ICTA-UAB presents a report developed with the Worldwatch Institute (WWI)
Researchers from the group Conservation, Biodiversity and Global Change from the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (ICTA-UAB), Pablo Knobel, Roser Maneja and Martí Boada, presented on Thursday June 14th at Palau Macaya (Barcelona) the report “Urban Green spaces and human health. Towards a new research agenda” developed in close collaboration with the Worldwatch Institute (WWI), with headquarters in Washington. The report is a step further in this issue, in addition to being the follow-up of the previous study focused on the analysis of the role of biodiversity as an indicator of sustainability in Mediterranean cities. This last was published in 2016 in the form of 3 chapters within the State of the World 2016: Can a city be sustainable?
The report is part of a series of reports edited by the WWI with the aim to delve into emerging issues related with the different faces of global sustainability with the main objective of spreading their results to a broad audience and have a direct repercussion in society. With the tittle Urban green spaces and human health. Towards a new research agenda the report, that is published digitally and in English, focuses on the analysis of the potential relations between urban green spaces and human heath, analysing them from an interdisciplinary perspective.
The main ideas that can be extracted from the report can be summarized as follows. With the growth of cities and urban population worldwide the concern about the urban population health and wellbeing also grows. In this sense, urban green spaces can have a crucial role. Nature and green spaces have been linked to mankind throughout history in many places of the world and there are specific references to health already in ancient Greece. There are many studies that establish the link between the presence, proximity and, in a few cases, the quality of UGS with different elements of health. These elements range from mental health to mortality, including cardiovascular diseases or child cognitive development. Even though many links have been described, it is important to highlight that there are still many relevant factors to analyse and that their detailed study might generate a more robust information on the links between UGS and human health.
Programme
Date: Thursday, June 14th 2018
Venue: Palau Macaya, Paseo Sant Joan 108, 08009 Barcelona