Evidence

This report summarises the available evidence of beneficial effects of urban green spaces, such as improved mental health, reduced cardiovascular morbidity and mortality, obesity and risk of type 2 diabetes, and improved pregnancy outcomes.

This study evaluates the direct and indirect ecosystem services and disservices provided by street trees. It focused on services of major importance to human health and wellbeing, which include climate regulation, air quality regulation and aesthetics and cultural services.

Explores issues of green care and ecotherapy, setting out steps required to enable a greater number of nature-based interventions to be commissioned in mental healthcare.

In this short video, Dr Mathew White of the University of Exeter discusses research showing the value of urban green spaces to mental wellbeing, based on a study of 12,000 people over an 18-year period.

A Lancet Commission report that described climate change as “the greatest global health opportunity of the 21^st century” in terms of potential co-benefits to health from action taken to reduce carbon footprints. It specifically recommends promotion of healthy lifestyles through increased access to green spaces.

This informative one-page document demonstrates the cost of physical inactivity, the barriers GPs face in prescribing exercise, and reasons for people to participate in physical activity in green space.

This study suggested that active interaction with indoor plants can reduce physiological and psychological stress compared with mental work. This is accomplished through suppression of sympathetic nervous system activity and diastolic blood pressure and promotion of comfortable, soothed, and natural feelings.

This study sought to explore the impact of viewing and using green space at knowledge-sector workplaces on employee wellbeing. The results indicated that both use of the open space and views of some vegetation types, namely trees, lawn and shrubs or flowering plants, were positively and independently associated with self-reported wellbeing levels. This research provides new insight into the extent to which workplace green space contributes to employee wellbeing.

This study of nearly 2000 people found that walking groups have wide-ranging health benefits and have potential to be used as a health intervention alongside other healthcare.

Report which sets out the evidence on health inequalities and the contribution the natural environment can make to improving health outcomes; the challenges and priorities for practitioners, academics and policymakers from across the health and environment sectors, in using the natural environment to tackle health inequalities; recommendations for future collaborative action by the health and environment sectors.