Environment and Health

The climate, pollution, and biodiversity emergencies are having massive and ongoing impacts on human health and wellbeing.

Human health is linked inextricably with the health and resilience of earth’s natural systems. Some effects of ecosystem degradation on human health are direct, such as the physical and mental health impacts of floods, heatwaves, water shortage, and pollutants. The health of ecosystems also affects human health and wellbeing through food production, livelihoods, emerging diseases, population displacement, and conflict. Just as degraded ecosystems can have negative impacts on human health and wellbeing, so healthy ecosystems can deliver important benefits.

Research in this theme contributes to the UN Sustainable Development Goals 3 and 11 of ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being at all ages, especially in the context of sustainable cities and communities. The work of this theme also addresses and appeals to UK policy priorities around better physical and mental health, and improving the state of our ecosystems, air and water.

Research theme aims

Improve understanding and application of the links between environments, ecosystems, and human health and wellbeing
Develop and evaluate nature-based solutions for physically and mentally healthier futures.

Key focus areas

Green and blue spaces - evaluating the contribution of green and blue spaces to physical and mental health and wellbeing.
Climate and environmental change: understanding the direct and indirect impacts of climate and environmental change on health and wellbeing.
Nature-based solutions: developing innovative ways of managing environments and ecosystems to protect and enhance health and wellbeing.

YESI Objectives

Project outputs

Closing the Gap Network+

Balogun-Katung A, Carswell C, Brown JVE, Coventry P, Ajjan R, Alderson S, et al. Exploring the facilitators, barriers, and strategies for self-management in adults living with severe mental illness, with and without long-term conditions: A qualitative evidence synthesis. PLoS ONE 16(10): e0258937. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0258937

Peter A. Coventry, JenniferV.E. Brown, Jodi Pervin, Sally Brabyn, Rachel Pateman, Josefien Breedvelt, Simon Gilbody, Rachel Stancliffe, Rosemary McEachan, PiranC.L. White,
Nature-based outdoor activities for mental and physical health: Systematic review and meta-analysis, SSM - Population Health, Volume 16, 2021, 100934, ISSN 2352-8273,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmph.2021.100934.

Balogun-Katung A, Carswell C, Brown JVE, Coventry P, 2021. Exploring the facilitators, barriers, and strategies for self-management in adults living with severe mental illness, with and without long-term conditions: A qualitative evidence synthesis. PLoS One. 2021 Oct 26;16(10):e0258937. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0258937. PMID: 34699536; PMCID: PMC8547651.

NIHR Yorkshire and Humber ARC

Hinde, S.; Bojke, L.; Coventry, P. The Cost Effectiveness of Ecotherapy as a Healthcare Intervention, Separating the Wood from the Trees. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2021, 18, 11599. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph182111599

Geneshka, M.; Coventry, P.; Cruz, J.; Gilbody, S. Relationship between Green and Blue Spaces with Mental and Physical Health: A Systematic Review of Longitudinal Observational Studies. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2021, 18, 9010. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18179010

Kontopantelis, E., Springate, D.A., Ashworth, M. et al. 2015. Investigating the relationship between quality of primary care and premature mortality in England: a spatial whole-population study. BMJ.

Co-Motion (Read more)
Cinderby, S., Cambridge, C., Attuyer, K. et al. Co-designing Urban Living Solutions to Improve Older People’s Mobility and Well-Being. Journal of Urban Health. 95(3), 409-422.

Attuyer, K., Rose, G., and Croucher, K.L. Establishing long-term research relationships with older people: exploring care practices in longitudinal studies. Ageing and Society, 1-20.

Sustainable communities (Read more)
Derwenthorpe 2012-2018 (PDF , 1,663kb)‌

Additional resources

UK's 25-Year Environment Plan- David Clayton

Julia Touza, Carmen Lacambra, Alexandra Kiss, Rosa Mato Amboage, Paula Sierra, Martin Solan, Martin Solan, Thomas Spencer & Piran C. L. White, 2021. Coping and Adaptation in Response to Environmental and Climatic Stressors in Caribbean Coastal Communities. Environmental Management 68, 505–521. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-021-01500-y

Graziella Iossa and Piran C.L. White, 2021. Improving the dialogue between public health and ecosystem science on antimicrobial resistance. Oikos Advancing Ecology, Volume130, Issue8.

Antoine M. G. Barreaux, Welbeck A. Oumbouke, N'Guessan Brou, Innocent Zran Tia, Ludovic P. Ahoua Alou, Dimi Théodore Doudou, Alphonsine A. Koffi, Raphaël N'Guessan, Eleanore D. Sternberg and Matthew B. Thomas, 2021. The role of human and mosquito behaviour in the efficacy of a house-based intervention. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, Volume 376, Issue 1818.

Eleanore D Sternberg, Jackie Cook, Ludovic P Ahoua Alou, Serge Brice Assi, Alphonsine A Koffi, Dimi T Doudou, Carine J Aoura, Rosine Z Wolie, Welbeck A Oumbouke, Eve Worrall, Immo Kleinschmidt, Raphael N'Guessan, Matthew B Thomas, 2021. Impact and cost-effectiveness of a lethal house lure against malaria transmission in central Côte d'Ivoire: a two-arm, cluster-randomised controlled trial. The Lancet, Volume 397, Issue 10276, P805-815.

Projects at York

Healthy Humber

CHORUS: Community-led Responsive and Effective Urban Health Systems

The Nexus of Climate Change, Communal Conflicts and Poverty in Northern Ghana

The Chemical Empire

Experiential Environmental Education

INGENIOUS

Beyond the National Environmental Programmes

Thanzi: Health of All

SAMHE

iCASP

Green and Gender-just Cities

Closing the Gap

Connected Treescapes

Green social prescribing

The York City Environment Observatory (YCEO)

Environment and population health in the Bay of Bengal (EnHealth-BoB)

What does blue do for you?

Experiences of blue spaces and health in the lives of people with severe mental illness. This project, in collaboration with the University of Exeter, is investigating how outdoor blue spaces, such as seas, rivers and lakes, can have positive effects on the physical and mental health of people with serious mental health conditions such as Bipolar or Schizophrenia.

Maritme & cultural heritage (PERICLES)

Co-motion: mobility and well-being

Past Projects

Integrating data on health and environment (C2D2)

Pollution assessment (CAPACITIE)

Sustainable communities

Resource recovery approaches for nanomaterials

Environmental linkages to mental health

Environmental linkages to mental health and qualitative exploration of wellbeing benefits in coastal areas in north-west and north-east England.This programme of work, in collaboration with the University of Central Lancashire, links to the Northern Health Science Alliance network on Healthy Ageing. It is examining the associations of green and blue spaces with indicators of healthy ageing (e.g. measures of functioning and wellbeing) in coastal communities, to identify the characteristics of green and blue space that can provide the greatest relative benefits and reduce inequalities and promote healthy ageing in these communities.

Air Pollution and SDGs in Africa

This project explored the potential for future interdisciplinary research that could support sustainable development and progress towards the SDGs (including an assessment of trade-offs and synergies of interventions in achieving different SDG targets).