Webinar: The importance of urban green and blue spaces for mental health

The H2020 NBS projects UNaLab, Grow Green, Connecting Nature and CLEVER Cities invite you to participate in this timely webinar focusing on the importance of urban green and blue spaces for mental health in light of the current COVID-19 pandemic. The webinar will take place on Thursday 19 November between 10:00-11:00 CET.

Spending time in urban green and blue spaces provides numerous mental health benefits. Parks, playgrounds, rivers and other urban green and blue spaces have proven to promote mental health and well-being by reducing stress, stimulating cognitive function, enhancing social cohesion, and supporting physical activity.

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of urban green and blue spaces. The pandemic has caused countries across the world to implement social distancing and lockdown measures in order to curb the spread of COVID-19. Although these measures have proven successful, feelings of loneliness, anxiety and depression have reportedly increased among the world’s populations, particularly among people living in dense urban settings with limited public space. Ensuring access to nature for all citizens should thus be a fundamental strategy of cities, both when coping with the current health crisis as well as when planning future urban development.

The lessons learnt from the COVID-19 pandemic are stimulating active discussion about prioritising the inclusion of nature in urban settings as cities across the world prepare for the post-pandemic recovery. This webinar aims to highlight the experiences of the City of Glasgow (Scotland) and the City of Tampere (Finland) with regard to the importance and use of public green and blue spaces during the COVID-19 crisis, as well as their work on gathering the data required to continue planning for these spaces in a post-pandemic world.

Please register to the webinar here.

The invitation and the agenda for the webinar can be found in the attachment.