Health and well-being

Further details on the systemic and synthesis for this European Green Deal Criterion are available in the MERLIN Deliverable Report page 70.

Many case studies reported positive effects of their restoration measures with respect to the Health and well-being criterion.

Particularly high amount of case studies reported regarding impact on length of active travel routes within or connected to the restoration area (Figure 1), but also features supporting well-being and/or aesthetic attractiveness of the environment, nature-based activities supporting health & well-being, features supporting access to restored natural environment and changes in occurrence and incidence of emerging infectious diseases or other water-related health incidents.

Not all case studies reporting data on changes in length of active travel routes reported an increase, that can be explained by the characteristics of the individual restoration measures. By far the highest increase (more than 100 km) was reported by case study CS11, which is a large-scale restoration case study.