Integrating NBS in strategies for health and recreational areas
Recreational areas for human health and well-being can be the first step of introducing NBS in the urban and rural contexts.
Specific Advice
NBS with a recreational function such as urban parks, green and blue spaces, and outdoor areas can provide well-being benefits to urban citizens while also benefitting nature. Both protection and restoration of ecosystems as well as smaller, constructed NBS can be included in strategies and plans for public health and well-being as they deliver aesthetic value and can create improved urban environments that benefit both mental and physical health.
Recreational areas can also serve as sites for NBS experimentation such as implementing rain gardens and other smaller NBS. By equipping NBS with signs or other information sources that explain their purpose and functioning, this is also an opportunity for awareness raising and education in areas that often attract many people.
Green spaces have multiple benefits for human health (photo: Caroline Enge/NIVA).
Good to Know
Recreational areas offer multiple co-benefits. However, urban greening has also been associated with unintended consequences such as green gentrification. Careful considerations should be made regarding the location and features of NBS to avoid such outcomes.
Additional evaluations such as cost-benefit analysis of added benefits and avoided costs, can strengthen the NBS attractiveness.
Most co-benefits can be obtained by designed multipurpose green and blue areas – which deliver both environmental and recreational benefits.
Some large-scale green and blues areas, especially newly constructed ones, can take years to deliver all co-benefits. This is related to vegetation development, especially trees.
Recreational use of NBS requires robust design as human use can also damage the NBS, for example by trampling down vegetation or littering.
Context
NBS with recreational functions can offer various co-benefits and can address many challenges, including to improve human health and well-being. Multifunctional recreational and green areas have been observed to offer shade and refuge during heat waves, reduce flooding, improve air quality, reduce noise pollution, provide space for exercising and nature observation. There is also strong evidence for the effects of nature on mental health, including reduction of stress and lowering risks of depression. It can be argued that stronger attention toward the linkages between human health and biodiversity can benefit both people and nature.
Access to green spaces in cities are often unequally distributed between different sosio-economic groups and this needs to be considered. Design and location of recreational areas should be carefully planned to avoid unintended outcomes, such as green gentrification or increased social injustice and inequalities (green gentrification is the process when area attractiveness and property prices increase because of urban greening unintentionally misplacing lower-income and marginalised communities from those areas).
There is significant potential to experiment with smaller NBS , such as bioswales and rain gardens as pilot projects with citizens or other stakeholders, aiming at collecting evidence of NBS performance and raise awareness among citizens as well as other stakeholders. NBS with a recreational function also provide the possibility that citizens who normally are not interested in NBS will encounter them.
Examples and Cases
#SWEDEN – Restoration of a recreation area in Rågsved (Stockholm)
Rågsved nature reserve established in 2018 in Stockholm is 94 hectares of open meadows, wetlands, deciduous forests, broadleaf environments and coniferous forested heights. The restoration aimed at improving biodiversity and habitats in the area while also providing more accessible green spaces. Restoration of the area was co-planned together with local stakeholders, focus groups and it is governed by state and non-state actors. It contributes to the implementation of the objectives set in the Stockholm Environment Programme.
More information about the recreation area in Rågsved can be found here:
Restoration of a recreation area in Kräppladalen in Urban Nature Atlas: https://una.city/nbs/stockholm/restoration-recreation-area-krappladalen
Rågsved nature reserve map: https://www.naturkartan.se/sv/stockholms-lan/ragsveds-naturreservat?guide_id=75
#FINLAND – National Nature Recreation Strategy 2030
In Finland, everyone has the right to enjoy nature freely without the need to obtain permission from landowners (except private property, cultivated and special areas and others), also known as the everyman’s right. In light of the climate change and its projected effects on ecosystem, this long-standing tradition of Finnish connectedness with nature may be challenged. The first National Nature Recreation Strategy 2030 aims to ensure that recreation is possible and is sustainable promoting health and wellbeing. It was developed in cooperation with the government, authorities, research institutes and NGOs. The survey underpinning the strategy collected in a total of 8 074 responses from citizens. Based on the strategic objectives, policy outlines have been developed.
More information about the National Nature Recreation Strategy 2030 can be found here:
Prime Minister’s Publications Office 2022, Kansallinen luonnon virkistyskäytön strategia 2030: Valtioneuvoston periaatepäätös [National Nature Recreation Strategy 2030: Government resolution], http://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-383-685-3 [in Finnish with English summary]
Ministry of the Environment, Recreational use of nature: https://ym.fi/en/recreational-use-of-nature
Learn more
A set of published studies on green gentrification
by the Barcelona Laboratory for Urban Environmental Justice and Sustainability that explore the links between urban greening, green gentrification and environmental justice.“How green are European cities?
Green space key to well-being – but access varies” is a news piece by the European Environment Agency that presents statistics on greenness of 37 European capitals considering total green infrastructure, green urban areas and tree cover as well as access to green spaces.Nordic Cities – Green, Resilient, Healthy. Fostering national policies and initiatives for urban green space.
This is a policy brief by the Nordic Working Group for Sustainable Cities. https://pub.norden.org/nord2022-018/#111520Nordic Liveable Neighbourhoods
was a collaboration project involving five Nordic cities (Helsinki, Vantaa, Stavanger, Copenhagen and Kristiansand). It is about creating more “edible”, green and inclusive neighbourhoods to support wellbeing, activity and inclusivity. The project is part of the Nordic Healthy Cities initative which is part of the Nordic Smart City Network. https://nscn.eu/HealthyLiveableNeighbourhoods
Green and healthy Nordic cities: How to plan, design, and manage health-promoting urban green space.
This handbook on “how to plan, design, and govern urban green space to promote human health and well-being” was developed for planners and policymakers in the NORDGREEN project. It also presents tools and methods for developing and maintaining health-promoting green space in Nordic cities. https://norden.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:1824218/FULLTEXT01.pdfInternational Obligations
SDG 3
“Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages.”SDG 11
“Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable.”Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, target 11
“Restore, maintain and enhance nature’s contributions to people, including ecosystem functions and services, such as regulation of air, water, and climate, soil health, pollination and reduction of disease risk, as well as protection from natural hazards and disasters, through nature-based solutions and ecosystem-based approaches for the benefit of all people and nature.”Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, target 14:
“Ensure the full integration of biodiversity and its multiple values into policies, regulations, planning and development processes, poverty eradication strategies, strategic environmental assessments, environmental impact assessments and, as appropriate, national accounting, within and across all levels of government and across all sectors, in particular those with significant impacts on biodiversity, progressively aligning all relevant public and private activities, fiscal and financial flows with the goals and targets of this framework.”EU Adaptation Strategy
“More systemic adaptation: Supporting policy development at all levels and all relevant policy fields; including three cross-cutting priorities to integrate adaptation into: macro-fiscal policy; nature-based solutions; and local adaptation actions.”