Proposing a conceptual model for health landscape based on perceptual/evolutionary mechanisms

This paper aims to find a comprehensive conceptual model for health landscape by reviewing some important and decisive theories on the relationship between landscape and health.   

The theories in the field of health landscape are analyzed based on a descriptive-analytical method in two categories. The first category examines the existing mechanisms explaining the relationship between landscape and health and why the landscape affects people's health, while the second category tries to measure these effects by examining the quantitative and qualitative dimensions of the landscapes.

The analyses showed that the related theories in this field, which were initially formed based on a purely objective or subjective, gradually and in the course of their evolution, somehow converged with the comprehensive and holistic concept of landscape and focused on both aspects of objectivity and subjectivity in analyzing the health landscape. This has led to an approach in the field of landscape that emphasizes the role of the individual, society and the environment, considering the health of the landscape as a relative matter that will vary from person to person.

The presence of individual agency (adaptive skills and capacities of a person) and socio-environmental dimensions in today's definition of health in other fields indicates the existence of an interdisciplinary agreement on this convergence. This article shows that by relying on perception, these seemingly opposite aspects can be put together and a meaningful and holistic model can be achieved in relation to the health landscape.