Cultural Ecosystem Services Meet Broader Frameworks in Public Health

Throughout the years, scholars and practitioners in the environmental and public health fields have experienced communication issues due to differences in disciplinary background, explanatory frameworks, and streams of funding. As a result, public health professionals have rarely discussed the ecosystem services derived from green spaces until recently. Ecologists and natural scientists interested in improving the ecosystem health of natural spaces have not traditionally emphasized the potential impacts on human health in their published work. Despite these disciplinary gaps, public health and ecosystem services derived from green spaces are inextricably linked. Green spaces provide regulating, supporting, provisioning, and cultural services that benefit people. Green spaces also fit within the broader framework of social determinants of health, which describe how a person’s social and natural environment impacts their health and well-being. We discuss how these socio-ecological frameworks connect green space with public health, and we explain how green space initiatives have been used to promote public health in the United States.