Rocafort street, currently under construction, will become a "green axis" within the Superilla Barcelona program, in a virtual image.
Removing cars and asphalt from streets and turning them into pedestrian areas with more green surfaces (vegetation and trees) in Barcelona could reduce visits to mental health professionals and the consumption of antidepressants by 13%, the use of tranquilizers by 8%, and it would prevent 14% of the cases of self-perceived poor mental health in the city.
Some benefits that would translate into savings of 45 million euros per year in direct and indirect costs of mental health.
This is confirmed by an ISGlobal study made public this Wednesday and published in the
Environment International magazine.
.
The research crosses data from the green surface in the city in 2015 and from the Health survey of the Barcelona Public Health Agency (2016-2017);
and extrapolates the impact on mental health of the increase in vegetation (5.6%) that would occur if the 21 “green axes” planned by the government of Mayor Ada Colau were implemented in the Superilla Eixample program.
During this mandate, the City Council has intervened in four of these streets: Consell de Cent, Rocafort, Borrell and Girona, and will also create squares at the intersections.
The works, which consist of removing asphalt and cars and adding vegetation and street furniture, are not finished yet.
ISGlobal's endorsement of the effects that the commons project would have (it plans to transform one of every three streets in the Eixample into a "green axis") is published just two months before the municipal elections.
One of the co-authors of the research, the specialist in Public Health and Psychosocial Intervention Carolyn Daher, explains that the work began a year ago as a result of the interest they detected in students and researchers in analyzing current problems and that it has the endorsement of international experts. .
"It is a robust study that can contribute to the public debate," points out the also coordinator of the Institute's Urban Planning, Environment and Health initiative promoted by the La Caixa Foundation.
More information
This will be the new streets without cars that Ada Colau plans for the Eixample in Barcelona
“Cities opt for a model and when it comes to investing public money it is important to analyze its impacts, unfortunately there is no custom of doing so in terms of health, when the impacts in other areas such as the economy are studied”, she points out, convinced that “ the urban model determines our health” and recalling that the World Health Organization (WHO) states that “23% of our health is determined by the physical environment where we live”.
Scientific evidence, points out ISGlobal, shows that green spaces benefit general and mental health because they mitigate pollution, noise, heat, and reduce stress and lead to greater physical activity and social interaction”.
The research center has published numerous studies on the health impacts of the presence of green areas in urban environments.
Daher points out that the study ensures that the 5.6% increase in the city's green area that materializing the 21 "green axes" would have an impact on the entire city, not only in the immediate surroundings, in the Eixample: "The most Nearby will benefit more because they have a higher population density and less green, it is about increasing the green in the maximum number of streets, not making large parks, so that you do not have to go looking for it ”.
“If the savings is 45 million, we cannot talk about the cost of these urban transformations, but about the return, and the mental health system cannot cope”, he affirms.
The research calculates the green that the Superilla Eixample project would increase and what response it would entail, extrapolating from previous studies that have already shown the health benefits of green areas.
Section of the Superilla Eixample of Consell de Cent street in Barcelona, between Rambla de Catalunya and Balmes, still under construction, at the end of January.Carles Ribas
Another of the authors of the study, the researcher Natalie Mueller, considers that “Barcelona has a problem that must be resolved urgently.
Currently only 11% of the city is occupied by green space, including Collserola, which accounts for 60% of the city's green space.
In the Eixample, only 6.5% of the surface is green, when to comply with the WHO recommendation, 25% of the surface would have to be reached”.
Daher calls for "depoliticizing" the issue of the urban model.
“The study reinforces the thesis of previous research on the impact of greenery on more health, well-being and quality of life.
We have solutions within our reach to improve people's lives, we have to be brave and depoliticize it, I am concerned that the fact of putting trees or not is politicized”.
“This study helps to illustrate that greening is a pertinent strategy to promote health and, in particular, mental health, in urban environments”, adds another of the co-authors of the research, Diana Vidal Yáñez.
And the director of ISGlobal's Urban Planning, Environment and Health Initiative, Mark Nieuwenhuijsen, warns that "despite the fact that our study evaluates the potential impact of the green axis plan, the results are not exclusive to Barcelona."
"Any action in any city that leads to increasing the green surface near homes should lead to improvements in the mental health burden of the population," he says and defends that they be distributed equitably throughout the city.
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