Abstract: Based on recent literature, this paper discusses three public health impact pathways of the urban green space, including reducing health risk exposure, promoting healthy activities and improving psychological restorativeness. Then, it explores the spatial characteristics of urban green space with their variables in empirical studies under different pathways to impact public health in three dimensions: distribution pattern characteristics, peripheral contact characteristics, and interior environment characteristics. It analyzes the benefits of these spatial characteristics to promote public health. The paper concludes with further research directions including trade-off dominant healthy risks, proposing higher requirements for healthy indicators, deepening researches on the promotion mechanism in the micro scale, and optimizing variables measurement, so as to provide references for healthy-oriented urban green space planning and promote evidence-based design for healthy green space.