Pollen allergy in the Icelandic urban landscape

Since years the global number of pollen allergy sufferers keeps rising. A trend connected and influenced by several factors such as pollution, man-made monodominant planting communities and reduced biodiversity, mainly seen in the urban landscape. For city dwellers urban green spaces are essential for mental and physical well-being, except if they provide environmental disservices, such as sensitizations to local pollen grains. Urban spaces are created to provide an area of residence for the majority of the world‘s population, yet most urban green spaces are not designed taking allergic rhinitis and asthma into consideration. Allergies have been of focus to medical researchers, as well as botanists. However, there is a missing link between those researches and the applied design of landscape architecture and urban planning. Only a view case studies worldwide are based on an allergen-low design.This thesis discusses the impact of allergic sensitizations onto the human health, allergenic vegetation and case studies of allergen-low designs. An analysis of the playschool lot Stakkaborg will be carried out to identify relevant features, providing a base for the design proposal. The design will be based on the idea of reducing the local allergenicity and pollution, hopefully providing an unlimited and healthy outdoor experience for children and teachers.

Author dc:creator

• Tabea Elisabeth Schneider 1995-

Contributors dc:contributor

• Landbúnaðarháskóli Íslands

• Landslagsarkitektúr
• Líffræðileg fjölbreytni
• Pollen allergy
• Urban landscape
• Allergen-low plant species
• Urban allergenicity
• Urban green space
• Climate change
• Playschool

Language dc:language.iso

en

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1946/47529

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:skemman.is:1946/47529