ABSTRACT
Chapter 8 explores the urban health policy agenda from a metropolitan perspective and the potential for landscapes to mitigate some of the health challenges facing urbanising populations in the twenty-first century. In the context of the major social and economic imperatives to address global health issues, this chapter will pull apart some of the practical implications of addressing these multi-layered and complex policy issues through the landscape lens.
In order to explore the role that a metropolitan landscape policy can play in mitigating major health issues associated with urban living, we need to consider what the environmental triggers are and what capacity for transformative action exists to improve health outcomes. In considering these environmental triggers we explore how landscape architects, planners and environmental managers could advocate for the role of landscape in contributing to the health policy agenda. We conclude with a model for transformation at a metropolitan scale and explore the policy implications in adopting such an approach.
