PodParks

In this episode of PodParks, our host speaks with Zina Abdulla, a PhD researcher in architecture and urban design at the University of Bath, whose work explores equitable access to urban green spaces across the UK and Poland. With a background spanning architecture, environmental design, and policy, Zina brings a powerful perspective on how cultural, social, and economic barriers shape who feels welcome in parks—and who does not.
Together, they unpack why accessibility cannot be measured by distance alone. From fear of dogs and antisocial behavior to the lack of activities for teenage girls, culturally relevant events, and the importance of listening to non-users, this conversation reveals how many barriers to park access remain invisible in traditional planning approaches. Zina also shares personal reflections on how access to outdoor recreation differs between the UK and Iraq, highlighting how culture, climate, gender norms, and urban form all influence people’s relationship with green space.
This is a thoughtful and practical episode for anyone working in parks, planning, public space, health, or community engagement—and a reminder that inclusive design begins by understanding who a park truly serves.
Key highlights / takeaways
Accessibility is more than proximity: Zina explains why measuring access in meters or walking time is not enough to understand who actually uses parks.
Non-users matter: One of the biggest lessons from her research is that park planning must include the voices of people who rarely or never use green spaces—not only current park users.
Unexpected barriers are real barriers: In her three-year study, one of the most significant barriers that emerged was the presence of dogs, especially off-leash dogs, along with safety concerns, antisocial behavior, and lack of welcome for group gatherings.
Context matters: What affects park use in the UK may be completely different in Poland, Iraq, or elsewhere. Inclusive design depends on understanding local demographics, culture, and lived experience.
Representation in planning is essential: Zina advocates for co-design, partnerships with community organizations, and bottom-up strategies to better integrate underrepresented voices into park and green infrastructure planning.
Parks and health are deeply connected: Access to green space affects physical activity, mental health, and everyday wellbeing—especially for communities who may already face structural disadvantages.
One positive intervention can make a difference: Small but intentional changes—such as dog-free hours, more inclusive programming, or better engagement with local demographics—can significantly improve how safe and welcome people feel in parks.

About PodParks
PodParks is the official podcast of World Urban Parks. Hosted by Maria Burnett, each episode shares real stories and bold ideas from the people making parks, public space, and urban nature more inclusive, innovative, and essential.
🎙️ Meet the PodParks Team
Maria Burnett | Luis Romahn | Vitoria Martin | Cynthia Hernández | Gisselle Ibarias | Brizel Lopez
🌐 worldurbanparks.org

We open Season 4 of PodParks with a powerful conversation with Fergus Garrett (https://www.greatdixter.co.uk/about/people/) renowned horticulturist and the long-time driving force behind Great Dixter. In this episode, Fergus reflects on his multicultural upbringing, his journey into horticulture, and what it has meant to continue and evolve the legacy of Christopher Lloyd at one of the world’s most iconic gardens.
The conversation moves beyond gardens to explore the deeper challenges and opportunities facing parks today: the impact of funding cuts, the loss of training pathways, the need to reconnect design with care, and the importance of building spaces that are ecologically grounded, socially meaningful, and full of joy. Fergus also shares why beauty in parks cannot be one-size-fits-all, and why diversity—in landscapes, in people, and in thinking—is essential for the future of green spaces.
Recorded in the context of the World Urban Parks Symposium in Istanbul, this episode sets the tone for a new season focused on bold ideas, practical wisdom, and the people shaping greener, more inclusive cities.
Key highlights / takeaways
A life shaped by culture and plants: Fergus reflects on growing up between Turkey, the UK, and other international influences, and how this visually rich, multicultural upbringing shaped his way of seeing gardens and landscapes.
The living legacy of Great Dixter: Rather than imposing his own signature, Fergus describes his role as caring for Great Dixter with humility, curiosity, and a commitment to ecological understanding.
The real weakness in the park sector: For Fergus, the biggest loss has been the steady cutting of funding, training, and community-based care in parks. He argues for putting resources back into education, employment, and long-term stewardship.
Beauty is plural: Parks should not all look the same. Different spaces should offer different experiences—wild, calm, colorful, shaded, open—so more people can find meaning and joy in them.
Community is part of the landscape: Great Dixter is not only a garden; it is also a place of training, inclusion, employment, and belonging for a very wide range of people.
Care, not just capital: Fergus makes a strong case for investing not only in major park infrastructure, but in the people who maintain, interpret, and animate green spaces over time.
Why this matters now: Listening to conversations at the World Urban Parks Symposium left Fergus optimistic about the future of parks as spaces that respond to biodiversity, climate, flooding, wellbeing, inclusion, and community needs all at once.

About PodParks
PodParks is the official podcast of World Urban Parks. Hosted by Maria Burnett, each episode shares real stories and bold ideas from the people making parks, public space, and urban nature more inclusive, innovative, and essential.
🎙️ Meet the PodParks Team
Maria Burnett | Luis Romahn | Vitoria Martin | Cynthia Hernández | Gisselle Ibarias | Brizel Lopez
🌐 worldurbanparks.com

Season 3 of PodParks has been a year-long exploration of how parks shape cities, communities, and everyday life.
Across this season, we’ve spoken with leaders, practitioners, and emerging voices working in very different contexts, but grappling with shared questions about equity, access, health, and the role of urban nature. From the challenges of building a global organisation, to the practical tools helping cities do better, these conversations have traced how ideas move from vision into action.
In this season finale, host Maria Burnett brings those threads together in a short, reflective audio essay. Drawing on voices from across Season 3, including Jayne Miller, Tim Geyer, Mark Bowater, Michael Boland, Cecil Konijnendijk, Humera Sultan, Cecilia Vaca Jones, and Hannah Chapman-Carr, the episode revisits the moments and ideas that have shaped the year.
Rather than revisiting each conversation in depth, this episode moves quickly through the themes that kept resurfacing: why equity now sits at the centre of urban parks work, how simple frameworks can reveal deep inequalities, and why recognising good ideas matters if we want them to travel.
As the season closes, the focus shifts forward, toward what the next decade of World Urban Parks might require, and the people who will help shape it.
Highlights
Reflections on the key ideas that shaped Season 3
Why equity and access have become central to urban parks work
How simple tools like the 3-30-300 rule and justice mapping are changing practice
Why children’s freedom to explore matters for healthier cities
What the next decade of World Urban Parks could look like

Feedback
🎧 Give feedback on this episode here.
Or if you’d like to share your perspectives or stories about this episode, or contact us for any reason, you can email Maria Burnett (host) and the team at [email protected].
About PodParks
PodParks is the official podcast of World Urban Parks. Hosted by Maria Burnett, each episode shares real stories and bold ideas from the people making parks, public space, and urban nature more inclusive, innovative, and essential.
🎙️ Meet the PodParks Team
Maria Burnett | Luis Romahn | Vitoria Martín Delgado | Vladimir Yañez Huehpa| Cynthia Hernández Martínez
🌐 worldurbanparks.org
📱 Instagram | Facebook | LinkedIn | Twitter/X

What happens inside the brain when we step into a park, hear birdsong, or simply look at a tree? And what does this mean not just for the public, but for the people who work in parks every day?
In this episode of PodParks, host Maria Burnett speaks with Lance Burdett, former national crisis negotiator for the New Zealand Police and now a leading specialist in resilience, stress, and brain health. Drawing on neuroscience, brain-imaging research, and decades of experience in high-pressure environments, Lance explains why nature calms the amygdala, how diversity in landscapes supports neuroplasticity, and why even 15 minutes outdoors can reset our stress systems.
But this conversation goes further than the benefits of parks for communities. Together, Maria and Lance explore the wellbeing of the parks workforce itself: a passionate, often under-resourced group at high risk of burnout. Lance breaks down practical, evidence-based habits that park professionals can use to protect their mental health, boost cognitive clarity, and stay grounded in a demanding sector.
Highlights include:
How natural environments calm the fight-or-flight system
Why sensory stimulation from nature boosts cognitive function
The difference between burnout and physical fatigue, and why thinking is the real danger zone
Tangible, science-backed practices for lowering cortisol and improving sleep
Why planners must prioritise green access in urban development
How leaders can support mentally healthy workplaces in the parks sector

Whether you’re a ranger, planner, designer, manager, volunteer, or someone passionate about how parks shape wellbeing, this episode offers both brain science and grounded, practical tools to help you thrive in your work and life.
Featured Guests
Lance Burdett, General Export Manager, WARN International
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Feedback
🎧 Give feedback on this episode here.
Or if you’d like to share your perspectives or stories about this episode, or contact us for any reason, you can email Maria Burnett (host) and the team at [email protected].
About PodParks
PodParks is the official podcast of World Urban Parks. Hosted by Maria Burnett, each episode shares real stories and bold ideas from the people making parks, public space, and urban nature more inclusive, innovative, and essential.
🎙️ Meet the PodParks Team
Maria Burnett | Luis Romahn | Vitoria Martín Delgado | Vladimir Yañez Huehpa| Cynthia Hernández Martínez| Boris Solis
🌐 worldurbanparks.org
📱 Instagram | Facebook | LinkedIn | Twitter/X

How might our cities change if we planned parks with public health at the centre of every decision?
In this episode, host Maria Burnett speaks with Humera Sultan, a Consultant in Public Health at Birmingham City Council and a National Institute of Health Research Doctoral Research Fellow. Humera brings a health focused perspective to nature planning, shaped through her work leading the Naturally Birmingham project and contributing to the city’s 25 year City of Nature Plan.
Humera shares how public health tools, community insights and long term thinking can help cities design greener and healthier environments. She also discusses her PhD research, which explores how funding for Birmingham’s more than 400 parks has changed from 2013 to 2024, and what this means for equity, access and community wellbeing.
This conversation highlights the value of cross agency collaboration, the importance of evidence in nature planning and the role of green spaces in supporting mental health, physical activity and social connection.
Highlights include:
How public health perspectives can strengthen citywide nature planning
What Birmingham learned while creating its 25 year City of Nature Plan
Insights from Humera’s research into funding, equity and park quality
The relationship between green space and community wellbeing
Why partnerships across sectors lead to stronger long term outcomes

Whether you work in health, planning, or park management, this conversation offers a new perspective on why nature belongs at the centre of every wellbeing strategy.\
Resources
🔗Connecting health and green spaces through Movement Data | ActiveXchange
🔗 Environmental Justice Webinar 20211123 130439 Meeting Recording
🔗Sultan H, Grayson N, Jones S, Pike D, Greenham S, Needle D, Sadler J, Frew E. Green space and environmental justice—a new metric to guide resource allocation in improving the amount and quality of green space. TCP Journal 2023. 92 (6). Available at Nov-Dec23.pdf
Featured Guests
Humera Sultan, Consultant in Public Health at Birmingham City Council and NIHR Doctoral Local Authority Fellow
Feedback
🎧 Give feedback on this episode here.
Or if you’d like to share your perspectives or stories about this episode, or contact us for any reason, you can email Maria Burnett (host) and the team at [email protected].
About PodParks
PodParks is the official podcast of World Urban Parks. Hosted by Maria Burnett, each episode shares real stories and bold ideas from the people making parks, public space, and urban nature more inclusive, innovative, and essential.
🎙️ Meet the PodParks Team
Maria Burnett | Luis Romahn | Vitoria Martín Delgado | Vladimir Yañez Huehpa| Cynthia Hernández Martínez| Boris Solis
🌐 worldurbanparks.org
📱 Instagram | Facebook | LinkedIn | Twitter/X