Outdoor Swimming Research Bibliography

Swimmable Cities

This growing open-access resource, reviewed yearly, and designed to support researchers, practitioners, and advocates of public blue spaces. The bibliography is organised into five evolving categories:

• Outdoor swimming and human health
• Outdoor swimming and relationships to ecologies
• Outdoor swimming, cities, and infrastructures
• Outdoor swimming communities
• Outdoor swimming risk, inclusion, and diversity

This is not an exhaustive list of the health experiences in/around water, but a rich collection of research focused on publicly accessible outdoor swimming and the ways it shapes health, ecologies, infrastructures, community, connection, and exclusion in varied watery places. Access the link below and join the growing conversations on swimming, public space, and blue health.

I look forward to contributing to this bibliography again after my thesis is published in early 2026 (keep your eyes peeled). Not all of the articles will be publicly accessible. Email the lead authors of each paper to see how they can help.

For further enquiries on adding articles to this bibliography – please contact me, Rebecca, Reid or Sean (details on the link below).