Foresterhill Health Campus: Creating healthy spaces for patients, staff and visitors through green infrastructure implementation

Snapshot Solution
With support from the Green Infrastructure Fund the NHS Grampian is transforming Scotland's largest hospital complex into a site that showcases how Green Infrastructure can offer social and environmental benefits.
NHS Grampian

NHS Grampian is using support from the Green Infrastructure Fund to transform Scotland’s largest hospital complex into a site which will demonstrate how a healthy natural environment is good for patients, visitors and staff.

 

The Foresterhill campus is the site of Aberdeen’s main hospitals alongside the medical school and medical science departments of the University of Aberdeen. The site has historically been developed incrementally in an uncoordinated manner, resulting in a campus that is dominated by vehicular circulation and infrastructure, difficult for pedestrians and covered by impermeable surfacing and lacking usable or accessible greenspace.

 

The green infrastructure project intends to improve pedestrian accessibility, create 'destination' green spaces, sustainably manage stormwater and bolster a green network across the campus

Last update: 16 Sep 2021
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Context
Challenges addressed
Floods
Loss of Biodiversity
Lack of infrastructure
Scale of implementation
Local
Ecosystems
Buildings and facilities
Theme
Access and benefit sharing
Biodiversity mainstreaming
Health and human wellbeing
Infrastructure maintenance
Local actors
Location
Aberdeen, Scotland, United Kingdom
West and South Europe
Impacts

The benefits of the campus-wide strategy and phase 1 works include:

  • Enabling and increasing the volume of pedestrian and cycle movement across the campus for all users of the site – patients, staff, visitors and the surrounding communities.
  • Enabling and encouraging outdoor activity for all users of the site, encouraging healthy lifestyle choices and realising therapeutic and clinical benefits for patients through easy access to high-quality green space.
  • Improving the character, visual quality and perception of the campus, through the establishment of a strong landscape framework. 
  • Reducing pressure on existing drainage infrastructure and reducing downstream flooding in central Aberdeen.
  • Significantly increasing the habitat and ecological value of the site.

For more information contact Elana Bader

Sustainable Development Goals
SDG 3 – Good health and well-being
SDG 9 – Industry, innovation and infrastructure
SDG 11 – Sustainable cities and communities
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Other contributors
Elana Bader
Naturescot
Jim Jeffrey
NatureScot