This page is the home of the NIHR-funded project Tackling Health Inequalities Through Green/Blue Infrastructure. Led by Ben Wheeler at the European Centre for Environment and Human Health, the project runs from 2024-2029 and aims to grow our understanding of how policies and actions related to planning, managing, and investing in natural environments might help to reduce health inequalities. As the project progresses, updates and news will be posted here, and outputs from the project will be discussed in Beyond Greenspace blog posts.
We’ll also post updates on the project page on LinkedIn – follow us here: https://www.linkedin.com/company/green-blue-infrastructure-health-inequalities
Funding
Ben Wheeler, Population Health Career Scientist Award (NIHR303612) is funded by the NIHR for this research project. The views expressed are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the NIHR, NHS or the UK Department of Health and Social Care.
Background
Open spaces around where we live, like parks and beaches; towpaths or footpaths through woods or fields; as well as smaller features like street trees, are described as “green/blue infrastructure”. The evidence base suggesting green/blue infrastructure is good for population health is now substantial, with health benefits gained for example by providing opportunities for exercise, or mental health promotion, or through reducing the urban heat island effect. National governments and local authorities have started to base some decisions on links between nature and health, but stronger evidence would help give clearer guidance to those decisions. One specific issue is for us to better understand how green/blue infrastructure could influence inequalities in health experienced across society. Geographical health inequalities in the UK are stark. For example, healthy life expectancy 2018-20 by English local authority ranged from 54.3 to 71.2 years for females, and 53.5 to 74.7 for males.
On the one hand, green/blue infrastructure might help to reduce health inequalities, for example providing space for respite from challenging life circumstances, or having a cooling effect during heatwaves in densely built parts of cities. On the other hand, we know that green/blue infrastructure is not distributed equally, for example wealthier neighbourhoods typically have more trees, gardens and higher quality parks.
Aims of the research
One way we could tackle health inequalities is by improving living environments for everyone, but improving them more for communities whose health is poorer. The main aim of the project is to investigate how we might take this approach to shape the green/blue infrastructure in and around the places where people live in order to reduce health inequalities. However, the research will also acknowledge that natural environments can form one part of any solution, and that health inequalities are driven by a complex range of social and material circumstances, such as housing, employment opportunities, education and many other factors.
Research plan
We will use existing evidence and analysis of large datasets for the UK, and local case studies, to estimate the impacts of different approaches to planning and managing green/blue infrastructure:
- Firstly we will review existing research to establish what is already known about relationships between green/blue infrastructure and health inequalities. With this information, and working closely with professionals from public health and environmental agencies as well as public partners, we will build visual models to help us understand how different aspects of the environment, health and the social characteristics of communities are linked.
- Secondly we will use maps of green space alongside data from the Census and surveys to analyse some of these relationships further.
- Thirdly, we will use these analyses to estimate what the impacts might be of different green/blue infrastructure policies on health inequalities. For example, if we plant trees everywhere across a city, but plant more trees in more socio-economically deprived areas, could this provide a fairer distribution of cooling during health-damaging and dangerous heatwaves?
Collaboration and Public Involvement
Working with the Health and Environment Public Engagement group (HEPE), public partners have helped to shape the design of this research, and have provided support for its importance. We have convened a public involvement specifically for this project, and they will be involved throughout, for example by providing inputs to the development of the visual models, and supporting public engagement activities.
The project is working closely with several important partners, including Natural England, Public Health Dorset, the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities, Natural Resources Wales, the Town and Country Planning Association, and Forest Research. Working closely with these organisations will help the research to inform relevant policies and actions at national and local levels. The work will also involve research collaborations with colleagues at the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology and the Technical University of Denmark.
The goal of the research is to support strategies to deliver fairer distributions of green/blue infrastructure, anticipating that this will help us to tackle health inequalities. Relevant actions include local and national planning and environmental policies that shape our communities. We will therefore work with these agencies and the public to use the research to help shape the tools and policies that influence green/blue infrastructure at national and local scales.
Project Updates
We’ll post project updates on the main Beyond Greenspace blog feed, and will link to posts here as we go along.
| Project update date | Link to post and info |
| 11/8/25 | Intro webinar 23/10/25 with TCPA – info and link to registration |
| 21/10/25 | Blog updating on progress with the development of a causal loop diagram and a linked reflection on the process so far by Mark |
| 27/10/25 | You can now view the recording of our introductory webinar and download the slide deck here |
Beyond Greenspace 