Green space benefits for health and well-being: A life-course approach for urban planning, design and management

Abstract

In recognition that the coming century will see a substantial majority of the world's population living in urban areas, the World Health Organisation and the United Nations have developed policy frameworks and guidance which promote the increased provision of urban green space for population health. However, these undertakings do not provide specific guidance for urban policy in terms of the particular design attributes required to tackle lifestyle illnesses and to promote well-being in urban populations. Furthermore, green spaces have generally been treated as a homogenous environment type. In order to address these weaknesses, this paper collates and reviews the evidence linking health, well-being and green space using a lifecourse approach. The literature generally endorses the view that urban green spaces, as part of the wider environmental context, promote health and well-being across the life course. Based on the evidence, cohort-specific and cross-cutting design interventions are identified and a general integrated green space framework for health and well-being is proposed. This analytical lens facilitates distillation of a vast quantum of research and the formulation of specific planning and design guidance for the provision of more inclusive green spaces that respond to the varying needs of people across all life-course stages.

Working out What Works: The Role of Tacit Knowledge Where Urban Greenspace Research, Policy and Practice Intersect

“…The IWUN research project started from the premise that the links between the natural environment-urban greenspace in particular-and physical and mental wellbeing have already been well evidenced [17]. A brief overview of the recent literature confirms the links between access to nature and psychological wellbeing and stress relief [18][19][20][21]. Benefits can be short-term-immediate improvements in wellbeing as a result of a walk or a run, for example [22,23].…”

A Review of “The Routledge handbook of planning for health and well-being: shaping a sustainable and healthy future”, Edited by Hugh Barton, Susan Thompson, Sarah Burgess and Marcus Grant

“…The importance of green space in cities is well-cited and many cities are connecting up previously fragmented urban nature in the pursuit of a network of green infrastructure across the city. Such green spaces contribute positively to mental health (Burton, 2015 ;Douglas et al , 2017 ), can provide opportunities for socialising and rest (Peschardt et al , 2012 ) and the setting for physical health activities (Barton and Pretty, 2010 ;Jennings et al , 2017 ). But such benefits are not currently enjoyed by all urban residents, as access to green space is not provided equitably across urban areas, particularly in highly urbanised areas.…”

Cloud Computation Using High-Resolution Images for Improving the SDG Indicator on Open Spaces

“…Driven by the acceleration of urbanization across the globe, urban areas are expanding outwards but also densifying within the existing built-up area, leading to large-scale land conversion from open spaces into built-up areas. Many studies [1][2][3] emphasized the importance of open and in particular green spaces for livable cities. However, many citizens across the globe do not have easy access to open and green spaces in close proximity to their residence.…”

“…Total area open public space + Total area of streets Total built up area the urban agglomeration (1) SDG indicator 11.7.1, presently not included in the SDG database (https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/ indicators/database/) due to its operationalization complexity, has been piloted in over 250 cities [8] using moderate-to high-resolution satellite images. For example, the Global Urban Footprint (GUF) layer developed by the German Aerospace Center (DLR) [11,12] and the Global Human Settlement Layer (GHSL) developed by the European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC) [13] use such images and provide a global and multi-temporal built-up area dataset as publicly available data repositories [13].…”