Green Infrastructure and Public Health

There is a growing body of knowledge revealing a sweeping array of connections between public health and green infrastructure – but not until now have the links between them been brought together in one comprehensive book.Green Infrastructure and Public Health provides an overview of current research and theories of the ecological relationships and mechanisms by which the environment influences human health and health behaviour.

Covering a broad spectrum of contemporary understanding, Coutts outlines:

• public health models that explicitly promote the importance of the environment to health

• ways in which the quality of the landscape is tied to health

• challenges of maintaining positive landscapes amidst a rapidly changing global environment

This book presents the case for fundamental human dependence on the natural environment and creates a bridge between contemporary science on the structure and form of a healthy landscape and the myriad ways that a healthy landscape supports healthy human beings. It presents ideal reading for students and practitioners of landscape architecture, urban design, planning, and health studies.

Professor Christopher Coutts holds undergraduate and graduate degrees in public health and a PhD in Urban, Technological, and Environmental Planning. His research examining green infrastructure and health linkages has appeared in both peer-reviewed urban planning and public health outlets. He is an associate professor of urban and regional planning and a research associate in the Center for Demography and Population Health at Florida State University.