Landscape for health and wellbeing

Sue Evans and Rachel Tennant

The Scottish Landscape Alliance has been exploring the role of landscape in public health. The research now exists to support what most landscape practitioners already know to be self-evident – that landscape and nature are good for us individually (both physically and mentally) and collectively (helping with community capacity and cohesion). The research also reveals that place quality is key; we will not benefit from our ‘natural health system’ if it is poorly managed and, consequently, underused or misused.

The global pandemic of COVID-19 has highlighted the basic human need to be able to access the outdoors. As we emerge from the impact of this terrible virus and effort is focused on the extraordinary steps that will be required to revitalise our country, we should think afresh about the role of landscape as part of the critical infrastructure and solutions needed for our recovery. It is timely that Scotland’s Planning Policy and National Planning Framework are under review, as this provides an opportunity to think about the shape of our future cities and towns – their density and connectedness, the distribution and scale of greenspace, and the types of activities that take place in them.

RT Painters – Yodo River walkway, Osaka, Japan.

© RMT Images

We need to think about who uses our public spaces and how; COVID-19 has exposed the inequality in access to greenspace. Poor landscape and deprivation often occur together, with those in greatest need least able to access quality outdoor spaces. The data suggests that the disadvantaged and vulnerable have been particularly impacted and, for families in a home with no immediate outdoor access, forced containment has been particularly difficult.

RT Park – Yodogawa River Park, Osaka, Japan.

© RMT Images

For some health outcomes, particularly mental health, research shows that managed greenspaces can help mitigate the health impacts of socioeconomic inequality. This is also likely for all-cause and circulatory disease mortality. The benefits of greenspace are greater for those worse off in society and landscapebased solutions providing access to greenspace can help narrow the gap in health outcomes caused by deprivation.

SE Park – Battery Park, New York, USA.

© Sue Evans

If we are to address health inequalities brought about by years of austerity and deliver wider health and social outcomes, we need to invest in our everyday landscape, our urban parks and greenspaces. This requires greater resources being put into land allocation, design, delivery and management of landscape, together with the community infrastructure needed to encourage use and engagement.

SE Play – Brooklyn Bridge Park, Brooklyn, USA.

© Sue Evans

By recognising the importance of landscape to health and by investing in place, using traditional and innovative funding models, we can do much to improve Scotland’s health and wellbeing. This is why the SLA is advocating for the definition of quality standards and indicators for landscape for health, and for the delivery and management of our landscape (including parks, greenspace and green infrastructure) to become a statutory duty for local authorities.

Sue Evans is Vice Chair of Architecture + Design Scotland, a member of the LI’s Policy and Communications Committee and for the Scottish Landscape Alliance, and is Vice Chair of the Landscape for Health and Wellbeing Working Group.