Biodiversity at School Environments Benefits for all

In our rapidly urbanizing world, chronic health conditions associated with urban living are on the rise. One of the main current challenges is unravelling the role of reduced access to and reduced quality and quantity of nature and biodiversity in these living environments. Enhanced immune functioning emerges as one promising candidate for a central pathway between nature and health. Despite mounting evidence that people with a diverse microbiome or who interact with green spaces enjoy better health, studies have yet to directly examine how biodiverse urban green spaces might modify the human microbiome and reduce chronic disease. Another challenge is to enhance access to nature for all, which is unevenly distributed among social groups with different socio-economic and cultural backgrounds. In this project, the environmental microbiome, defined as the microbes in soil, on plants, and associated with air dust, will be targeted, as well as its social distribution. B@SEBALL will investigate how biodiversity in the school/playground environment can positively affect children’s health (asthma and allergy prevalence) and mental well-being and how this can be linked to human microbiome diversity. B@SEBALL will also investigate the opportunities for reducing health inequalities among children via biodiversity at school environments. Further, B@SEBALL will investigate how school/playground management and design can benefit from this knowledge, as well as relevant policy, education and family practices. Through its partners, B@SEBALL can build on established school projects aimed at greening playgrounds: Flanders (MOS) and Wallonia & Brussels (GoodPlanet Belgium).在快速城市化的全球背景下，与城市生活相关的慢性健康疾病发病率持续攀升。当前核心挑战之一，便是厘清此类居住环境中自然接触机会缩减、自然与生物多样性（biodiversity）的质量与数量下降所扮演的角色。增强免疫功能被视作连接自然接触与健康的核心通路之一，颇具研究潜力。尽管已有越来越多证据表明，拥有多样化微生物组（microbiome）或常接触绿地空间的人群健康状况更佳，但目前尚无研究直接探讨城市中兼具生物多样性的绿地会如何改变人体微生物组，并降低慢性病发病风险。另一项现实挑战则是保障全体人群公平获取自然接触机会——这类机会在不同社会经济与文化背景的社会群体中分布不均。本项目将聚焦环境微生物组（即土壤、植物表面以及空气尘埃中存在的微生物）及其社会分布特征。 B@SEBALL项目将探究学校/操场环境中的生物多样性会如何对儿童健康（哮喘（asthma）与过敏（allergy）患病率）及心理健康福祉产生积极影响，以及该影响如何与人体微生物组多样性建立关联。该项目还将探究通过学校环境中的生物多样性缩小儿童健康不平等的可行路径。此外，B@SEBALL还将研究如何将上述研究成果应用于学校/操场的管理与设计，以及相关政策制定、教育实践与家庭实践。依托合作方资源，本项目可依托已有的校园操场绿化改造项目：分别来自佛兰德斯地区的MOS项目，以及瓦隆与布鲁塞尔地区的GoodPlanet Belgium项目。