Urban Green Space and Health

Dear Colleagues,

This proposed Special Issue focuses on the dynamic interrelationship between urban green space (UGS) and public health, drawing attention to both well-established evidence and emerging perspectives. Urban green spaces, including parks, gardens, green corridors, and nature-based infrastructure, have long been recognized for their contributions to physical, mental, and social well-being. However, growing urbanization, increasing socio-environmental inequalities, and shifting public health priorities have made it imperative to re-examine the multifaceted roles of green spaces in promoting health and well-being in contemporary urban settings.

Scope:

This Special Issue welcomes interdisciplinary contributions that explore how UGS affects health outcomes across diverse populations and geographies. It invites research, reviews, and case studies that investigate the following issues:

• The physical and psychological health benefits of green space access and exposure;
• Equitable distribution of UGS and its implications for health disparities;
• Planning and design strategies for inclusive, accessible, and health-promoting green environments;
• The role of green spaces in climate adaptation and environmental resilience, as well as their health co-benefits;
• Community engagement, governance, and cultural perspectives in shaping UGS and health outcomes;
• Innovative methodologies for assessing the health impacts of green spaces.

This Special Issue welcomes contributions from the fields of urban planning, public health, environmental psychology, landscape architecture, geography, and related disciplines.

Purpose:

This Special Issue aims to foster a critical and integrative understanding of how urban green space planning and design intersect with health agendas. It seeks to provide an evidence-based foundation for policy and practice, offering insights into how green infrastructure can be harnessed to build healthier, more equitable, and more sustainable urban futures.

Contribution to the Literature:

While previous research has established the beneficial links between green spaces and health, much of the literature remains siloed within specific disciplines, or is otherwise case-based. This Special Issue seeks to bridge disciplinary gaps and advance the conversation by synthesizing diverse perspectives and highlighting underexplored themes, such as the cultural dimensions of UGS use, the role of green space in pandemics, and the intersectionality of access and inclusion.

By foregrounding the health dimension within urban green space discourse, this Special Issue will complement the existing literature, which has traditionally prioritized environmental, ecological, or esthetic functions. It will offer timely contributions to global debates on urban resilience, social justice, and public health, particularly in the context of climate change, urban densification, and post-pandemic recovery.

Dr. Raziyeh Teimouri
Dr. Yu-Sheng Shen
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Urban Science is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• urban green spaces
• public health
• green infrastructure
• green space planning
• health benefits of nature exposure
• environmental justice