891 ABC Adelaide, regional ABC Local Radio stations and the University of South Australia are inviting South Australians to help identify ‘green hot spots’ by exploring the relationship we humans have with our ‘green spaces’ and outdoor places.
How important to you are parks, reserves, gardens and national parks? Do children spend enough time playing and exploring outdoors anymore?
On Monday 1 September the Operation Outdoors online survey will launch, exploring these questions and more. Respondents can choose to share their stories using a traditional survey approach, or they can map their favourite green spaces using an innovative map platform that will enable researchers to identify ‘green hot spots’.
Hot spots are areas that lots of South Australians consider important for a variety of reasons, including mental health, physical health or just places to have fun with the family. Importantly the map will also highlight those areas that need future attention in terms of green space planning.
Throughout September listeners can tune in and join the in depth discussions around how communities engage with green spaces.
• Urban Ecologist Professor Chris Daniels from Uni SA’s Barbara Hardy Institute, in 891 Mornings with Ian Henschke (metropolitan Adelaide) each Thursday at 10am and in Late Afternoons with Annette Marner (Regional SA and Broken Hill) each Tuesday at 4.40pm.
Over the past eight years South Australians have contributed to Citizen Science research about blue-tongues, possums, magpies, spiders and koalas in our ABC Local Radio and University of South Australia ‘Operations’.
The online survey closes on Sunday 13 October and the results will be published on the Operation Outdoors website before the end of 2014.