Both urbanization and climate change can be expected to aggravate several major human health problems.  An example is mental health: when urbanization increases, incidence rates of psychosis and depression also rise. Other relevant health problems in this respect are those associated with heat stress, air pollution and vector-transmitted infections.

A common characteristic of these urban health problems is that they are significantly affected by urban spatial design. A major element of urban spatial design is urban greenspace (UGS), which is more and more seen as a leverage point to address such urban health challenges.

In this paper, we present a new model, with the aim to address the shortcomings of existing methods and tools, and to meet the needs of urban spatial planners for quantitative, spatially explicit assessment of both the beneficial and detrimental impacts of UGS on human health. The model, named Urban-EcoMATCH (Urban Ecosystems Mapping and Assessment Tool of Costs and Benefits for Health), is applied it to the city of Maastricht (The Netherlands) with a (multi)hotspot analysis for five major urban health issues.: ‘Unattractive views’ (contributing to, e.g., psychological stress), ‘Heat stress’ (contributing to, e.g., heat stroke), ‘Air pollution’ (contributing to, e.g., respiratory diseases), ‘Perceived unsafety’ (contributing to, e.g., psychological stress), and Tick-bite risk’ (contributing to, e.g., Lyme disease).

With the model we were able to identify the hotspots, the areas within a city where urban design-related health problems are the largest. The hotspot analysis did not only provide concrete results for a specific city, but also generated more general insights into which spatial design-related health issues often occur together, and how greening strategies could reduce health burdens and/or enhance health benefits in these hotspots by paying attention to design aspects, especially to UGS type and location.

Read the full paper here: Oosterbroek, B., de Kraker, J., Huynen, M., Martens, P. & Verhoeven, K. (2023). Assessment of green space benefits and burdens for urban health with spatial modeling, Urban Forestry & Urban Greening, 86, 128023, doi.org/10.1016/j.ufug.2023.128023.