Green Aloha: two-phase public park design project for Hawaii

Green Aloha: Designing, Installing, and Maintaining Our Public Parks for a Healthier Hawaii

Proposed idea to address underutilization of Hawaii's approximately 50 state-run public parks (about 30,000 acres across five major islands) through a two-phase approach: 1) Utilizing psychophysiological methodologies (EEG, EMG, GSR, & HR) along with environmental and social perception questionaries, people's real tine physiological and perceptions on current and proposed park design will be evaluated. 2) Using the data collected in Passe 1, new public park designs will be generated and implemented (test park sites) with the assistance of (Department of Parks & Recreation/Department of Urban Forestry) to test this innovation approach to Hawaii public park design, installation and maintenance. Context given: chronic disease is a growing epidemic with approximately 24% of Hawaii's adult populations are obese and 57% of are overweight, Hawaii spends an estimated $470 million dollars annually on obesity-related medical costs, and about $770 million on diabetes-related medical costs.