Green Infrastructure, Green Stormwater Infrastructure, and Human Health: A Review

Abstract

In a growing trend, cities around the world have been installing Green Infrastructure (GI) in the form of vegetated landscapes that provide ecological benefits such as stormwater management, wildlife habitats, and temperature moderation (Tzoulas et al. Landsc Urban Plan. 61(3):11, 2007). Some GI, such as trees and green spaces, have positive impacts on human health. It is less clear how newer types of GI, such as rain gardens, green roofs, and bioswales, impact human health. These newer GI types are called Green Stormwater Infrastructure (GSI). Planners and designers need to know the extent to which GSI impacts humans. This systematic review does exactly that—we explore the published evidence regarding the relationships between GI and human health. We identified 55 peer-reviewed articles addressing these issues. Familiar types of GI, such as trees and green spaces, were found to be beneficial to the body (cardiovascular system, cortisol regulation, and pregnancy health), mind (attention capacity and mental health), and behavior (lower crime, better self-regulation, and more pro-social behaviors). We found much less research exploring the impacts of GSI on health. Our findings show that for some of the specific categories of GI, such as trees, considerable evidence exists on the impacts on human health. For other categories, such as rain gardens, green roofs, or biodiverse plantings, however, there is scant evidence of a health impact. We believe it is likely that these forms of GI do impact human health and that the reason for the scarcity of evidence is that few careful studies have examined the impacts of newer forms of GI on specific human health outcomes. Future researchers should investigate the health effects of type, dose, frequency, and duration of exposure to GI and GSI.