EPA Supporting Ecosystem Benefits of Green Space for Eco Health in Ireland

EPA Eco-Health Project and Eco-Health Research Report-Ecosystem Benefits of Greenspace for Health  

Introduction to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Ireland  

The work of the EPA can be divided into three main areas:

Regulation: The EPA implement effective regulation and environmental compliance systems to deliver good environmental outcomes and target those who don’t comply.

Knowledge: Theye provide high quality, targeted and timely environmental data, information and assessment to inform decision making at all levels.

Advocacy: They work with others to advocate for a clean, productive and well protected environment and for sustainable environmental behaviour

The Eco Health Project 

Their Eco-Health project advances the perspective that accessible and well-designed green spaces are essential infrastructure, fundamental to the health and wellbeing of thriving and inclusive communities. There is a scientific consensus that well-designed green space provides multiple benefits for enhancing health and well-being. Enhancing green space provision, access and design:

• Promotes physical activity through creating spaces for play, recreation, walking and cycling within a safe environment.
• Enhances mental well-being through creating urban refuges (from busy streets, traffic, noise) and providing a restorative environment through increased contact with nature.
• Enhances social interaction through providing opportunities for social contact, public places and community-building activities.
• Reduces environmental risks from pollution by mitigating air pollution and noise pollution through urban greening.
• Mitigates environmental risks from extreme weather through countering the urban heat island effect and acting as a “sponge” within the context of extreme rainfall or surface flooding. Both warmer and wetter weather are anticipated as impacts of climate change in Ireland; thus, future-proofing Irish urban areas against further risks is crucial.

Some Eco-Health definitions  

Health and well-being  

Health is not merely the absence of disease and infirmity but a state of optimal physical, mental and social well-being (WHO, 1946). Well-being reflects the quality of life and the various factors that can influence it over the course of a person’s life (WHO, 2012). Well-being also reflects the concept of positive mental health, in which a person can realise his or her own abilities, cope with the normal stresses of life, work productively and fruitfully, and be able to make a contribution to his or her community. Consideration of health and well-being requires a shift in focus from what can go wrong in people’s lives, to focusing on what makes their lives go well (Government of Ireland, 2013)

Green space  

Within urban areas, public green space includes parks and reserves, sporting fields, riparian areas such as streams and riverbanks, greenways and trails, community gardens, street trees and nature conservation areas, as well as less conventional spaces such as green walls, green alleyways and cemeteries. Private green space includes private backyards, communal grounds of apartment buildings and corporate campuses (Wolch et al., 2014). Within the rural environment, green spaces may be more extensive, including greenways, blueways (e.g. river corridors, coastal paths), peatways, forests/woodlands and accessible trails (e.g. rights of way). Green spaces provide essential ecosystem services and are components of green infrastructure

Ecosystem services  

Broadly conceived as “the benefits people obtain from ecosystems” (MA, 2005, p. v), namely supporting services (services necessary for the production of all other ecosystem services, e.g. nutrient cycling, water cycling, soil formation); regulating services (services necessary for the regulation of all other ecosystem services, e.g. air quality regulation, climate regulation, water purification and waste treatment); provisioning services (the provision of products obtained from ecosystems, e.g. food, fibre, fuel, pharmaceuticals, fresh water); and cultural services (the non-material benefits people obtain from ecosystems through spiritual enrichment, cognitive development, reflection, recreation and aesthetic experiences, e.g. recreation and tourism, aesthetic values, sense of place, cultural heritage values)

Green infrastructure  

An interconnected network of multifunctional green spaces – urban and rural – that conserves natural ecosystem values and functions, which are capable of delivering a wide range of environmental and quality of life benefits for local communities (Benedict and McMahon, 2006; Scott et al., 2016)

Eco Health Project – Informs Policy 

The Eco-Health project seeks to inform public health and spatial planning policy and the important interlinkages between environmental quality and health and well-being. Healthy Ireland (2013) embraces the shift from a health services focus and treating ill health towards a “whole-systems approach” to health and well-being. This approach recognises that positive health outcomes not only are determined by inherited individual characteristics, but also are influenced by contextual factors, including the social and environmental determinants of health.

From the perspective of spatial planning, the concept of healthy places is increasingly espoused internationally and nationally. By enhancing the provision and design of green spaces, local authorities and public agencies can contribute towards key objectives within the National Planning Framework (2018) relating to healthy communities, compact growth and sustainable land use management.

However, although such policy guidance clearly supports an emphasis on green space provision for population health and well-being, it does not provide detailed guidance for planning and design policy in terms of the specific attributes required to tackle lifestyle illnesses in multiple cohorts.

Eco Health Project – Developing Solutions  

Key design principles to maximise green spaces as health-promoting environments include:

• Accessible spaces with good links (pedestrian and cycleways) to nearby neighbourhoods.
• A networked approach: emphasising green infrastructure networks (rather than isolated parks) can provide new opportunities for connecting existing and new green spaces and creating new linkages between urban and rural areas.
• Inclusive in design, catering for local needs from young to old and all physical abilities. Green spaces that are designed to support very specific functions tend to attract limited groups of users.
• Well managed and maintained spaces, creating a high-quality environment: poorly managed spaces or vandalism prompt negative perceptions among potential users.
• Multifunctional uses: examples include spaces that encourage active mobility, physical activity and sports, relaxation and tranquillity, and opportunities for social exchange (e.g. that incorporate community gardens, encourage parkruns).
• Enhancement of urban greening through planting strategies that mitigate noise and air pollution and maximise local biodiversity gain and facilitate sustainable drainage (e.g. deciduous wooded and wildflower meadow areas).
• Creation of multisensory restorative environments that help mitigate the psychological stresses of modern living through the provision of “restive places for rejuvenation”.

Watch the Eco-Health project highlights video

Eco-Health: Ecosystem Benefits of Greenspace for Health (Summary)  

EPA Ireland Research

Authors: Mark Scott, Mick Lennon, Owen Douglas and Craig Bullock

Health Benefits of Green Spaces and Green Infrastructure  

In this report chapters 1 and 2 identify the key health services provided by green spaces and green infrastructure. There is a scientific consensus that green space provides benefits for enhancing health and well-being and, moreover, these benefits and the multifunctional services provided by green space are increasingly recognised in policy at international, national and local levels. In summary, well-designed and accessible green space:

• Promotes physical activity through creating spaces for play, recreation, walking and cycling within a safe environment.
• Enhances mental well-being through creating urban refuges (from busy streets, traffic, noise) and providing a restorative environment through increased contact with nature.
• Enhances social interaction by providing opportunities for social contact, public places and community-building activities.
• Reduces environmental risks from pollution by mitigating air pollution and noise pollution through urban greening.
• Mitigates environmental risks from extreme weather through countering the urban heat island effect and acting as a “sponge” within the context of extreme rainfall or surface flooding. Both warmer and wetter weather are anticipated as likely climate change impacts in Ireland; thus, future proofing Irish urban areas against further risks is crucial.

A life-course analysis of green space health benefits is reported in Chapter 2, suggests that green space design and provision should be underpinned by an inclusive and evidence-informed approach that understands in greater detail the health “services” that different types of green spaces provide and also how these relate to diverse “user” needs across different cohorts. This suggests that enhancing green spaces as health-promoting environments requires consideration to be given not only to the proximity and accessibility of green space, but also to the specific design attributes that afford different groups of people opportunities for healthy activities and how people’s needs vary over their life course.

Key Research Findings in chapters 5–7 suggest that effective green space policy and planning is not simply a matter of “proximity” or distribution but also is about design attributes – therefore, effective policy should explore adapting existing green spaces to maximise health benefits alongside the design of new health-promoting environments. For example, the local case study analysis suggested that the presence of green space does not always result in a shift in behaviour or its greater use as a health-promoting environment.

Poorly designed green spaces may prioritise one potential group over another, thereby limiting their potential use. Similarly, poor access and limited walkways/cycleways connecting green spaces with residential areas can negatively impact on perceptions and use of local green spaces. Therefore, in enhancing green spaces as health-promoting environments, consideration must be given not only to the quantity and distribution of green spaces, but also to how different cohorts or groups in society can potentially benefit from green space and how existing green spaces can become more multifunctional and inclusive. Chapter 7 presents a method for citizen engagement to inform the design process that maximises health benefits from green space interventions.

Design Principles for Green Space   

Based on the research findings, key design principles include: Accessible spaces with good links (pedestrian and cycleways) to nearby neighbourhoods.

A networked approach emphasising green infrastructure networks (rather than isolated parks) can provide opportunities for connecting existing and new green spaces and creating new linkages between urban and rural areas.

Inclusive in design, catering for local needs from young to old and all physical abilities. Green spaces that are designed to support very specific functions tend to attract limited groups of users.

Well managed and maintained, creating a highquality environment: poorly managed spaces or vandalism prompt negative perceptions among potential users.

Multifunctional uses: examples include spaces that encourage active mobility, physical activity and sports, relaxation and tranquillity, and opportunities for social exchange (e.g. incorporate community gardens, encourage parkruns).

Enhance urban greening through planting strategies that mitigate noise and air pollution and maximise local biodiversity gain and facilitate sustainable drainage (e.g. deciduous wooded and wildflower meadow areas).

Create multisensory restorative environments that help mitigate the psychological stresses of modern living through the provision of “restive places for rejuvenation”.

Recommendations 

Chapter 8 outlines a series of 24 Eco-Health project recommendations under six headings for enhancing the design of green spaces for health benefits. Key priorities are:

1. Framing green spaces as a public health investment: essential to delivering high-quality and liveable places, future proofing settlements for anticipated climate change risks, and delivering on Ireland’s SDG commitments.
2. Enhancing institutional and governance arrangements, including mainstreaming the Healthy Cities and Counties approach; integrating health objectives into local authority development plans; and aligning Health Impact Assessments with Strategic Environmental Assessments to assess health and well-being impacts of development.
3. Enhance green space within local authority statutory planning, through advancing green infrastructure approaches across urban, suburban and rural areas; baselining green space assets and identifying new green infrastructure/ green space opportunities; and giving greater consideration to the health services provided by multifunctional green spaces.
4. Designing green spaces for health: maximising health benefits should be central to the design and retrofit of green spaces. Design interventions should be inclusive of the needs of different age, social and cultural groups and should be evidence informed.
5. Co-design of green spaces: mobilise local knowledge into local solutions through developing innovative community engagement methods for design.
6. Capacity-building requirements: develop tailored continuing professional development training, building local government senior management buy-in and mainstreaming green infrastructure and health into planning education.

Health is a personal, social and economic good, and the health and wellbeing of individuals, and of the population as a whole, is Ireland’s most valuable resource …

(WHO) (1946): [H]ealth is not merely the absence of disease and infirmity but a state of optimal physical, mental and social wellbeing.

A healthy population is a major asset for society, and improving the health and wellbeing of the nation is a priority for the Government and the whole of society. This means that all sectors of society and the whole of Government need to be proactively involved in improving the health and wellbeing of the population  

(Government of Ireland, 2013, p. 6).

Figure 1.1. A health map illustrating the determinants of health. Reproduced with permission from Barton and Grant (2006), developed from a model by Dahlgren and Whitehead (1991).

https://www.epa.ie/publications/research/environment–health/research-328-eco-health-ecosystem-benefits-of-greenspace-for-health.php

Where GRASSROOTS Comes in!  

Eco-tourism offers spaces for young people to express their talents. We have identified with them three areas of work that they invest in: sport, street food, street art and digital. Eco-tourism is largely absent from entrepreneurship education. Our project has a clear objective: to introduce new models of entrepreneurship education through actions in the field of eco-health tourism. The GRASSROOTS project responds to the EU’s challenges for young people in the post-Cold War context: to travel differently, to learn differently and to rethink our relationship with our natural environment. GRASSROOTS offers young people the opportunity to take concrete action to propose new policies to decision makers. This opportunity is all the more relevant as it is proposed on a European scale.

Bonus Material 

Ecosystem Benefits of Green Space ​for Health (Eco-Health) 

This Irish EPA report advances the perspective that accessible and well-designed green spaces are essential infrastructure that is fundamental to the health and well-being of thriving and inclusive communities. There is a scientific consensus that green space provides multiple benefits for enhancing health and well-being, and these benefits provided by green space are increasingly recognized in policy at international, national and local levels.