23 April 2025, online – This conference was the final session in a series of three meetings on urban health culture.
2 positions – Thomas Randrup, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences / Karin Krasig Peschardt, Landscape architect
Thomas Randrup : green space governance and management
Thomas Randrup presented the challenges linked to the multifunctionality of urban green spaces and their impact on health. He emphasized issues of densification, institutional silos, and the lack of alignment between political visions, planning, and operational management. He called for better vertical and horizontal coordination, and for systematically integrating health and biodiversity into urban governance.
Identified obstacles:
- Lack of a clear legal mandate (except for recent progress: European law 2024 on nature restoration).
- Lack of dedicated funding and quantitative evidence on the return to health/economy.
- Engineering culture: reluctance to move away from proven methods; resistance to change in the field.
Proposed keys:
- More robust local data (health/biodiversity co-benefits).
- Real consultation of stakeholders, beyond formal hearings.
- Change management: Supporting teams to adopt more integrated approaches.
Karin Krasig Peschardt : working with biodiversity and urban nature within the planning framework of a municipality
Karin Krasig Peschardt, landscape architect, head of Strategic Development in Holbæk, Denmark, shared her field experience in urban planning. She showed how an integrated municipal strategy makes it possible to demand higher environmental quality (biodiversity, climate adaptation) in development projects. Using concrete data (3-30-300 rule, heat and flood maps), she strengthens arguments with developers despite political and financial constraints.
Success factors:
- Municipalities must move from “friendly” health-nature objectives to concrete prescriptions.
- This requires:
- A clear regulatory framework.
- Local evidence (maps, indicators).
- And the courage to negotiate firmly with developers.