Featured Research: Ecosystem benefits of green space for health (Eco-Health)

Launched this summer by planning researchers, the UCD Eco-Health project is working to provide an evidence-base for understanding the health benefits from high quality green space.

Led by Professor Mark Scott and Dr Mick Lennon of the School of Architecture, Planning and Environmental Policy, the project is jointly funded by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Health Service Executive (HSE) and will run for two years.

The primary objective of Eco-Health is the development of robust, evidence-based and publicly acceptable policies and design interventions for public green spaces, both urban and rural. To address this, the project is:

• supplying an evidence-base to establish the links between green space and health
• providing a benchmark study of national practice for developing health promoting environments
• undertaking applied local case study research to understand the interactions between green space and health and to feed directly into local policy development
• mobilising this knowledge in developing innovative guidance, health impact/proofing tool-kits and developing evidence-informed design exemplars for health promoting green space.

For further information and to keep up-to-date with Eco-Health, go to the dedicated project website (www.ecohealth.ie) for regular blog, news and research updates, or follow Eco-Health on Twitter @EcoHealthUCD.