Urban forests as a strategy for transforming towards healthy cities

Abstract

Urban forests provide multiple ecosystem services for city dwellers, amongst which improving public health via mitigating mental stresses and providing attractive spaces for diverse physical activities has attracted increasing attention from scholars and policy makers within the context of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic as well as urgently-needed post-pandemic urban transformation towards healthy cities. This short communication summarizes existing empirical evidence pertinent to the linkage between urban forests and public health maintenance and improvement, highlights three underlying mechanisms, i.e., physiological, psychological, and immunological pathways, and outlines practical implications for the establishment and management of urban forests as a strategy for planning healthy cities.