Blue, Green and Between–Worth of Water

Blue, Green and Between – Worth of Water: Valuing the Health and Wellbeing Benefits of Blue Spaces in the Forth Region Launch Event - first in a series of Nature, health and climate short sessions. Our rivers, lochs, canals and coastlines are part of Scotland's blue-green infrastructure, but economic models for natural capital have tended to focus on their ecosystem and environmental benefits. They are also important to people and can offer real health and wellbeing benefits. Until now that value has not been fully quantified. This work places a clear, NHS-relevant figure on those benefits and demonstrates that our outdoor water environment is a major, measurable public health asset. Published by Greenspace Scotland and authored by the University of Aberdeen's Health Economics Research Unit, Greenspace Scotland and Public Health Scotland, this study covers eight local authorities and nearly 1.6 million people. This work was supported through the FORTH2O Commissioning Fund. The FORTH2O Partnership (Stirling Local Policy Innovation Partnership) was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, part of UK Research and Innovation (ES/Y502364/1).