Cities urgently need systemic health checks. Without them, they keep fixing symptoms, wasting scarce budgets, while hidden risks grow. This proposed approach helps cities understand their true health and activate their self-healing capacity instead of constantly firefighting.
Air pollution threatens public health globally. Our exposure to air pollution is influenced by transport. Transport is both a prominent source of air pollution and an important determinant in our exposure to it. The built and natural environment also dictate how, when and where we travel, and what we are exposed to. We provide a comprehensive review of these relationships and their interactions.
People from equity-deserving groups have unique needs, barriers, and priorities that need to be addressed in order to create inclusive and accessible active transportation. This paper highlights some of the complexities of planning for different cultures, languages, ages, and abilities. Recommendations are made to support municipalities with creating better active transportation infrastructure and policies.
I diagnose urbanization’s toll: 60% of city dwellers face stress-related morbidity, which biophilic design aims to curb; yet my 100-study review reveals biophobia’s backlash, like glare spiking cortisol 10%. This dialectic, rooted in evolutionary and urban disconnect, exacerbates health inequities e.g., 30% higher stress in underserved areas —demanding my evidence-based, Hegelian synthesis to recalibrate architecture for resilience.
Health is rarely prioritized in urban decision making. Requiring Health Impact Assessment obliges developers to focus on questions of health. Some local authorities require this, but not all. This is the first paper to undertake a comprehensive review of when and where Health Impact Assessment is required in England, and to set out ways to make the process more effective.
This pioneering study on healthy and sustainable indicators for Jakarta is the first in Indonesia to use the Global Healthy and Sustainable City Indicators framework. As the most populous city in Indonesia and Southeast Asia, Jakarta’s inclusion provides valuable insights into its status compared to 25 international cities. We offer a critical perspective on existing spatial indicators, highlighting the need for precise definitions and careful interpretation within the city’s local context. Additionally, we propose new indicators to help policymakers and public health officials develop more adaptable measures for urban health and sustainability.
Our study is meant as a provocation for planners to “start walking again” and understand sites, places, and context by observing and listening. Walking is a way to collect diverse stakeholders’ insights and expands a vision. Walking is a cry for sustainability.
This study aimed to delve into the significance of neighborhood walkability and the accessibility of third places in bolstering community well-being. It scrutinized the influence of walkable designs and convenient access to third places on the emotional well-being of community members. Moreover, the research utilized tweets to gauge the frequency of positive sentiments as a proxy for measuring happiness levels within the community.
Mental health needs are poorly understood in the development and management of public space. However, people recovering from health issues such as psychosis need to use city space in their everyday lives. We note that large sites in city centres continue to be made available. As such their redesign and management needs to factor in these broader needs. There will be further benefits to people with conditions such as anxiety, depression and autism.
Walking around the neighborhood is good for older adults health, but the way older adults perceive their surroundings can affect this behavior. This topic has been discussed for some time in high-income countries. There, it is observed that older adults who live in neighborhoods with high residential density, diverse land use, good road connectivity, access to public transport, pleasant aesthetics, security against crime and traffic, presence of recreational facilities, infrastructure for pedestrians and cyclists, green spaces and visible parts of the sky are more likely to walk, whether for utilitarian or recreational purposes. On the other hand, in Latin American countries such as Brazil, where there is a significant increase in the older adults population and challenges related to urbanization and social inequalities, the relationship between the characteristics perceived of neighborhoods by the older adults and walking behavior is still unknown.