Green and open spaces are widely believed to improve health and well-being. Public health policy, media, and urban planners frequently promote parks and countryside as restorative environments. In many ways, this is true. Yet the relationship between people and green space is more complicated. Natural landscapes offer significant benefits, but they also carry physical, psychological, social, and economic costs.

The advantages are substantial. Increasingly, green space is considered essential infrastructure rather than a luxury. In countries such as the United Kingdom, where most people live in cities, nearby green environments encourage physical activity. Studies show that people living near parks are more likely to walk regularly and experience lower rates of obesity, cardiovascular disease, and type two diabetes. Movement occurs naturally rather than as prescribed exercise.

Green space also supports healthy ageing. Older adults with access to walkable natural environments tend to maintain better mobility, balance, and independence. Research in Japan found that elderly people living near accessible green areas had higher five-year survival rates, likely reflecting the combined effects of exercise, social interaction, and visual exposure to nature.

Mental health benefits are well-documented. Time spent in natural environments reduces physiological stress, while lowering cortisol levels, blood pressure, and heart rate. Attention Restoration Theory suggests that natural settings help restore the brain’s capacity for directed attention by providing undemanding stimulation. Long-term studies also show that children growing up with greater exposure to green environments have lower risks of developing psychiatric disorders later in life. Greener surroundings are associated with improved attention, working memory, and behaviour in both children and adolescents.

Green spaces also strengthen social connections. Informal encounters in shared outdoor areas help reduce loneliness and encourage everyday interaction. Thinking environmentally, natural landscapes provide protection. Urban trees reduce temperatures during heatwaves, while wetlands and woodland absorb water and reduce flood risk.

Sadly, green space is not always seen as calming. Some people feel uneasy in large or unfamiliar landscapes. Poorly lit parks or isolated paths can create fear rather than relaxation, meaning certain groups avoid them entirely.

Natural environments also carry health risks. Vegetation produces pollen, and allergic disease affects roughly one-third of the population. Climate change has lengthened pollen seasons and increased allergen intensity. Green spaces can also harbour zoonotic diseases. Ticks carrying Lyme disease, for example, are increasingly common in woodland habitats.

Physical hazards are another factor. Uneven terrain, water, and exposure can lead to accidents during outdoor recreation. Those working in agriculture and forestry face particularly high risks, with fatality rates far higher than most other industries.

Green space also has economic and social costs. Most expenditure relates not to creation but to long-term maintenance. Poorly funded parks can deteriorate quickly. Environmental improvements may also increase property values and rents, sometimes displacing local communities through so-called green gentrification.

Finally, strong emotional attachment to landscapes can create distress when those landscapes change. This sense of loss, known as solastalgia, reflects how deeply people can care about the places around them.

Green space, therefore, offers health, connection, and environmental protection, but it also brings risks, costs, and conflicts.

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