Toward Improved Public Health Outcomes From

There is mounting con-cern for the health of urban populations as cities expand at an unprecedented rate. Urban green spaces provide settings for a remarkable range of physical and men-tal health benefits, and pio-neering health policy is recognizing nature as a cost-effective tool for planning healthy cities. Despite this, limited infor-mation on how specific ele-ments of nature deliver health outcomes restricts its use for enhancing population health.Wearticulatea frame-work for identifying direct and indirect causal pathways through which nature de-livers health benefits, and highlight current evidence. We see a need for a bold newresearchagendafounded on testing causality that transcends disciplinary boundaries between ecol-ogyandhealth.Thiswill lead to cost-effective and tailored solutions thatcouldenhance population health and re-duce health inequalities