Green Space for health promotion

Abstract

Green spaces or green infrastructure or urban green spaces are defined as outdoor spaces “partially or completely covered with grass, trees, shrubs or other types of vegetation and include, among others, parks, forests and municipal gardens”. The design and use of urban green spaces has become increasingly important in recent years as a form of contrast to the deleterious effects of urbanization. The presence of such spaces on the territory and access to the latter therefore represents a significant form of health promotion, as well as an important factor that determines it: it is therefore necessary to consider the main benefits provided by the presence of green spaces. These benefits can be of multiple nature: they go from environmental benefits (such as the management of clean water, the reduction of air and water pollution and protection against soil erosion) to social benefits (improvement of health and well-being, creation of new jobs, increase in tourism), up to consider benefits inherent in the adaptation and mitigation of climate change and biodiversity. It is therefore essential to have adequate design of green space: for these benefits to be effective, it is necessary to plan services to the person and adequate accessibility interventions, in line with the virtuous logic that green spaces can help to promote.