The health benefits of nature-based solutions to urbanization challenges for children and the elderly

A systematic review

authored by

Nadja Kabisch, Matilda van den Bosch, Raffaele Lafortezza

Abstract

Urban green and blue spaces promote health by offering areas for physical activity, stress relief, and social interaction, which may be considered as cultural ecosystem services. They also provide a number of regulating ecosystem services that can be regarded as nature-based solutions to mitigate impacts from urbanization-induced challenges. Urban trees and other vegetation provide cooling through shade and evapotranspiration, which reduce the impact of the urban heat island on hot summer days. Urban vegetation may improve air quality by removing air pollutants. Open areas in cities, such as parks, gardens, playgrounds and cemeteries, are unsealed spaces that also improve infiltration during extreme precipitation events providing water regulating functions. All these services have the potential to improve the health of urban residents, particularly of specific vulnerable groups such as children and the elderly. The aim of this paper is to provide an overview of the current state of evidence on the relationship between the health of children and the elderly and urban green and blue spaces that can account as nature-based solutions to urbanization-induced challenges. We discuss potential confounding factors and refer to the different green space metrics used to identify associations to health. From the results, we cannot conclude on a universal protective health effect of urban green and blue spaces for children and the elderly. While the association trend is positive, the results remain inconclusive, context dependent and are partly overridden by socioeconomic confounders. However, the research area is consistently increasing, and we advance important prospects for future research on urban green and blue spaces in the face of global challenges such as urbanization.

External Organisation(s)

Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (HU Berlin)
Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ)
Helmholtz Zentrum München - German Research Center for Environmental Health
University of British Columbia
University of Bari
Michigan State University (MSU)

Type

Article

Journal

Environmental research

Volume

159

Pages

362-373

No. of pages

12

ISSN

0013-9351

Publication date

11.2017

Publication status

Published

Peer reviewed

Yes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Biochemistry, General Environmental Science

Sustainable Development Goals

SDG 11 - Sustainable Cities and Communities

Electronic version(s)

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2017.08.004 (Access: Closed)