The International Conference on Environmental Psychology (ICEP) is a biannual conference that brings together scientist in the field of Environmental Psychology during a four-day conference. This year, the ICEP took place from October 5-8 2021 in Syracuse, on Sicily, Italy, and welcomed about 250 scholars from multiple countries.
All Build4People members of Work Package #1 Behaviour Change – the WP leaders Anke Blöbaum and Ellen Matthies, and the research associate Annalena Becker – participated in this conference. They were able to discuss their own research with the scientific community and gain new insights from other research projects and scholars from different universities and interdisciplinary projects.
Annalena Becker hosted the session “The importance of nature in urban settings” with other scholars where she also presented results of the Build4People Definition Phase. In collaboration with Amelie McKenna (former research associate of WP#4 Urban Green), Ravi Jayaweera (WP#6 Sustainable Urban Transformation), and Anke Blöbaum, Annalena Becker introduced the research questions and first results on the role of urban green and walkability for the quality of life in Phnom Penh within her presentation. Thereby drawing on data from the first household survey conducted with 510 citizens in Phnom Penh in early 2021, Annalena reflected results that show the possible influence of urban green spaces for the well-being of citizens in relation to their socioeconomic situation, the context of walkability in Phnom Penh and how citizens might be encouraged to spend time in urban green spaces and walk within their urban environment.
The discussion within the session inspired possible further examinations and the integration of more aspects in regard of Urban Quality of Life in Phnom Penh. Scholars from another project, that targets similar urban development goals in Singapore, suggested to include concepts of urban heat and urban heat stress in the considerations about walkability and motivation for walking, as well as urban blue spaces.
The four-day conference was an enriching experience for the environmental psychologists of WP#1. Multiple interesting discussions, newly established networks and inspiring talks about urban design and human-environment interactions bring more ideas and theoretical concepts to the research activities of WP#1 within the Build4People project.