Page - 384 - in Biodiversity and Health in the Face of Climate Change

384 3. Greening: Generally aesthetic-based interventions including greening of vacant lots (typically involving removing rubbish, planting trees) and providing street trees. 4. Green infrastructure: For environmental purposes such as storm water manage- ment or cooling urban/suburban areas, representing benefits related to the eco- system service approach (provisioning and regulation of environmental goods and services). These four categories, while not considered to be exhaustive or absolute, broadly represent the majority of green space interventions currently being applied in urban settings. The methodologies for undertaking the evidence and case-study reviews are detailed elsewhere (WHO Regional Office for Europe 2017). Briefly, the evidence review searched eight electronic databases (Medline, PsycINFO, Web of Science (Science and Social Science Citation Indices), PADDI (Planning Architecture Design Database Ireland), Zetoc, Scopus, Greenfiles, SIGLE (System for Information on Grey Literature in Europe)). Studies were included if they: (i) evalu- ated an urban green space intervention; and (ii) measured health, well-being, social or environmental outcome(s). Interventions involving any age group were included. Interventions must have involved: (i) physical change to green space in an urban- context including improvements to existing urban green space or development of new urban green space, or (ii) a combination of physical change to urban green space supplemented by a specific urban green space awareness, marketing or pro- motion programme to encourage use of urban green space. The case studies were submitted to the WHO in response to a call on urban green space interventions. An online survey questionnaire was used to gather data on characteristics of green space, type of intervention, project objectives and outcomes, impacts of the inter- ventions, and lessons learned. A summary of the evidence base for each intervention category and equity impacts, and case study examples illustrating intervention approaches are provided below. 17.2.2 Park-Based Interventions There was strong evidence to support the use of park-based interventions that spe- cifically combined a physical change to green space and promotion/marketing pro- grammes, particularly for increasing park use and encouraging physical activity (7/7 studies showing a significant intervention effect) (see Table  17.1). A number of the studies in the review included control groups. Control groups allow researchers to assess whether the findings from the intervention tested are due solely to the intervention and help rule out alternate explanations. Typically control groups included green space sites that did not undergo any intervention (e.g. no change to the physical environment, and no new marketing events) during the study period, R. F. Hunter et al.