Green Areas and Public Health

Green Areas & Insfrastructures and Public Health outcomes

The project dealt with the qualitative and quantitative evaluation of the presence of green areas – in all their forms – in urban aggregations, with reference to the capitals of the Italian Regions, verifying the available data (green areas census, regulations and management plan).
A survey was carried out on a sample of the population, to subsequently define Community-Based Urban Planning Strategies and Public Health Policies.
Using GIS-based software, dynamic maps were produced to identify the availability, accessibility and public perception of green areas in the urban contexts surveyed.
Using the “Green S.O.A.P.” (Green Solution for Outdoor Air Pollution) tool, the air pollutants absorbed by the current (baseline) and potential (scenario) green areas differentiated by type of green area were quantified, with an evaluation of the relative health benefits, after geo-locating the residential, epidemiological and health data (where available), using GIS-based platform.