Green Analytics Corp., 2020. A Conceptual Framework To Understand The Business Case For Ecohealth In Ontario.
Introduction:
Greenspaces offer opportunities for engagement with the natural environment and provide ecosystem services that contribute to positive health outcomes. Such opportunities include children’s play, physical exercise and athletic activities, quiet relaxation and meditation, social engagement and reprieve from urban noise and heat (WHO, 2016). In addition, ecosystem services and vegetation cover from greenspaces mitigate air pollutants, reduce surface temperatures and urban heat island effect by creating shade and increasing evapotranspiration, mitigate flooding, and increase community resiliency to climate change.
Greenspace investments lead to health benefits by increasing the number of users who experience positive physical and mental health outcomes and by increasing the amount of greenspace within an urban area thereby reducing exposure to negative impacts from air pollutants, heat, noise, and climaterelated health risks. Greenspace investments include changes in the accessibility, size, amount, quality, type, and amenities present. These factors influence the number of greenspace users, how users engage with greenspaces, and exposure to environmental stressors. Taken together, greenspace use and protection from environmental stressors determine the potential magnitude of associated health benefits. The associated benefits of improvements in public health lead to economic savings associated with reduced burden of illness, decreased use of health services, and increased productivity.
The conceptual framework presented in this document connects investments in greenspaces to health benefits and the associated economic value of improvements in public health. Making these connections helps users better understand and communicate the value of greenspace investments and provides a mechanism to support informed program, policy and planning decisions. In addition to presenting a conceptual framework (Section 4), this document includes the results of a literature review and jurisdictional scan both of which informed the conceptual framework design. This is a living document with the intention that the literature review and conceptual framework will incorporate emerging research and evolve as the overall project advances.