The positive impacts of urban green and blue infrastructure (GBI) in bringing various benefits for citizens’ health, well-being and quality of life, and mitigating the effects of climate change are widely recognized. However, due to discrepancies in the provision of these infrastructures, not all urban residents have the same opportunities to benefit from GBI in enhancing their health and well-being.

Prior evidence suggests that in addition to the quantity and availability of GBI for urban residents, the quality and accessibility of these infrastructures also play a decisive role in how health-promoting GBI are used, experienced, and engaged with. Nevertheless, most metrics applied to assess GBI in spatial decision making rely on simple quantitative measures, such as the spatial coverage of GBI and the calculated accessibility to GBI. Moreover, decisions to allocate health-supportive GBI in the urban space are made in specific institutional frameworks, under financial restrictions, and implemented in specific governance structures.

This session welcomes presentations addressing the above-described challenges in measuring and conceptualizing the health and well-being benefits provided by GBI for urban residents and the institutional structures contributing to their just and equitable distribution among urban populations. The session welcomes presentations focusing on the links between urban GBI and individual and community health and well-being as well as those situating human health within the frame of planetary health. Key topics include, but are not limited to, the following research topics:

  1. The role of GBI in driving health-promoting urban transformations and climate adaptation;
  2. Equity and justice perspectives in GBI accessibility, socio-economic and health conditions of GBI user groups, and resource availability;
  3. GBI-led multifunctional approaches to maximise environmental, social and health benefits
  4. Health and wellbeing perspectives in GBI governance;
  5. Citizen-participation in planning, implementing, and maintaining GBI projects