Contribution of Agriculture to Health Promotion.

Agriculture has been an important source of the human diet throughout human history, but its relationship with human societies has transformed over the long course of more than 10,000 y. Urbanization and agricultural commercialization are significant among such changes and wield considerable impact on human diets, nutrition, and health. This paper presents four studies examining the influence of agriculture on diet and general health: 1) the impact of urban allotment gardening on human health and wellbeing in Japan, 2) the preference of people in Japan for collaborations between citizens' farms and food-support organizations 3) the linkages between dietary diversity and agriculture in Indonesia, and 4) food sources and child nutrition in the deforested frontiers of Cambodia.

Assessment and mitigation of tangible flood damages driven by climate change in a tropical city: Hat Yai Municipality, southern Thailand.

Climate change-induced floods in tropical urban areas have presented a serious global challenge because of failed conventional stormwater management practices. This research aims to develop a comprehensive methodological framework for flood damage estimation and mitigation, particularly in a tropical urban city. In this study, interdisciplinary fields were integrated through statistical downscaling, hydrologic-hydraulic modeling, and the development of flood damage curves. Relationships between tangible flood damage and flood-borne outbreak with flood depths were elucidated to predict future damage. Various flood mitigation strategies were evaluated. Herein, Hat Yai Municipality in Southern Thailand was selected as the study area. The flood simulation was conducted for 2010 and the highest flood damage sensitivity was exhibited by non-commercial buildings due to significant commercial stock damage, which was followed by that observed for detached houses. There was a strong linear relationship between the number of patients infected with leptospirosis and flood depth (R2 = 0.85). For climate change studies, flood maps for storms with 20-, 50-, and 100-year return periods under the A2/RCP8.5 scenario were generated using hydrological-hydraulic 1D/2D model; these maps were applied with the developed flood damage curves for damage estimation. It was found that reducing flood damage by implementing agroforestry and expanding the main bypass channel provides comparable damage reductions of -25.5% and - 27.5%, respectively, under the worst-case scenario of a 100-year return period in 2040-2059. Therefore, to deal with uncertain climate change situations, the incorporation of structural and non-structural measures is recommended. Such a combination when coupled with an eight-hour flood awareness time can result in a damage reduction of -59.9%. A flood warning system was in high demand by residents in the area; however, damage reduction from this measure alone was not high (approximately -17.0%) when compared to that obtained with other measures; consequently, additional measures were needed.

Health Benefits of Urban Allotment Gardening: Improved Physical and Psychological Well-Being and Social Integration.

With an ever-increasing urban population, promoting public health and well-being in towns and cities is a major challenge. Previous research has suggested that participating in allotment gardening delivers a wide range of health benefits. However, evidence from quantitative analyses is still scarce. Here, we quantify the effects, if any, of participating in allotment gardening on physical, psychological and social health. A questionnaire survey of 332 people was performed in Tokyo, Japan. We compared five self-reported health outcomes between allotment gardeners and non-gardener controls: perceived general health, subjective health complaints, body mass index (BMI), mental health and social cohesion. Accounting for socio-demographic and lifestyle variables, regression models revealed that allotment gardeners, compared to non-gardeners, reported better perceived general health, subjective health complaints, mental health and social cohesion. BMI did not differ between gardeners and non-gardeners. Neither frequency nor duration of gardening significantly influenced reported health outcomes. Our results highlight that regular gardening on allotment sites is associated with improved physical, psychological and social health. With the recent escalation in the prevalence of chronic diseases, and associated healthcare costs, this study has a major implication for policy, as it suggests that urban allotments have great potential for preventative healthcare.

Both Direct and Vicarious Experiences of Nature Affect Children's Willingness to Conserve Biodiversity.

Children are becoming less likely to have direct contact with nature. This ongoing loss of human interactions with nature, the extinction of experience, is viewed as one of the most fundamental obstacles to addressing global environmental challenges. However, the consequences for biodiversity conservation have been examined very little. Here, we conducted a questionnaire survey of elementary schoolchildren and investigated effects of the frequency of direct (participating in nature-based activities) and vicarious experiences of nature (reading books or watching TV programs about nature and talking about nature with parents or friends) on their affective attitudes (individuals' emotional feelings) toward and willingness to conserve biodiversity. A total of 397 children participated in the surveys in Tokyo. Children's affective attitudes and willingness to conserve biodiversity were positively associated with the frequency of both direct and vicarious experiences of nature. Path analysis showed that effects of direct and vicarious experiences on children's willingness to conserve biodiversity were mediated by their affective attitudes. This study demonstrates that children who frequently experience nature are likely to develop greater emotional affinity to and support for protecting biodiversity. We suggest that children should be encouraged to experience nature and be provided with various types of these experiences.

Model development for household waste prevention behaviour.

Understanding waste prevention behaviour (WPB) could enable local governments and decision makers to design more-effective policies for reducing the amount of waste that is generated. By merging well-known attitude-behaviour theories with elements from wider models from environmental psychology, an extensive cognitive framework that provides new and valuable insights is developed for understanding the involvement of individuals in waste prevention. The results confirm the usefulness of the theory of planned behaviour and of Schwartz's altruistic behaviour model as bases for modelling participation in waste prevention. A more elaborate integrated model of prevention was shown to be necessary for the complete analysis of attitudinal aspects associated with waste prevention. A postal survey of 158 respondents provided empirical support for eight of 12 hypotheses. The proposed structural equation indicates that personal norms and perceived behaviour control are the main predictors and that, unlike the case of recycling, subjective norms have a weak influence on WPB. It also suggests that, since social norms have not presented a direct influence, WPB is likely to be influenced by a concern for the environment and the community as well by perceptions of moral obligation and inconvenience. Results also proved that recycling and waste prevention represent different dimensions of waste management behaviour requiring particular approaches to increase individuals' engagement in future policies.

Comparison of waste prevention behaviors among three Japanese megacity regions in the context of local measures and socio-demographics.

Waste prevention behaviors (WPBs) should be investigated separately from recycling behaviors and analyzed in the context of local policies and measures. Previous studies on WPBs have been mainly conducted in the USA and Europe (mainly in the UK), and studies in Japan have remained very limited to date. Moreover, the effects of socio-demographic factors have been rarely described correctly based on appropriate large sampling. In this study, we conducted an on-line questionnaire survey and obtained 8000 respondents in three megacity regions (Tokyo, Osaka, and Aichi) in Japan. Among these three regions, Osaka respondents showed significantly lower practice rates in nine of 18 WPBs. Particularly in My-bag behavior, the charging of plastic shopping bags strongly affects the practice rate. As shown in the results, local policies and measures affect WPBs. Based on the practice rates, latent four factors were extracted by factor analysis. Multiple regression analysis revealed that gender and age significantly affect WPB factors before local policy effects.

Willingness to pay for waste management improvement in Dhaka city, Bangladesh.

We employed the contingent valuation method to estimate the willingness to pay of the respondents to improve the waste collection system in Dhaka city, Bangladesh. Our objective was to estimate how WTP differs between respondents who received or did not receive door to door waste collection. The methodology consisted of asking people directly about their willingness to pay an additional waste collection service charge to cover the costs of a new waste management project. The mean value of WTP for areas that received waste collection service areas was higher than for residents of areas that did not but the difference was not statistically significant. The aggregate value of WTP of the respondents in Dhaka city was 7.6 million Taka (USD0.1 million).