A Green and Public Space at the Door to the Sahara
Green spaces and public spaces are everywhere which makes them an important topic of research from small village to big city. I encountered a public green space in a small village during my August, 2025 Morocco trip. I was hitchking out of the Sahara desert town of Akka with the sunset arriving. A car pulled over with two young guys, both Moroccoans named Saeid (in Arabic written سَعِید Arabic and means happy). They mentioned they lived in the nearby village just around the corner.
I said: This is good. Do you know a place for camping?
أَنَا: قُلْتُ: “هَذَا جَيِّدٌ. هَلْ تَعْرِفُ مَكَانًا لِلتَّخْيِيمِ؟”
(Ana: Qultu: “Hādhā jayyidun. Hal taʿrifu makānan lil-takhyīmi?”)
They said: Yes we know a place.
هُمْ: قَالُوا: “نَعَمْ، نَحْنُ نَعْرِفُ مَكَانًا.”
(Hum: Qālū: “Naʿam, naḥnu naʿrifu makānan.”)
I said: Thanks. Can you take me?
أَنَا: قُلْتُ: “شُكْرًا. هَلْ يُمْكِنُكُمْ أَخْذِي إِلَى هُنَاكَ؟”
(Ana: Qultu: “Shukran. Hal yumkinukum akhdhī ilā hunāka?”)
They said: We can, no problem.
هُمْ: قَالُوا: “نَسْتَطِيعُ، لاَ مُشْكِلَةَ.”
(Hum: Qālū: “Nastaṭīʿu, lā mushkilata.”)
So I hopped in the car.
I asked: Is it a safe place?
سَأَلْتُ: “هَلْ هُوَ مَكَانٌ آمِنٌ؟”
(Sa’altu: “Hal huwa makānun āminun?”)
They looked at each other, exchanged some words.
They said: Yes it’s safe.
قَالُوا: “نَعَمْ، إِنَّهُ آمِنٌ.”
(Qālū: “Naʿam, innahu āminun.”)
We arrived at night to a bridge which was a vibrant local community meeting place. The bridge, near the village Aït Rehal at Oued Akka in Morocco, was next to a wadi and surrounded by date palms full of fresh summer fruit. Under the lights on the bridge I saw old men with their friends drinking tea, women walking the road between the bridge as younger guys leaned next to their motorbikes or sat on the bridge ramp chatting. I was welcomed onto the ramp of the bridge. I took out my clarinet, played a few tunes then made my camping spot there.
The bridge from one side of the date palm forest. At night men use the bridge and its lighting as a place to catch up, while women walk the road in groups between the villages.
The dammed wadi with an irrigation channel. The irrigation channel has fish and flows into the farms on the other side.
Green and Public Spaces Cleaned from Pollution
Maintaining the safety of our public and greenspaces from violent crime and harassment includes a responsibility to create healthy environments. This is because toxic contaminants can accumulate forms of pollution that harm our physical or/and mental health. For example, Pulitzer prize-winning author Caroline Fraser discusses that lead pollution and its neurotoxic effects are one contributing reason for the high number of serial killers across the United States in the 1970-80s (Safi, 2025). Green spaces might help to reduce these neurotoxic effects as living nearby to more green space in a Danish study reduced the relative risk of developing a psychopathology in adulthood (Engemann et al., 2019). Indeed, green spaces and public spaces include nature-based projects designed to improve air and water quality. Such initiatives which improve air and water quality are one suggested public health improvement solution after Miller et al. (2024) study of $1000 USD unconditional income monthly to 3000 low-income US adults showed no significant mental or physical health improvements after 3 years.
There are two important design considerations for our green and public spaces. Firstly, the design must help people feel safe from violent and harassment crimes. This is because Orstad et al. (2020) New York, USA study shows green spaces don’t reduce the number of mental health days experienced if people feel unsafe using them for exercise. Which means that the economic benefits of improved mental from an investment in green and blue infrastructure are lost in this cohort if parks don’t feel safe. Secondly, they should not become ecological traps that expose important functional species and humans in the ecosystem to high levels of contaminants that reduce their health and fitness. In order to ensure these risks are assessed green and public spaces should include monitoring of both the contaminants and the health of species interactions within and surrounding the public space and green space to establish a baseline (Hale et al., 2015).
Innovating the Future of Public and Green Spaces
To innovate green spaces and public spaces with ecotoxicity and crime prevention science I believe we need an open science approach. Designs informed by socio-ecological monitoring networks that establish a baseline and capture data when extreme events occur to identify their effects and respond with resilience and restoration strategies. With these monitoring networks complex risk can be evaluated and resilience strategies implemented so that decision makers use the resources available to them to adapt their communities in a way that delivers benefit and avoid harm to human and ecosystem health. For example, through understanding complex risk designers of public and green spaces can design to address critical climate change adaptation gaps highlighted in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [IPCC] Synthesis Report (IPCC, 2023). This strategy could advantage societies making them less violent, less toxic and better for physical and mental health.
References
Engemann, K., Pedersen, C. B., Arge, L., Tsirogiannis, C., Mortensen, P. B., & Svenning, J.-C. (2019). Residential green space in childhood is associated with lower risk of psychiatric disorders from adolescence into adulthood. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 116(11), 5188–5193. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1807504116
Hale, R., Coleman, R., Pettigrove, V., & Swearer, S. E. (2015). REVIEW: Identifying, preventing and mitigating ecological traps to improve the management of urban aquatic ecosystems. Journal of Applied Ecology, 52(4), 928–939. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2664.12458
IPCC. (2023). Synthesis Report. Contribution of Working Groups I, II and III to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [Core Writing Team, H. Lee and J. Romero (eds.)]. (pp. 35–115). Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [IPCC]. doi: 10.59327/IPCC/AR6-9789291691647
Miller, S., Rhodes, E., Bartik, A., Broockman, D., Krause, P., & Vivalt, E. (2024). Does Income Affect Health? Evidence from a Randomized Controlled Trial of a Guaranteed Income (No. w32711; p. w32711). National Bureau of Economic Research. https://doi.org/10.3386/w32711
Orstad, S. L., Szuhany, K., Tamura, K., Thorpe, L. E., & Jay, M. (2020). Park Proximity and Use for Physical Activity among Urban Residents: Associations with Mental Health. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(13), 4885. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17134885
Safi, M. (Host). (2025, August 1). Did lead poisoning help create a generation of serial killers? [Audio podcast episode]. Today in Focus. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/news/audio/2025/aug/01/lead-poisoning-create-generation-us- serial-killers-podcast
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