Category Archives: Catharine Ward Thompson

OPENspace Expands Its Research Horizons

OPENspace is broadening its research focus beyond urban green and blue spaces, extending its work into a wider range of environments that shape health and wellbeing.

Researchers are currently collaborating on projects exploring the benefits of White Spaces (landscapes dominated by snow and ice), Skyscapes, and Seascapes, including submerged marine environments such as seagrass ecosystems. Together, these initiatives expand how we understand therapeutic and restorative landscapes, from ground level to underwater and even to the skies.

Several proposals are in development, including:

An ESRC proposal examining the healing potential of recreational flying.
An international proposal under the National Natural Science Foundation of China’s International Collaboration Fund for Creative Research Teams, exploring the health dimensions of white space.
An NIHR Greenspace and Natural Environments proposal investigating urban vegetation and health
An ESRC proposal focused on nature and chronic pain.

OPENspace researchers are also participating in the RethinkBlue COST Action, a European network advancing social science perspectives on the Blue Economy.

Together, this work reflects an important evolution in the Centre’s research, extending our environmental lens while continuing to explore how diverse landscapes offer nature-based solutions to enhancing human health and wellbeing.

Prof Catharine Ward Thompson to share expertise at Trees and Development 2026

Prof Catharine Ward Thompson has been invited to speak at Trees and Development 2026: Putting Nature at the Heart of Urban Design and Planning Future Woodlands, a conference organised by the Institute of Chartered Foresters.

The one-day event will take place at the University of Stirling on 17 June 2026 and will bring together the people shaping Scotland’s next generation of greener, climate-resilient urban spaces.

The conference will be chaired by Karen Anderson FRSE, President of the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, for whom the subject is of particular personal interest.

With thought-provoking talks, real-world examples and a collaborative design challenge at its heart, the event will provide an opportunity for practitioners, researchers and policymakers to learn, connect and explore how trees and woodlands can help create nature-rich towns and cities.

OPENspace Research Centre Contributes to Design and Dementia Workshop

Professor Catharine Ward Thompson has been invited to contribute to a national Design and Dementia Workshop on Wednesday 25 March 2026, alongside colleagues Iain Scott, Senior Lecturer in Architecture, and Caroline Pearce, OPENspace Honorary Research Fellow.

The workshop will focus on the NHS Fit for the Future Dementia Challenge, part of the £500 million R&D Missions Accelerator Programme coordinated by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). The programme sets clear, measurable targets for research and innovation to deliver against the UK Government’s core missions.

The Dementia Patient Flow Research & Innovation Challenge aims to accelerate solutions that improve dementia pathways across the NHS and wider social care settings. By 2029, the ambition is for 92% of patients referred for dementia assessment to receive a diagnosis within 18 weeks.

The workshop will explore how design-led research can contribute to future UKRI-funded projects, focusing on two priorities: enabling faster, more accurate diagnosis through innovative tools and person-centred interventions; and developing post-diagnosis approaches that better identify disease trajectories and reduce avoidable outcomes such as emergency hospital admissions.

The invitation recognises OPENspace Research Centre’s expertise in design-led, interdisciplinary research and its commitment to improving healthcare systems and environments through innovation.

Peter Aspinall Memorial Lecture: Recording Now Available

The inaugural Peter Aspinall Memorial Lecture was held on 26th November 2025, marking an opportunity to reflect on the work and legacy of Professor Peter Aspinall and his pioneering contribution to restorative environment research.

The lecture was delivered by Professor Jenny Roe, Mary Irene DeShong Professor of Design & Health and Director of the Centre for Design & Health at the University of Virginia. A former PhD student and long-standing collaborator of Professor Aspinall, Professor Roe explored his influence through the lens of their shared research and mentorship.

Drawing on empirical work developed with multidisciplinary teams at the Universities of Edinburgh, Heriot-Watt and other UK institutions, Professor Roe highlighted the new paradigms they helped establish and the lasting global impact of this research on the field of environmental psychology.

The recording of the lecture is now available to watch below.

Prof. Catharine Ward Thompson gives talk at the FOLAR Annual Symposium 2024 on Ecological Public Health

Prof. Catharine Ward Thompson gave a speech at last years FOLAR annual symposium on Ecological Public Health – the future of salutogenic landscapes, which is now available to view online.

The direction Catharine Ward Thompson takes in her research is based on salutogenesis, an approach to human health that examines the factors contributing to the promotion and maintenance of physical and mental well-being rather than disease. Having the types of environment that support good health makes much better economic and cost effective sense for public health. Landscape architecture and management can do a lot to support people in good health through planning, designing and managing the outdoor environment.

Green space is eugenic – it is associated with reducing the difference in health and life expectancy between the most economically deprived people and those better off. There is a need to prove the link between landscape and improved health, and also to determine the mechanisms behind access to green space and health. And this is what Catharine Ward Thompson quietly shares with us here. A lifetime’s research and collaborations with others looking at different age groups, over different time periods and their interaction with a range of landscapes reveals many exciting conclusions, instinctively known and understood by Paxton and Olmsted and Geddes and many others, and here based on peer reviewed evidence. There is huge opportunity with this to fight for and protect the role of landscape anew.

OPENspace Co-Director, Prof Catharine Ward Thompson, honoured with Lifetime Achievement Award

From left to right: Prof Frederico Meireles Rodrigues, Prof Catharine Ward Thompson and Dr Ellen Fetzer. Photo taken by Anna Rhodes.

Professor Catharine Ward Thompson has been honoured with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the European Council of Landscape Architecture Schools (ECLAS) annual conference in Brussels on 10^th September 2024.

The award is given to a leading figure in Landscape Architecture, for contributions to research, education, and public service. Catharine has served on the ECLAS steering committee and was involved in hosting an early ECLAS conference in Edinburgh in 1994. She was part of a small group of European colleagues who secured the funding of an EU Culture programme Thematic Network project on Landscape Architecture education, called “Le:Notre”, in 2001.

Catharine was presented with the award by ECLAS president Dr Ellen Fetzer of Nuertingen Geislingen University, Germany, and ECLAS Secretary-General Professor Frederico Meireles Rodrigues of University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro, Portugal.

Jeroen de Vries, Catharine Ward Thompson, Richard Stiles and Karsten Jorgensen after writing the first ‘Le:Notre’ bid in 2001

Read more about the ECLAS Awards 2024 and other awards recipients: ECLAS Awards 2024 – ECLAS

Prof Catharine Ward Thompson- ” Mental health during the Covid-19 pandemic” – Research Paper

Hubbard, G., den Daas, C., Johnston, M., Murchie, P., Ward Thompson, C. & Dixon, D. 2021. Is rurality, area deprivation, access to outside space and green space associated with mental health during the Covid-19 pandemic? A cross sectional study from the Covid-19 Health and Adherence Research in Scotland project (CHARIS-E). International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 18, 3869, https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18083869

‘Hard facts’ conference rounds off fantastic year of collaboration with Swedish university

On 30th November 2017, Catharine Ward Thompson will give a keynote lecture on greenspace, health and quality of life as part of the ‘Hard facts about soft values’ conference in Stockholm.

Organised by the Movium network at Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), the conference is primarily aimed at policymakers and civil servants at a range of levels, from local to national and international.

> Access presentations from the conference, including Catharine’s

The event rounds off a great year for our relationship with SLU, where Catharine received an Honorary Doctorate in October, gave a public lecture which was streamed live online, and was interviewed by Arkitekten journal.

SLU have said “Catharine’s publications on green environments are used extensively in SLU’s landscape education and have also had a big impact in practice. Her research is an inspiration and knowledge base for our own research on the importance of green environments for health and wellbeing, and she is a long-term collaborator with SLU researchers, for example in co-authored publications and in postgraduate education.”

> Watch Catharine’s Honorary Doctorate public lecture online

Catharine receiving her Honorary Doctorate.

Catharine receiving her bespoke Honorary Doctorate’s hat at SLU. The moment was marked by a ceremonial trumpet flourish! Image © Jenny Svennås-Gillner/SLU

This year is a particularly special one for SLU, as it celebrates its 40th anniversary.

It is fitting, then, that 2017 has also seen the announcement of the Stockholm Declaration on Sustaining Resilient and Healthy Communities at the 10th European Public Health Conference which took place in the Swedish capital earlier this month.

Speaking at the conference alongside Kevin Lafferty of Forestry Commission Scotland and George Morris, formerly of NHS Health Scotland, Catharine again outlined the links between greenspace, health, wellbeing and resilience in a workshop on Public Landscapes for Public Health.

This was an excellent opportunity to share emerging findings from our research on Woods In and Around Towns, as well as to showcase the development of Scotland’s Natural Health Service – an example of innovative collaboration between the environment and health sectors in Scotland.

> Find out more about Scotland’s Natural Health Service

It’s not just one way traffic! This month, OPENspace is delighted to have hosted a group of urban planners from Sweden awarded a grant from the Swedish Association of Transportation Planners to study the walkability of Edinburgh.

The group were particularly keen to know more about the Mobility, Mood and Place (MMP) project, which looked at older people’s mobility outdoors and its impact on health and wellbeing.

In findings we’ve shared through a short animation, MMP has found that older people walking between different types of urban environments show changes in their emotional response to place based on brain activity patterns. Green spaces seem to be restorative, offering a respite from the tiring demands that busy urban places make on our directed attention.

Reinforcing what we have found in earlier work, such as Inclusive Design for Going Outdoors (I’DGO), we have found that, when it comes to walkability, the mundane matters and the commonplace counts! Everyday things, such as pavement quality, benches and street lighting, can make all the difference as we get older.

> Watch our short animation on Mobility, Mood and Place

OPENspace research featured in new WHO Europe Action Brief on Urban Green Spaces

The European Regional Office of the World Health Organizaton (WHO) has launched a new Action Brief on Urban Green Spaces, building on extensive research in the field, including a number of studies by OPENspace.

The Action Brief is a beautifully-illustrated suite of practical guidance on how to maximise the health benefits of urban green spaces.

Designed for urban practitioners, it is based on, and summarises, two recent technical reports by WHO Europe:

‘Urban Green Spaces and Health: A review of evidence’ (2016), which cites a number of OPENspace research papers, and has a chapter co-authored by Professor Catharine Ward Thompson and Dr Eva Silveirinha de Oliveira.

‘Urban Green Space Interventions and Health: A review of impacts and effectiveness’ (2017), which includes our I’DGO and Woods In and Around Town (WIAT) projects as examples of how to assess the health benefits of environmental interventions.

Having been cited by the WHO in its 2007 guidance on Global Age-friendly Cities, OPENspace has become a respected source of evidence for the organisation.

As well as citing our research in publications, WHO has invited Catharine to participate in a number of pan-European meetings and conferences, the most recent of which was the fourth European Conference on Biodiversity and Health in the face of Climate Change (Bonn, June 2017) at which she gave a plenary presentation and was interviewed by MDR, together with Bundesamt für Naturschutz (BfN) President, Beate Jessel.

Check out some of the visuals from the publication below, or access the document in full…

> Download the WHO Europe Action Brief on Urban Green Spaces

> Download Urban Green Spaces and Health: A review of evidence

> Download Urban Green Space Interventions and Health: A review of impacts and effectiveness

Photo of a jogger in a park

Photo of an urban park Photo of two women gardening

Photo of a tram

Photo of a coastal path

OPENspace (and friends) at #RGSIBG16

It’s time for the Annual International Conference of the Royal Geographical Society, which is held in collaboration with the Institute of British Geographers.

The theme for 2016 is ‘nexus thinking’, a way of addressing the interdependencies, tensions and trade-offs between different environmental and social domains.

OPENspace is involved in five papers at this year’s conference, which you can follow on social media using the hashtag #RGSIBG16.

Here’s where you can find out more about two of our current research projects: Mobility, Mood and Place (which looks at older people’s mobility outdoors); and Woods In and Around Towns (which explores urban woodlands and quality of life in deprived communities).

RGS-IBG conference papers on Mobility, Mood and Place

Wednesday 31st August 2016

Measuring Wellbeing (11:10-12:50)
Skempton Building, Lecture Theatre 207

Mapping brain imaging as a measure of emotional wellbeing in older people walking in different urban spaces.

Dr Steve Cinderby* of The University of York will be presenting this paper, which has been co-authored by Dr Sara Tilley of OPENspace and colleagues at the Universities of Edinburgh, York, Heriot-Watt and University College London.

Thursday 1st September 2016

Everyday geographies of ageing (1): (im)mobility, independence and ageing ‘well’ (09:00-10:40)
Sherfield Building, Room 10

Living in the moment or experiences of a lifetime? Considering environmental influences past, present and future on mobility in older age

Professor Jamie Pearce of the The Human Geography Research Group at the University of Edinburgh will be presenting this paper, which has been co-authored by Professor Catharine Ward Thompson, Professor Jenny Roe, Dr Katherine Brookfield and Dr Sara Tilley at OPENspace, and colleagues at the Universities of Edinburgh, York, Heriot-Watt and King’s College London.

RGS-IBG conference papers on Woods In and Around Towns

Thursday 1st September 2016

Greenspace Justice for Health and Wellbeing (16:50-18:30)
Royal School of Mines, Room G.06

Exploring parents’ perceptions and visits to local urban woodlands in deprived communities

Dr Sara Tilley of OPENspace will be presenting this paper, which has been co-authored by Dr Eva Silveirinha de Oliveira and Professor Catharine Ward Thompson.

On Friday 2nd September, Sara will also be chairing the first session on ‘Time at the nexus: mobility and modal choice’, which she co-convenes with Dr Julie Clark of the University of Glasgow, and presenting her PhD research in the second session (again co-convened with Julie) in a paper entitled Understanding the Multi-Level Forces Affecting Mobility Trends.

* Steve will also be talking about MMP at the annual ‘research into policy’ event co-hosted by the Transport Geography Research Group and UK Department for Transport (DfT). This pre-conference event takes place at the DFT on Tuesday 30th August 2016. Steve’s presentation is entitled Interactions between urban infrastructure design and use on older people’s mobility and well-being: evidence from three UK case studies.

> Browse other conference papers given by OPENspace team members