Moving from features to functions : Bridging disciplinary understandings of urban environments to support healthy people and ecosystems

Yuille, Andy and Davies, Jessica and Green, Mark and Hardman, Charlotte and Knight, Jo and Marshall, Rachel and Armitt, Hannah and Bane, Miranda and Bush, Alex and Carr, Victoria and Clark, Rebecca and Cox, Sally and Crotty, Felicity and de Bell, Sian and Edwards, Annabelle and Ferguson, Jody and Fry, Rich and Goddard, Mark and Harrod, Andy and Hoyle, Helen E. and Irvine, Katherine and Lambrick, Danielle and Leonardi, Nicoletta and Lomas, Michael and Lumber, Ryan and MacLean, Laura and Manoli, Gabriele and Mead, Bethan and Neilson, Louise and Nicholls, Beth and O'Brien, Liz and Pateman, Rachel and Pocock, Michael and Scoffham, Hayley and Sims, Jamie and White, Piran (2024) Moving from features to functions : Bridging disciplinary understandings of urban environments to support healthy people and ecosystems. Health and Place, 90: 103368. ISSN 1353-8292

Abstract

Contact with nature can contribute to health and wellbeing, but knowledge gaps persist regarding the environmental characteristics that promote these benefits. Understanding and maximising these benefits is particularly important in urban areas, where opportunities for such contact is limited. At the same time, we are facing climate and ecological crises which require policy and practice to support ecosystem functioning. Policies are increasingly being oriented towards delivering benefits for people and nature simultaneously. However, different disciplinary understandings of environments and environmental quality present challenges to this agenda. This paper highlights key knowledge gaps concerning linkages between nature and health. It then describes two perspectives on environmental quality, based respectively in environmental sciences and social sciences. It argues that understanding the linkages between these perspectives is vital to enable urban environments to be planned, designed and managed for the benefit of both environmental functioning and human health. Finally, it identifies key challenges and priorities for integrating these different disciplinary perspectives.