Green Infrastructure and Public Health in the Florida Communities Trust Public Land Acquisition Program

The Florida Communities Trust (FCT) program provides grants to local governments to preserve open space. In doing so, this program plays an important role in supporting public health. A total of 617 FCT applications submitted between 2001 and 2006 were examined to determine in what ways the FCT is supporting public health. Results revealed that the FCT is supporting health most notably through the provision of park and greenway settings for physical activity and the protection of water quality. These findings are important because they reveal that programs such as the FCT have a latent ability to support public health. Making the important social benefit of public health more explicit can provide further justification for public land acquisition.