Editorial: Shaping healthier cities—Ecosystem services and health for responsive human–nature relations

Cities have become the predominant living environments of human beings worldwide. In an era of social-ecological crisis intensified by climate change, loss of biodiversity, and socioenvironmental injustice, the shaping of responsive cities is crucial for fostering healthy and regenerative urban societies as well as nature preservation beyond instrumental values. The roles of urban environmental spatial qualities should be rethought in light of the COVID-19 pandemic (Bolleter et al., 2022). However, the relationship between the daily environmental conditions of urban citizens and their health, as well as the interconnection between healthy nature and resilient cities are lacking organic inclusion in urban design. This thus limits the capacity to shape cities in the context of planetary health .