Paving the way for active mobility: Insights from Brussels and Malta

February 16, 2026

How can cities like Brussels and Malta overcome barriers to active mobility and create healthier, more sustainable urban environments? Discover the challenges, strategies, and key insights from local stakeholders on paving the way for a transformative future of mobility. Through interviews with key stakeholders, we explore solutions like citizen involvement and organisational changes that can drive urban transformation and support sustainable, active mobility.

Read More »

Using children’s travel and neighbourhood experiences to design walkable and inclusive cities. 

February 16, 2026

We worked with 82 primary school children (aged 9-10) from four schools and neighbourhoods in Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. Through focus group discussions, we asked them to share their travel experience in their neighbourhoods. Using age-appropriate maps and playful stickers, we gathered insights into their experiences, to identify patterns in what children need from their neighbouhoods. In addition, we mapped their comments to specific locations to better understand the relationships between the built environment features and children’s experiences.

Read More »

Community voices on outdoor gyms: A qualitative study among municipal officials and residents from Arab localities in Israel

February 11, 2026

We interviewed ten municipal officials and 23 residents in four Arab towns, and observed five outdoor gyms. We wanted to understand how outdoor gyms are perceived, what barriers limit their use, and what strategies could make them more effective. This was the first study of its kind in Arab towns in Israel, but it also speaks to underserved communities worldwide where informal urban development and limited resources shape access to healthy environments.

Read More »

Hidden barriers: How citizen characteristics relate to perceived (un)availability of health promoting facilities

February 11, 2026

Significant health inequalities exist between neighbourhoods. Apart from differences in demographics, the neighbourhood environment including facilities has also been found to have a sizeable effect. Despite various health-promoting facilities being objectively available in neighbourhoods, not all citizens perceive them to be available to them. Therefore, some citizens might not make use of important facilities that improve their health. We need to know more about what predicts perceiving facilities as available besides them being objectively there.

Read More »

Designing and implementing nature-based intervention, for the health of our community

February 11, 2026

Do we have the potential to combat childhood obesity rates with nature based programs? How does the design of community-based programming play a role?
Our study, analyzing 4,010 articles, reveals nature-based interventions promote healthy living. Focusing on community engagement and program gaps, our research highlights innovative strategies for healthier children. A collaborative approach offers new hope in addressing this global health challenge.

Read More »

Opportunities and challenges of using mobile phone data for evaluating placed-based interventions: A green space pilot

February 9, 2026

There is limited evaluation of whether green space interventions lead to more people using these spaces. This is partly due to the difficulty of collecting data on visits to green spaces. Mobile phone data may offer one solution, but are rarely made available to researchers. As such, there is less examination of whether these data are valuable. We accessed small area anonymised mobile phone GPS data for Liverpool (2021-2022). Using a case study of wildflower planting, we identified green spaces where wildflowers were planted. A synthetic control was then constructed to identify similar green spaces where planting did not take place. We then compared the number of visits post-intervention between the intervention and control green sites. Our paper also gives an empirical and methodological evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of using mobile phone data, which can inform others on how to best use them.

Read More »

Natural spaces and depression in urban older adults: Exploring types, accessibility, and mediators

February 6, 2026

Increasing the availability of urban green spaces, even small pocket green spaces, should be considered a promising intervention for reducing depression among older individuals. Beyond 100m, urban green space protection diminishes. WHO recommends that the population have a green space within a 300m radius. However, for older people, this threshold may be too distant.
However, not all green spaces confer mental health benefits; therefore, researchers and professionals should consider the differential effects of different categories of greenery.

Read More »

Where to walk when we are old: experiments in Taiwan and the USA

February 4, 2026

Our study highlights the importance of green spaces in urban areas for enhancing the well-being of older adults. It reveals significant benefits of nature walks over urban street walks and underscores the need for gender-sensitive urban design.
• Green spaces improve mood and perceived restorativeness.
• Women benefit more from nature walks, especially in urban streets.
• People from different cultures may benefit from nearby nature slightly differently.

Read More »

How can we reconnect mental and urban health?

February 2, 2026

Our study found that community place-based initiatives involving the public and private sectors can provide public spaces, such as public parks and communal gardens, that are appropriate for reconnecting mental and urban health using the concept of co-benefit endorsed by the World Health Organization in 2011. We examined this concept in large projects in Seoul and Singapore to show the advantage of intersectoral collaboration for reconnecting mental and urban health initiatives by urban planning.

Read More »