Topics applied into action

Monitoring slum health through ecological deprivation indexes is a useful strategy to understand and reduce health inequalities within a city. We developed a robust socioenvironmental index capable of explaining health outcomes in small intraurban areas and differentiating areas with the presence of different slum typologies and non-slum spaces.

We conducted a citizen science project to engage with current residents in higher density residences in Northern Sydney to explore the positive and negative aspects of their lived experiences on their health and wellbeing. Together, we identified the elements that residents of these communities value as well as those with potential negative impacts that could be mitigated through good planning and design.

Social sustainability entails improving quality of life by addressing basic human needs, promoting well-being, and creating supportive communities. Our approach prioritizes the inclusion of human needs in neighborhood design to enhance the overall quality of a neighborhood’s physical environment.

Living in modern cities can increase cardiovascular disease risk. This study analyzes the association between urban design and obesity, proposing a simplified index to assess how the built environment impacts heart health. Our "Urban-Obesity-Index" helps local authorities and planners design healthier neighbourhoods.

We completed a scoping literature review to determine how existing literature addresses regenerative design principles in the context of mixed-use buildings, and to determine what opportunities exist to advance the knowledge and implementation of regenerative design performance areas.

Understanding of the influence of local political actors helps to highlight where their influence is limited, particularly by national-level housing policy, which in the UK is focused on housing numbers, rather than quality of new homes, as well as financial viability and public opinion. Understanding this can help to build trust in the political processes of decision-making and inform interventions for healthier place-making.

This study contributes to the broader discourse on urban design for children, offering insights into how cities can create more inclusive, engaging, and health-promoting environments. It supports and adds to existing literature, finding that the alignment of play initiatives with public health goals, and strong collaboration between local government departments are effective in supporting children’s play on the strategic level. It identifies barriers to play in policy, namely budget constraints and deprioritisation of play.

Urban environments in many cities, both those found in Mexico and many other countries, can be called obesogenic - they are prone to promote obesity. Relevant factors are that they foster sedentary behaviour, poor dietary choices, and elevated stress levels; thus contributing to higher obesity rates. Urban planning, design, and practices offer opportunities for upstream public health interventions to mitigate these negative health impacts. These findings are especially relevant given the role of neighbourhood environments in encouraging children's physical activity and reducing obesity.

Beaches can be important settings for physical activity. The quality of these spaces (safety, amenities, aesthetics) can influence how well they support physical activity and health. The quality of beaches may differ across neighbourhoods, with higher socioeconomic status neighbourhoods having disproportionately better access to beaches.

The expected rise of working from home after the COVID-19 pandemic necessitates a deeper understanding of the cause and effect of home environment on physical, mental, and social health. Existing research primarily focuses on physical and psychological health, with less attention given to social health. Incorporating social health is emphasized by various researchers during the pandemic. Moreover, the interconnected nature of health components suggests the possibility of mediation, requiring a model selection to represent the working from home situation.

What makes a city truly happy? Drawing on research from nine global megacities, this study identifies the most important factors that foster happiness in urban public spaces. Put these 18 evidence-based criteria to work and transform your city’s streets, parks, and squares.

People living in informal settlements endure the disproportionate burden of health vulnerabilities due to poor living conditions, overcrowding and infrastructural neglect. I examine how social, economic, political and environmental forces converge to amplify health disparities in Harare’s informal settlements.