Knowledge base indicates relationship between percentage of greenspace in residential areas and positive health benefits

A recent health, place and nature knowledge base and slide-set from the Sustainable Development Commission explore ways of creating and maintaining natural and built environments that respect environmental limits and promote strong communities and physical activity. They show how this can improve opportunities for health.

The knowledge base shows that exposure to natural spaces – everything from parks and open countryside to gardens and other greenspace – is good for health. Contact with natural spaces can improve health directly and indirectly (by, for example, encouraging physical activity and social contact). It has been suggested that the percentage of greenspace in a person’s residential area is positively associated with their perceived general health.

Direct effects of the environment around us – such as noise, air quality and floods – can influence health. Road traffic remains a particular problem, affecting air quality and road casualties. Air pollution in the UK, mainly from traffic emissions, is estimated to reduce life expectancy by about seven to eight months and to cost up to £20.2 billion per annum.

Road traffic is responsible for more than 250,000 road casualties a year, of which more than 3,000 incidents result in death. The outdoor environment can also indirectly influence health by determining our behaviour and opportunities. The natural environment may have a role to play in tackling obesity. Research from across Europe found people living in areas with high levels of greenery to be three times more likely to be physically active and 40 per cent less likely to be overweight or obese than those living in areas with low levels of greenery.

The location of shops and services, and the travel connections to them, can determine whether people attend healthcare appointments and influence levels of physical activity and social contact. The environmental quality and perceived safety of an area has been shown to influence levels of activity in the local population – the higher the perceived level of crime and the more litter and graffiti an area has, the lower the level of physical activity.