Contribution of planned urban green spaces for promoting human health

Sustainable Development Goals has the seventh target of its Sustainable Cities and Communities-Goal:11 focused on providing access to safe and inclusive green and public spaces. Principles of sustainable development necessitate that a balance between environment and development to ensure healthy living. It has long been established that the presence of natural areas and open green spaces in and around urban settlements contributes to a quality of life by providing important ecological, social and psychological benefits to humans. In India, growing population and rapid urbanisation is resulting in significant land being used for developmental activities resulting in decline in open spaces across cities. However, the case in Chandigarh, India is different from rest of the country, where open spaces are considered as inviolable landuse. Being a rare exception amongst the cities established immediately after India’s Independence, urban greens were visualized and planned as an integral component in the city’s Master Plan. Le Corbusier conceived the master plan of Chandigarh as analogous to human body, where green spaces symbolized the lungs. The greens in Chandigarh were created as functional, organized and natural spaces for integration and convergence of mind and body, that is the city as well as of its population. The research delves into the aspect of inclusivity of its various green spaces based on the social survey of the city’s residents. The intent is to determine the usability and accessibility of the greens by the residents for various recreational, cultural and ecosystem services. The measures of inclusivity of the green spaces is defined to address the key question being researched upon, that is if green spaces have led to Chandigarh being a healthy city. Built upon the geospatial technological tools and social survey, the authors discern the typologies of green spaces as the measure for building a healthy city contextualized for Chandigarh, India.