What we are doing
The overall aim of this study is to provide an evidence-base for understanding the health benefits from high quality green space within an ecosystem approach framework. The research will address the concepts of healthy places, health-promoting environments and ‘green infrastructure’ as a means to inform policy and practice for enhancing ecosystem benefits for health across urban and rural space.
Pressures
While there appears to be a clear association between high quality environments and health/wellbeing, significant gaps in the literature and within the national policy context exist that provide a rationale for this research. Firstly, while there is recognition of the relationship between quality environments and health, there is a more limited understanding of mechanisms and of the cause and effect relationships. Secondly, the existence of green space in a locality does not always equate with a health-promoting environment. For example, within an urban context, perceptions of vandalism, safety concerns and poor design may undermine the use of green space. Thirdly, the potential of health promoting environments may be undermined by the distribution of environmental goods across space and variable access by socioeconomic status, gender, age and cultural background: e.g. more affluent neighbourhoods tend to be well served by parks or access to environmental amenities (such as coastlines, riverside locations etc.). This suggests the need to consider issues of social equity and health within an environmental justice framework.
Pressures
While there appears to be a clear association between high quality environments and health/wellbeing, significant gaps in the literature and within the national policy context exist that provide a rationale for this research. Firstly, while there is recognition of the relationship between quality environments and health, there is a more limited understanding of mechanisms and of the cause and effect relationships. Secondly, the existence of green space in a locality does not always equate with a health-promoting environment. For example, within an urban context, perceptions of vandalism, safety concerns and poor design may undermine the use of green space. Thirdly, the potential of health promoting environments may be undermined by the distribution of environmental goods across space and variable access by socioeconomic status, gender, age and cultural background: e.g. more affluent neighbourhoods tend to be well served by parks or access to environmental amenities (such as coastlines, riverside locations etc.). This suggests the need to consider issues of social equity and health within an environmental justice framework.
Policy
The project aims to contribute to a range of international and national policy areas, creating a positive feedback loop between policies designed to enhance ecosystem services and biodiversity, policies for land-use/ spatial planning, local green space management, and health promotion policies. The project is specifically designed to empirically identify socio-economic health inequalities related to green space provision and develop methods that address such inequities. The project also seeks to formulate policy development and design tools that facilitate the ready availability of a suitable array of green space typologies to people of all ages and mobility capacities which ensures ease of access to lifelong healthy places. In this context, the research will advance the vision outlined in Health Service Executive’s Healthy Ireland (2013) document for ‘A Healthy Ireland, where everyone can enjoy physical and mental health and wellbeing to their full potential, where wellbeing is valued and supported at every level of society and is everyone’s responsibility’.
The project has been purposely developed in response to the framework goals set out in the Healthy Ireland document by seeking to employ a robust evidence base: (i) to produce planning and design tools targeted at increasing the proportion of people who are healthy at all stages of life (Goal 1); (ii) to formulate planning and design guidance on reducing health inequalities (Goal 2); (iii) to mobilise the ecosystems approach in developing ways to protect the public from threats to health, and wellbeing, such as the urban heat island effect, deficits in the provision of quality recreational spaces and urban air pollution (Goal 3); and (iv) to create an environment where every individual and sector of society can play their part in achieving a healthy Ireland, including state environmental protection and conservation agencies, local authorities and the property development sector (Goal 4). The research also aligns with identified Forfas national research priorities (2013), namely improving the health of the population and building a safe and sustainable environment. The project further consolidates and contributes to national and EU environmental policies through demonstrating important health benefits derived from environmental protection. This includes Ireland’s National Biodiversity Plan (2011), the EU’s Biodiversity Strategy and Green Infrastructure – Enhancing Europe’s Natural Capital (2013), and national and local planning policy and practice. The study will also build on national studies of ‘green infrastructure’ regarding the health benefits of green space planning and research concerning the links between the natural environment and health, including the EPA STRIVE-funded Eco-Plan Project (PI: Prof Scott; Dr Lennon) and Ecorisk Project (Co-PI Dr Bullock), the Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine funded EcoValue project on forestry and ESS (including health benefits) (Co-PI Dr Bullock), and Comhar’s 2010 baseline study, Creating green Infrastructure for Ireland: Enhancing Natural Capital for Human Well Being. From a policy perspective, the ability to maximize health benefits from ecosystems and green space is undermined by fragmentation across a range of policy silos (e.g. health, natural heritage, spatial planning), suggesting the need for more holistic understandings and integrated policy implementation measures. The research will, accordingly, undertake an audit of national practice to provide a baseline study of current policy and practice in relation to ecosystem services and health benefits, including analysis of the national policy and legislative context for promoting healthy places and environments at national and city/county level. This will provide an important benchmark study to assess future progress in relation to the practice of enhancing health promoting environments.
The project aims to contribute to a range of international and national policy areas, creating a positive feedback loop between policies designed to enhance ecosystem services and biodiversity, policies for land-use/ spatial planning, local green space management, and health promotion policies. The project is specifically designed to empirically identify socio-economic health inequalities related to green space provision and develop methods that address such inequities. The project also seeks to formulate policy development and design tools that facilitate the ready availability of a suitable array of green space typologies to people of all ages and mobility capacities which ensures ease of access to lifelong healthy places. In this context, the research will advance the vision outlined in Health Service Executive’s Healthy Ireland (2013) document for ‘A Healthy Ireland, where everyone can enjoy physical and mental health and wellbeing to their full potential, where wellbeing is valued and supported at every level of society and is everyone’s responsibility’.
The project has been purposely developed in response to the framework goals set out in the Healthy Ireland document by seeking to employ a robust evidence base: (i) to produce planning and design tools targeted at increasing the proportion of people who are healthy at all stages of life (Goal 1); (ii) to formulate planning and design guidance on reducing health inequalities (Goal 2); (iii) to mobilise the ecosystems approach in developing ways to protect the public from threats to health, and wellbeing, such as the urban heat island effect, deficits in the provision of quality recreational spaces and urban air pollution (Goal 3); and (iv) to create an environment where every individual and sector of society can play their part in achieving a healthy Ireland, including state environmental protection and conservation agencies, local authorities and the property development sector (Goal 4). The research also aligns with identified Forfas national research priorities (2013), namely improving the health of the population and building a safe and sustainable environment. The project further consolidates and contributes to national and EU environmental policies through demonstrating important health benefits derived from environmental protection. This includes Ireland’s National Biodiversity Plan (2011), the EU’s Biodiversity Strategy and Green Infrastructure – Enhancing Europe’s Natural Capital (2013), and national and local planning policy and practice. The study will also build on national studies of ‘green infrastructure’ regarding the health benefits of green space planning and research concerning the links between the natural environment and health, including the EPA STRIVE-funded Eco-Plan Project (PI: Prof Scott; Dr Lennon) and Ecorisk Project (Co-PI Dr Bullock), the Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine funded EcoValue project on forestry and ESS (including health benefits) (Co-PI Dr Bullock), and Comhar’s 2010 baseline study, Creating green Infrastructure for Ireland: Enhancing Natural Capital for Human Well Being. From a policy perspective, the ability to maximize health benefits from ecosystems and green space is undermined by fragmentation across a range of policy silos (e.g. health, natural heritage, spatial planning), suggesting the need for more holistic understandings and integrated policy implementation measures. The research will, accordingly, undertake an audit of national practice to provide a baseline study of current policy and practice in relation to ecosystem services and health benefits, including analysis of the national policy and legislative context for promoting healthy places and environments at national and city/county level. This will provide an important benchmark study to assess future progress in relation to the practice of enhancing health promoting environments.
Solutions
Research-led spatial planning and design supply the means by which to translate academic investigation into practical solutions when seeking to deploy an ecosystems approach to enhancing human health and well-being (Barton and Tsourou, 2013). Specifically, ‘green infrastructure’ (GI) planning provides a perspective that can help mainstream the health related issues associated with green space planning through a focus on enhancing the mutually beneficial interactions between ecosystems and society (Tzoulas et al., 2007). Whilst the theory and application of GI has grown in depth and breadth over the past decade (Barnhill and Smardon, 2012; Comhar, 2010; Davies et al., 2006; Dunn, 2010; Kilbane, 2013; Mayer et al., 2012; Mell, 2013; Thomas and Littlewood, 2010; Wright, 2011), the essence of the GI perspective remains unchanged. In sum, a GI perspective can be understood as seeking to provide for ‘an interconnected network of natural areas and other open spaces that conserves natural ecosystem values and functions…and provides a wide array of benefits for people and wildlife’ (Benedict and McMahon, 2006, 1). Prominent among these ‘benefits’ is the provision of accessible natural green spaces for physical activity and psychological well-being. This thereby supports Action 3.10 of the HSE’s Healthy Ireland document that seeks to create ‘activity friendly’ environments. A GI perspective seeks to realise such benefits by giving greater consideration to the multifunctionality of green space in planning and design processes. One means of achieving this is through influencing the formulation of ‘alternative development scenarios’ in the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) process. Existing research suggests that the public health implications of these alternative development scenarios could be evaluated through the mechanism of Health Impact Assessment (Carmichael et al., 2012; Slotterback et al., 2011). This is a combination of procedures, methods and tools by which a policy, programme or project may be evaluated regarding its possible effects on the health of a population and the distribution of those effects within a population (ECHP, 1999). This approach thus presents a procedural opportunity to mainstream the health benefits of green space provision in land use planning and urban design and to integrate health and well-being into the environmental assessment of policies and programmes. As such, a GI perspective advances Action 2.3 of the HSE’s Healthy Ireland document which seeks to develop tools and supports to assist local authorities in undertaking health and well-being assessments. Therefore, the research seeks to advance understanding of the interface between health, ecology and planning by contributing theoretically and empirically to the international understanding of: (a) environmental determinants of health/quality of life (e.g. Barton, 2010; Brereton et al., 2008); (b) health promoting environments, (e.g. Kaplan & Talbot, 1983; Frumkin, 2003) and health benefits from green space (e.g. van den Berg et al., 2010); (c) the role of green infrastructure (GI) approaches to urban planning and design in delivering healthy places (Benedict & McMahon, 2002; Roe & Mell, 2013; Lennon & Scott, 2014); and (d) the mainstreaming of health related issues through the research-led development of planning and design tools for decision-makers (Burns and Bond, 2008; Fischer et al., 2010).
Central to meeting these objectives is the development of robust evidence-based and publicly acceptable policies and design interventions that ‘unlock’ unsustainable or sub-optimal development trajectories or path dependencies towards path creation for more resilient and healthier social-ecological systems. To address this, the research will: (1) supply the evidence-base to establish the links between green space and health; (2) provide a benchmark study of national practice for developing health promoting environments, designed to identify existing capacity and barriers/pathways to developing appropriate policy solutions; (3) undertake applied local case study research to understand the interactions between green space and health and to feed directly into local policy development; (4) to mobilise this knowledge in developing innovative guidance, health impact/proofing toolkits (and integrating these with the SEA process), and developing evidence-informed design exemplars for health promoting green space. Therefore, the proposal is marked by novel methodologies (e.g. household ‘choice experiments’ to examine green space preferences), novel communication (e.g. community ‘pop-up’ events) and the development of novel policy toolkits (e.g. integrating health impact assessment into SEA processes) and design solutions (e.g. design guidance).
Research-led spatial planning and design supply the means by which to translate academic investigation into practical solutions when seeking to deploy an ecosystems approach to enhancing human health and well-being (Barton and Tsourou, 2013). Specifically, ‘green infrastructure’ (GI) planning provides a perspective that can help mainstream the health related issues associated with green space planning through a focus on enhancing the mutually beneficial interactions between ecosystems and society (Tzoulas et al., 2007). Whilst the theory and application of GI has grown in depth and breadth over the past decade (Barnhill and Smardon, 2012; Comhar, 2010; Davies et al., 2006; Dunn, 2010; Kilbane, 2013; Mayer et al., 2012; Mell, 2013; Thomas and Littlewood, 2010; Wright, 2011), the essence of the GI perspective remains unchanged. In sum, a GI perspective can be understood as seeking to provide for ‘an interconnected network of natural areas and other open spaces that conserves natural ecosystem values and functions…and provides a wide array of benefits for people and wildlife’ (Benedict and McMahon, 2006, 1). Prominent among these ‘benefits’ is the provision of accessible natural green spaces for physical activity and psychological well-being. This thereby supports Action 3.10 of the HSE’s Healthy Ireland document that seeks to create ‘activity friendly’ environments. A GI perspective seeks to realise such benefits by giving greater consideration to the multifunctionality of green space in planning and design processes. One means of achieving this is through influencing the formulation of ‘alternative development scenarios’ in the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) process. Existing research suggests that the public health implications of these alternative development scenarios could be evaluated through the mechanism of Health Impact Assessment (Carmichael et al., 2012; Slotterback et al., 2011). This is a combination of procedures, methods and tools by which a policy, programme or project may be evaluated regarding its possible effects on the health of a population and the distribution of those effects within a population (ECHP, 1999). This approach thus presents a procedural opportunity to mainstream the health benefits of green space provision in land use planning and urban design and to integrate health and well-being into the environmental assessment of policies and programmes. As such, a GI perspective advances Action 2.3 of the HSE’s Healthy Ireland document which seeks to develop tools and supports to assist local authorities in undertaking health and well-being assessments. Therefore, the research seeks to advance understanding of the interface between health, ecology and planning by contributing theoretically and empirically to the international understanding of: (a) environmental determinants of health/quality of life (e.g. Barton, 2010; Brereton et al., 2008); (b) health promoting environments, (e.g. Kaplan & Talbot, 1983; Frumkin, 2003) and health benefits from green space (e.g. van den Berg et al., 2010); (c) the role of green infrastructure (GI) approaches to urban planning and design in delivering healthy places (Benedict & McMahon, 2002; Roe & Mell, 2013; Lennon & Scott, 2014); and (d) the mainstreaming of health related issues through the research-led development of planning and design tools for decision-makers (Burns and Bond, 2008; Fischer et al., 2010).
Central to meeting these objectives is the development of robust evidence-based and publicly acceptable policies and design interventions that ‘unlock’ unsustainable or sub-optimal development trajectories or path dependencies towards path creation for more resilient and healthier social-ecological systems. To address this, the research will: (1) supply the evidence-base to establish the links between green space and health; (2) provide a benchmark study of national practice for developing health promoting environments, designed to identify existing capacity and barriers/pathways to developing appropriate policy solutions; (3) undertake applied local case study research to understand the interactions between green space and health and to feed directly into local policy development; (4) to mobilise this knowledge in developing innovative guidance, health impact/proofing toolkits (and integrating these with the SEA process), and developing evidence-informed design exemplars for health promoting green space. Therefore, the proposal is marked by novel methodologies (e.g. household ‘choice experiments’ to examine green space preferences), novel communication (e.g. community ‘pop-up’ events) and the development of novel policy toolkits (e.g. integrating health impact assessment into SEA processes) and design solutions (e.g. design guidance).
