Revamped playground design could protect children around the world from dangers of the sun

A new design methodology for school playgrounds is demonstrating how children can still enjoy their playtime while being protected from the harmful effects of the sun.

The evidence-based system can be used not only to design new play areas but also to retrofit existing parks exposed to the sun's rays—and is already in use at a school playground in New Zealand.

The methodology behind the design is the focus of a new research paper, published today in the peer-reviewed journal Cities & Health.

The research has been led by a team of experts from Lincoln University in New Zealand and Texas A&M University in the U.S.

It is hoped that the approach—which uses specific "activity zones" to offer protection from ultraviolet radiation (UVR) while providing children with optimal play opportunities and the right conditions to do so—could serve as a guide to assessing and improving children's outdoor recreation areas internationally.

"As the world around us heats up and we see longer periods of sunny conditions in the playgrounds that children use, we need to be thinking of the designs that play areas use so that our young people are protected from the harmful effects of the sun," explains lead author Dr. Anupriya Sukumar, from the School of Landscape Architecture at the Lincoln University Faculty of Environment Society and Design.

"Simply increasing the amount of green space is not enough alone to mitigate solar ultraviolet light radiation (UVR), a major cause of skin cancer and other health conditions.

"It is difficult to force a child to adopt any healthy behaviors. For example, eating healthily: If the table is already set with the right mix of foods, it makes it more appealing and accessible for them to choose and eat healthily. The same idea applies to playground design. With the right landscape elements, we can naturally encourage children to seek shade and develop healthy sun protection behaviors.

"That is why we began on this mission—play area design plays a crucial role in shaping healthy sun protection behavior among children. And our new design mitigates immediate and long-term risks of UVR overexposure.

"Our new approach will guide best practices and design guidelines to improve playground use, function and sun protection. This is with the aim of ensuring all children remain protected regardless of where they choose to play within the playground."

Overexposure to the sun and its risks

Overexposure to UVR poses a significant public health risk. New Zealand, the location of the study, and Australia have the highest rates of both melanoma and nonmelanoma skin cancers globally. About 100,000 New Zealanders are affected annually. Despite current sun protection measures like sunscreen policies and shade structures, studies show these approaches often fall short, leaving children inadequately protected.

Playground design is critical because these spaces account for much of children's outdoor exposure to this form of radiation. Playgrounds at elementary schools are particularly important, with students vulnerable because of the time spent outdoors during school hours.

However, shade is often lacking in outdoor activity areas despite research highlighting its importance. In addition, evidence is limited on exactly how these spaces should be designed.

Zoning areas to block harmful rays

This new study investigated an approach called sun protection behavior design (SPB-D). Sun protection behavior is defined as how people protect themselves from UVR. The SPB-D methodology is aimed at encouraging children to conduct activities in protected spaces.

The specific design objectives underlying SPB-D include adequate UVR protection and play opportunities for children. The third element is microclimatic comfort—ensuring the immediate environment is designed to provide, for example, suitable temperatures, wind exposure and solar protection.

The researchers applied the SPB-D approach to an existing school playground in a suburb of Christchurch, New Zealand. The authors divided all outdoor spaces used by children into individual activity zones for particular activities.

These zones were then evaluated against the three SPB-D objectives. Buildings, natural elements such as trees and play equipment such as cricket pitches were among site elements considered by the researchers.

The goal was to identify where and what design improvements were needed in each activity zone. The final stage was to devise a design strategy to achieve optimal sun protection over time.

The research involved mapping areas of the playground, such as those protected against or exposed to wind, those providing shade and those with high UV reflectivity, such as open water or stone.

As part of their research paper, the authors suggest three different design approaches to remedying issues that expose children to excessive UVR. These are to retrofit, redesign and relocate/remove. The last approach refers to zones completely lacking protective factors. In reference to relocate/remove, the authors say moving the activity zones to a more suitable place or repurposing them for alternative uses "may be appropriate."

This staged "Three Rs" approach allows schools to implement changes over time based on available resources, rather than requiring costly complete overhauls.

Adding shade 'isn't enough'

"Through our research, we learned that simply adding shade structures isn't enough—playgrounds must integrate protection, comfort and play opportunities to ensure children actually use safer spaces," adds co-author Andreas Wesener from the School of Landscape Architecture at the Lincoln University Faculty of Environment Society and Design.

"Our methodology moves beyond abstract calls for evidence-based practice by offering a pragmatic, transferable approach to enhance spatial design as a tool for solving real-world health challenges."

While developed and tested in New Zealand's temperate climate, the methodology can be adapted for other climate zones and contexts.

However, the paper does not include data on an increase in children using the space or how much UV exposure reduction was achieved.

The research team acknowledges this as a limitation of their research, suggesting that further testing across diverse settings will strengthen the approach's validity and reliability.

"While modeling informs this step, field monitoring remains essential for validation," they conclude.