Greening the city: the health evidence of urban nature

What is urban greening and why should we do it? How is it done and what gets in the way of us doing it more? This chapter introduces the notion of ‘greening the city’ and provides a rationale for such greening, based on evidence of the benefits of such greening for human, as well as ecosystem, health. It describes a range of approaches to urban greening, highlighting particular examples of their application around the world, and identifies a number of factors that prevent or discourage urban greening. The chapter concludes by placing the onus on us all, as individual citizens, as communities, as policy and decision makers and as practitioners, to identify and overcome the barriers to greening the city, so that our basic, evolutionary, human need for contact with nature may be met.