Urban sprawls
The poor urban planning of urban sprawls makes it harder for children to access green spaces to play in. Urban sprawl, which refers to the poorly planned spread of residential units across a large area of land like the image below, widens the distance between homes and green spaces, making it inaccessible for children to go to school or visit urban parks on foot.
This increases a child’s reliance on their parent’s cars to get around town, which unfortunately limits their chances of exploring surrounding green areas that are along the way.
How urban sprawl can cause NDD
The increasing distance between homes and urban green spaces has been associated with lower physical activity and an increase in screen time in children, directly affecting their physical health and causing them to exhibit signs of NDD. Children living in urban areas are at a loss because they miss out on the benefits that incidental and regular exposure to nature can provide for them.
“Urban planners need to give explicit consideration to the kind of world that is being created for the children who will be growing up in these settings.”
This is not a commentary on how urbanization is the end of all things natural, but rather that urban planning has not adequately considered the need for nature in people’s daily lives. The absence of nature around developmental areas hence contributes to the deficit of nature in children’s lifestyles.