GREENMASS: Green infrastructure and health mapping alliance of Surrey academics

The positives of green infrastructure (GI), such as trees and hedges, on public health are clearly evident. Greening of cities for healthy urban living is being taken as a priority in many cities worldwide, but the guidelines on the deployment of GI in urban areas, and how much health benefits they bring in quantitative terms (e.g., reduced mortality, hospital admissions or life years), are still open questions for the research community, the general public and various funding agencies.

These questions can only be addressed through a multidisciplinary approach. Hosted within the Global Centre for Clean Air Research (GCARE) and funded by the University of Surrey’s Urban Living Award, Green Infrastructure and Health Mapping Alliance of Surrey Academics (GREENMASS) project builds upon Surrey’s extensive expertise and leverage significant on-going research activities (e.g., H2020 funded iSCAPE; OPERANDUM).

The aim of the GREENMASS is to establish a cross-disciplinary university-wide alliance to understand linkages between ‘green infrastructure’ and ‘health mapping’ in urban areas. In particular, we will build an understanding of the links between GI interventions and the incidence of health problems such as respiratory diseases and hospital admissions and the prevalence of mental and cardiovascular problems.

The overall goal is to foster collaboration between numerous research areas such as ‘Air Pollution’, ‘Green Infrastructure Engineering’, ‘Clinical Health’, ‘Environmental Sustainability’, ‘Mathematical Modelling’, ‘Mental Health’ and ‘Environmental Psychology’ via a research alliance platform to address this complex urban problem.

The specific objectives are:

• Develop a novel methodology of linking GI and health outcomes using Guildford as a pilot study area, with a view to applying it broadly in future
• Respond to relevant research funding calls that are specifically focusing at the multidisciplinary questions related to green infrastructure and public health topics
• Develop a long-term collaborative platform by combining broader expertise in the area of air pollution and Public health
• Broadly link our research to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, in particular, 13 ‘Climate Action’, and progress towards the 2015 Paris Climate Change Agreement.