HEALTHY LANDSCAPES: Green infrastructures as systems for urban and territorial wellbeing

Reimagining urban, agricultural, and natural spaces as interconnected infrastructures that improve health, wellbeing, climate resilience, social inclusion, and quality of life in small and medium-sized cities.
• Green infrastructure and public health: using nature-based spaces to improve physical, mental, and social wellbeing.
• Healthy mobility and urban-natural connectivity: connecting urban, agricultural, and natural areas through accessible green corridors and active mobility routes.
• Climate adaptation and urban resilience: strengthening cities’ capacity to respond to climate challenges through nature-based solutions and ecosystem services.
• Integration of agricultural and peri-urban landscapes: incorporating productive and peri-urban landscapes into urban wellbeing and resilience strategies.
• Social inclusion and community wellbeing: promoting inclusive, intergenerational, and community-oriented use of green spaces.
• Integrated urban and territorial governance: aligning health, planning, mobility, and environmental policies through cross-sector collaboration.
• Urban experimentation and implementation: testing innovative and transferable solutions through pilot actions and participatory approaches.
• European urban policy priorities: contributing to European agendas on climate adaptation, healthy cities, biodiversity, and sustainable urban development.
Context:
The project proposes an innovative shift in the way European cities conceive green infrastructure, moving from a fragmented and purely environmental perspective towards an integrated model of territorial wellbeing. Rather than understanding green, natural, or agricultural spaces as isolated elements within the urban fabric, the project seeks to approach them as a continuous and multifunctional infrastructure capable of simultaneously generating benefits in public health, social cohesion, climate adaptation, and quality of life.
Building on the URBACT Good Practice “Camino de los Sentidos” developed by Tavernes de la Valldigna, the network will explore how small and medium-sized cities can reconnect urban areas with agricultural landscapes, natural corridors, and peri-urban environments in order to create integrated territorial wellbeing systems. This approach is particularly relevant in a European context marked by increasing sedentary lifestyles, declining mental health, ageing populations, and the growing impacts of climate change.
The project’s main innovation lies in integrating policy areas that traditionally operate separately — urban planning, public health, environment, mobility, and social cohesion — into a single territorial strategy based on green infrastructure. The project does not simply aim to promote more parks or walking routes; instead, it seeks to develop genuine “wellbeing infrastructures”, where everyday access to nature becomes a preventive tool for health, resilience, and community wellbeing.
This approach strongly aligns with the principles of the New Leipzig Charter, particularly its vision of the European city as:
• just,
• green,
• and productive.
More specifically, the proposal contributes to several of its key principles:
• Integrated and cross-sectoral approaches, by connecting health, landscape, climate adaptation, and urban planning within a single territorial framework.
• Participatory governance, through co-design and co-management processes involving citizens, local stakeholders, and community organisations.
• A territorial perspective, by incorporating not only consolidated urban areas, but also agricultural, peri-urban, and natural spaces as active components of urban infrastructure.
• Climate resilience and adaptation, by promoting nature-based solutions that improve thermal comfort, biodiversity, and urban resilience.
• Social cohesion and quality of life, by strengthening equitable access to healthy environments and supporting physical and mental wellbeing.
Within the context of URBACT Action Networks, the project also demonstrates strong potential for transferability and peer learning among European cities. Many cities — particularly small and medium-sized ones — possess underused natural, agricultural, or peri-urban spaces while facing similar challenges related to urban health, climate change, and territorial fragmentation. However, few have developed integrated methodologies to activate these spaces as territorial wellbeing systems.
The network will enable participating cities to test concrete and transferable solutions in real-life conditions through pilot actions, participatory tools, and innovative governance models. Unlike more strategy-oriented approaches, the proposal is fully aligned with the philosophy of URBACT Action Networks, which emphasises experimentation, practical implementation, and applied exchange between cities.
The project’s European added value lies precisely in demonstrating how cities can transform their urban, agricultural, and natural landscapes into accessible, inclusive, and climate-adapted infrastructures for health and resilience. Through this network, participating cities will develop replicable models of green infrastructure and territorial wellbeing, contributing to key European priorities related to climate adaptation, urban health, biodiversity, social inclusion, and sustainable urban development.