Health impact assessment of greenspace – a guide

The guide has been written to help people conduct a health impact assessment (HIA) of greenspace (whether these are greenspace policies, strategies, plans, frameworks, programmes and projects); it:

• provides background information on greenspace
• outlines the current greenspace policy context in Scotland
• reviews international research evidence on greenspace and health
• suggests some questions to help apply this evidence to specific greenspace or greenspace-related proposals
• outlines how to use this evidence to do a HIA
• provides short case studies describing completed HIAs of greenspace
• highlights sources of data and further information on greenspace

HIA can range from a rapid appraisal to an in-depth piece of research, should ideally be prospective but may be retrospective, and may employ both qualitative and quantitative approaches to data collection. 

A steering group, with representatives from greenspace scotland, NHS Health Scotland, Scottish National Heritage, Glasgow Centre for Population Health, NHS Lothian, the Scottish Health Impact Assessment Network, and Raploch Urban Regeneration Company developed the project.

Health impact assessment guides have also been developed for housing and transport. For more information about the Scottish Health Impact  Assessment Network