New WHO brief provides practical advice on delivering effective urban green spaces

The WHO Regional Office for Europe has released today a brief for action on urban green spaces. Ben and our green space colleague Anne Cleary worked with WHO on developing this brief. The brief was launched at the European Conference on Biodiversity and Health in the Face of Climate Change in Bonn (Becca is leading a workshop there and will report back here on the blog soon).

The brief builds on the WHO’s recently released evidence review to provide green space practitioners with a succinct overview of key components to be considered during the planning, design, implementation and management of urban green space interventions.

Cross-sector collaboration, community engagement and applying a dual approach that couples a physical change with social activities were stated as some of the key components to the success of an urban green space intervention.

A take home message from the brief is that well designed urban green space interventions can deliver health, social and environmental benefits for all population groups – particularly among lower socioeconomic status groups. There are very few – if any – other public health interventions that can achieve all of this.

The brief can be downloaded here (pdf).

The brief stresses the importance of community engagement to an intervention’s success