The Green Gap Framework is a resource for exploring and understanding who doesn’t use urban greenspace/local nature spaces, and why.

It’s for researchers, policy makers, planners, and practitioners in outdoor settings… in fact anyone interested in accessibility, inclusion and nature connection.

It has been developed by GroundsWell researchers at the University of Glasgow’s School of Health & and Wellbeing alongside an outdoor consultant as part of GroundsWell, a collaboration between researchers, communities, and decision-makers working in Belfast, Edinburgh, and Liverpool. The aim of GroundsWell is to understand how urban green and blue spaces – like parks, gardens, rivers, and canals – can support better health and wellbeing, especially in areas that need it most.

Use the Green Gap Framework to:

Bring focus to what drives low and non-use in specific settings

Prompt thinking about solutions, connections, contributors - not just barriers

Apply a robust set of factors to produce a thorough overview of complex, interacting issues

Audit and review initiatives and policies

Provide a common reference point across different settings, stakeholders, timeframes

Aid co-design and co-production work: use it as a conversation starter, a tool to bring contributors together

Bridge thinking across different contexts (domains), from individual and local to systemic and national

Understand what already works, build on good practice

Guide research study design, bring focus to participatory research, structure short and long-term evaluation

Encourage collaboration across disciplines such as urban planning, nature-based practice, public health

Prompt consideration of missing elements in policy development, implementation and funding allocation

Influence planning processes to ensure natural space accommodate needs of all potential users