug 2005.
  5. ↑ M. Gebauer, G. Hüther: Children need play spaces. Walter Verlag, Düsseldorf 2003.
  6. ↑ Ulrich Gebhard: Child and Nature. The importance of nature for psychological development. VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden 2003.
  7. ↑ a b A. Keil, P. Keil, Konrad Reidl, D. Rink, Hans-Joachim Schemel: Nature experience, nature experience and environmental education in the city. In: I. Kowarik, R. Bartz, M. Brenck (Eds.): Natural Capital Germany - TEEB DE. Berlin / Leipzig 2016, pp. 148–169. (( www.ufz.de ; PDF; 14 MB), pp. 146–155: Spaces of natural experience in the city)
  8. ↑ a b Konrad Reidl, Hans-Joachim Schemel, Baldo Blinkert: Nature experience spaces in populated areas. Results of an interdisciplinary research project. (= Nürtinger Hochschulschriften. 24). 2005.
  9. ^ I. Stopka, S. Rank: Spaces of Nature Experience in Large Cities. Ways to establish itself in public open space. (= BfN scripts. 345). Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (Ed.), Bonn-Bad Godesberg 2013.
  10. ↑ Hans-Joachim Schemel: Nature experience spaces in the city. In: A. Flade (Ed.): Back to nature? Findings and concepts in nature psychology. Verlag Springer, Hamburg 2018, pp. 208-218.
  11. ^ Christiane Richard-Elsner: Risk competence without risk experience? In: Unser Jugend 65, H. 10, 2013, S. 455–463.
  12. ^ Stiftung Naturschutz Berlin, I. Stopka: Spaces of nature experience in large cities using the example of Berlin. Retrieved November 14, 2018.
  13. ↑ Hans-Joachim Schemel, T. Wilke (arr.): Children and nature in the city. Spielraum Natur: a handbook for local politics and planning as well as for parents and Agenda 21 initiatives. (= BfN scripts. 230). Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (Ed.), Bonn-Bad Godesberg 2008 (PDF)