The guide was prepared by members of the Oregon Health and Outdoors Initiative—the Oregon Public Health Institute and the Willamette Partnership—in collaboration with the Green Infrastructure Leadership Exchange. The guide proposes green infrastructure solutions to improving prevalent health issues in the United States (like heart disease, cancer, depression, and others) through meaningful work in communities, providing:
- Evidence linking time in green spaces to improvements in health
- Health care and green infrastructure key terms
- Methods to identify health needs of communities
- Methods for community engagement
- Design guidelines for green infrastructure siting and design
- Steps to evaluate health benefits from green infrastructure
From the guide:
“This guide provides some general principles, best practices, and experiences about how best to use green infrastructure to promote better health equity. It is designed for use by managers, engineers, community organizations, planners, and others who are siting, designing, building, and stewarding green infrastructure in urban areas and rural towns across Canada and the United States. The guide is a product of several Green Infrastructure Leadership Exchange cities coming together to build stronger partnerships between green infrastructure providers and health providers. The guide is organized in sections that can help green infrastructure providers and their partners answer important questions about how green infrastructure can improve health…”
Citation: Heather Polonsky, Hannah Cohen-Cline, Kathleen Wolf. Green Infrastructure and Health Guide. Willamette Partnership and Oregon Public Health Institute, 2018
