How Trees Can Be Key to Healthy Urban Neighborhoods
Curbed.com (October 26, 2017)

Trees can add charm to city blocks. A new study launching today in Louisville, Kentucky, wants to see if trees can also become low-cost ways to improve the health of a neighborhood.

A joint effort by the Institute for Healthy Air, Water and Soil, the Nature Conservancy, and Dr. Aruni Bathnagar, a pioneer of the study of environmental cardiology, the Green Heart Project will explore the long-term impact of trees on important indicators of livability and health, including respiratory and cardiovascular disease, as well as stress and social well-being. It’s the first-of-its-kind looking closely at the link between greening cities and healthy neighbors.

“Instead of working at a front yard level, we’re working at a neighborhood level,” says Veronica Combs, Director of the Institute for Healthy Air, Water and Soil.

By focusing a long-term lens on the impact of tree cover to overall urban health, the study hopes to chronicle the connection between nature, the environment, and human health, and eventually provide guidance for other cities to replicate.

Read the full article here.