Health Geography: The Birth of a New Concept

In my continuous research into the depths of health tourism in its various forms — therapeutic tourism, environmental therapy, and accessible health tourism — I have come to a firm conviction: health is no longer merely the absence of disease, and place is no longer a silent backdrop to human life. Rather, place has become an active factor that directly influences physical, psychological, and social health, ultimately enhancing productivity and quality of life.

The contemporary question in health sciences is no longer: How do we treat disease?

Instead, the deeper and more essential question has become: How do we prevent the disruption of health in the first place?

This shift does not merely change the language of medicine; it reshapes the relationship between societies and place, environment, and even the economy itself. Human beings are no longer viewed as isolated biological entities, but as integrated beings shaped within a spatial system that influences them as much as they influence it — a system that contributes either to their health or to its deterioration.

In this context, it is no longer acceptable for healthcare systems to remain confined within a costly and unsustainable treatment-based model. The transition from “treating disease” to “preventing health disruption” represents both an economic and intellectual revolution. It transforms health from a burden on public budgets into a strategic investment that enhances growth and productivity, while creating new markets in prevention, health tourism, and environmental therapy.

I have come to understand that the environment is not merely a natural scene or a setting for daily life, but a fundamental partner in the journey of healing and achieving quality of life.

Clean air, mineral and sulfurous waters, saline waters, clay and silt, black sands, mountainous and coastal climates, forests, urban design, distribution of green spaces, as well as noise levels and daily movement density — all of these factors have a real and measurable impact on human health and well-being. They play a vital role in disease prevention, treatment, mental health improvement, and overall quality of life.

This practical and scientific understanding has led to the emergence of a necessary field of knowledge:

“Health Geography” from a health tourism perspective, which represents the intersection of medicine, environment, place, and urban planning, transforming maps and spatial data into scientific and strategic tools that support public health, prevention, treatment, and the development of health tourism and environmental therapy.

Through the environmental therapy maps that I have designed, this concept has moved beyond merely describing natural therapeutic locations. Instead, it has become a comprehensive system that connects each location’s characteristics — including climate, water, soil, elevation, distance from pollution sources — with the types of diseases that can benefit from therapy and treatment there. This confirms that place can be an integral part of treatment, not merely a geographical backdrop.

While medical geography traditionally focused on the distribution of diseases and epidemics, health geography is far broader.

Why?

Because when we ask: Where is geography in health? Where is it in quality of life? — we do not find a sufficient answer.

What I refer to includes geographical health planning, equity in service distribution, recreational and environmental therapy mapping, and understanding the unique characteristics and patterns of each place.

Definition of Health Geography

"Health Geography is the study of the interaction between humans and their environment, in terms of the impact of place, climate, and resources on health, disease, and quality of life, with the aim of applying this understanding in planning, therapy, and treatment."

This definition expands the perspective from the hospital bed to the map, considering infrastructure decisions as health decisions. The relationship between humans and place is integrated — it can positively influence health, and at times negatively.

Place is a partner in health: location, airflow patterns, humidity levels, soil quality, urban design, and green spaces all affect both the body and the mind. This establishes a standard where we must consider psychological stability and well-being with the same importance as physical comfort.

Health geography reveals these relationships and transforms them into actionable knowledge for planning and improving quality of life.

Health Geography Through History

In ancient Islamic civilizations, great importance was placed on carefully selecting sites for hospitals and treatment centers. It was well understood that the surrounding environment directly affected patients’ health and treatment outcomes.

One traditional method used to determine the most suitable location involved placing a piece of meat in each of the four directions of a proposed site, leaving them for several days, and observing which piece did not decay.

Although this method may seem primitive, it was based on a fundamental principle of health geography: selecting locations with clean air, minimal pollution, and optimal healing conditions.

They understood that the piece of meat that remained unspoiled indicated superior air quality and environmental conditions. Accordingly, the location was chosen to ensure disease prevention and optimal therapeutic outcomes.

This historical approach demonstrates that the core concept of health geography is not new; rather, it is an extension of practical historical experiences in which place was recognized as a partner in healing. It reaffirmed that location, climate, air quality, and soil are critical factors in treatment and recovery — the same concept upon which I developed modern environmental therapy maps, which utilize natural environmental characteristics to identify optimal therapeutic resources and link them to specific diseases.

Its Relationship to Health Tourism

Sulfur and mineral springs, sea and ocean waters, black sands, therapeutic clay, and diverse climates are all “geographical health resources” that require the development of maps grounded in detailed geographic analysis.

These maps help reveal imbalances in service distribution, hold policies accountable for underserved regions, and provide timely solutions that enhance precision in site selection and the quality of health tourism products.

I strongly believe that collaboration between geographers, medical specialists, and environmental scientists is essential to develop precise academic and applied programs that connect medicine with geography in pursuit of true health.

Such integration will foster a generation that understands place as deeply as it understands disease, allowing health geography to make the health map speak the language of health.