Reframing the index system of urban green space planning toward public health in China: problems and solutions

ABSTRACT

Although substantial epidemiological studies have demonstrated positive correlations between urban green space and health, it is still common to see such land being used for other purposes in China. As a result, public health issues have deteriorated, imposing a pressing demand for urban green space. A health-oriented index system of urban green space planning could serve not only to protect such zones from being encroached upon, but also as a metric to assess its effectiveness in promoting public health. In this paper, we focus on the characteristics of urban green space that can generate health-related benefits through cultural ecosystem services (such as increasing outdoor physical activities). According to the literature review, the factors that describe these characteristics can be summarized under three categories: (1) accessibility, (2) availability, and (3) self-features. By referring to this, we compare our tool with China’s current index system (generalized from four case cities) of urban green space planning to identify the ignored and overlooked indicators. Then, we discuss the underlying causes from two angles: (1) value-orientation and (2) a planning framework. In the end, we propose a health-oriented index system, followed by a ‘5W2H1E’ framework to support its practical application.

KEYWORDS:

• Index system
• urban green space
• planning
• public health
• China

This article is related to:

Asian city futures: research to help inform spatial form and health

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. This type of city emphasizes greening in the urban area, and focuses on building an urban landscape to improve the living environment.

2. This kind of city treats forest vegetation as the dominant green space type of the urban ecological system, and mainly highlights the ecological effects of green space.

3. This term refers to a city being like a sponge to maintain the rainwater flexibly, which is expected to contribute to the proper functioning of the urban ecological system.

4. Parma Declaration on Environment and Health. Fifth Ministerial Conference on Environment and Health, ‘Protecting children’s health in a changing environment’, Parma, Italy, 10–12 March 2010.

5. Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Resolution adopted by the General Assembly on 25 September 2015.

6. Habitat III. United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development, Quito 17–20 October 2016.

7. Health Promotion in the SDGs-Health for All and All for Health. 9th Global Conference on Health Promotion Shanghai, 21–24 November, 2016.

8. Global action plan on physical activity 2018–2030: more active people for a healthier world. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2018.

9. Advice on health work in the new era, the State Council, 2014.

10. Talks of president Xi on the national hygiene and health conference, 2016.

11. Healthy China 2030 plan, the State Council, 2016.

12. The 13th ‘Five-Year’ plan of sanitation and health, the State Council, 2016.

13. Report of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China. Jinping Xi, 2017.

14. China’s medium and long plan in prevention and treatment of chronic diseases (2017–2025), the State Council, 2017.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Innovation Grant from Science and Technology Department of Hubei Province under Grant Number: 2017ADC073 and China Thousands Talents Program under Grant Number: D1218006.

Notes on contributors

Yuping Dong

Miss Yuping Dong is a PhD candidate in the Department of Urban Planning, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, China. She got her master’s degree from Wuhan University, China. Her research interest centers on the healthy effect of the urban green space system.

Helin Liu

Dr. Helin Liu is a Professor of Urban Planning in Huazhong University of Science and Technology, China. He spent about six years in the University of Cambridge pursuing his PhD degree and working for Cambridge Centre of Climate Change Mitigation Research (4CMR) as a post-doctoral research associate. His research interests are urban and regional modelling, innovation in urban economy and the healthy effect of the built environment.