Urbanisation is a complicated socio-economic process that alters the built environment and converts the rural areas into urban settlements. This happens in parallel with changes in people’s dominant lifestyle and behaviour. SDG 11 describes the commitment to make cities inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable. Now, more than any other time in history, delivering on sustainable development requires all the stakeholders to work on fostering human health and well-being and to place health promotion at the centre of the global transformative agenda. SDG 3 describes the commitment to ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages.
The WHO defined health as: “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity”. A growing body of research supports the role of urban planning in improving public health and well-being and concentrates on analysing the way in which interventions in built environments deliver improvements in human health. These interventions directly or indirectly include ecosystem services. The main aim of my dissertation is to understand how urban natural spaces can contribute to create healthy urban environments and boost public health and well-being.

*SDG: Sustainable Development Goal, United Nation, 2015.