Urban green space provision: the case for policy‐based solutions to support human health

Williams, Craig; Byrne, Christie; Evenden, Shannon; Soebarto, Veronica; Caddy‐Retalic, Stefan; Williams, Carmel; Tefera, Yonatal; Feng, Xiaoqi; Lowe, Andrew

doi:10.5694/mja2.52569

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As one of the world's most urbanised nations, Australia1 is particularly vulnerable to diseases causally linked with urban living.2 Further urban growth requires systemic health policy solutions. Urban green spaces (UGS) are dynamic contributors to the wellbeing of our cities, offering benefits to the health of humans, society, and natural and managed ecosystems. Here we define UGS to encompass planned and intentional green spaces such as parks, curated gardens, sports and recreation areas as well as urban forests and nature reserves, and unconventional green zones such as easements, road and infrastructure routes, streetscapes and commercial precincts.

1 University of South Australia, Adelaide, SA
2 Environment Institute, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA
3 University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA
4 University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW
5 South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute, Adelaide, SA
6 University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW

Correspondence: craig.williams@unisa.edu.au

Acknowledgements:

We acknowledge the HEAL (Healthy Environments And Lives) National Research Network, which receives funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council Special Initiative in Human Health and Environmental Change (Grant No. 2008937). Support was also provided by the Environment Institute at the University of Adelaide. The funding source was not involved in the authoring of this work. The work of the Dynamic State Summit (2022) in catalysing this work is acknowledged.

Competing interests:

No relevant disclosures.

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Urban green space provision: the case for policy‐based solutions to support human health

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