Healthy Urbanism

The globally distributed health impacts of environmental degradation and widening inequalities require a fundamental shift in understandings of healthy urbanism. This book redefines the meaning and form of healthy urban environments, urging planners and design professionals to consider how their work impacts population health and wellbeing at multiple spatial and temporal scales. The concepts of equity, inclusion and sustainability are central to this framing, reversing the traditional focus on individuals, their genes and ‘lifestyle choices’ to one of structural factors that affect health. Integrating theory and concepts from social epidemiology, sustainable development and systems thinking with practical case studies, this book will be of value for students and practitioners.

Healthy Urban Planning aims to refocus urban planners on the implications of their work for human health and well-being. If many of the problems faced in cities are to be resolved, improving health will be the fundamental goal of urban planners. Poor housing, poverty, stress, pollution, and lack of access to jobs, goods and services all impact upon health. This book provides practical advice on ways to integrate health and urban planning and will be essential reading for urban planners, developers, urban designers, transport planners, and those working in the fields of regeneration and renewal. It will also be of interest to those with an interest in sustainable development.

This book aims to refocus urban planners on the implications of their work for human health and well-being. Provides practical advice on ways to integrate health and urban planning.

Overcrowding, noise and air pollution, long commutes and lack of daylight can take a huge toll on the mental well-being of city-dwellers. With mental healthcare services under increasing pressure, could a better approach to urban design and planning provide a solution? The restrictions faced by city residents around the world during the COVID-19 pandemic has brought home just how much urban design can affect our mental health – and created an imperative to seize this opportunity. Restorative Cities explores a new way of designing cities, one which places mental health and wellness at the forefront. Establishing a blueprint for urban design for mental health, it examines a range of strategies – from sensory architecture to place-making for creativity and community – and brings a genuinely evidence-based approach that will appeal to designers and planners, health practitioners and researchers alike - and provide compelling insights for anyone who cares about how our surroundings affect us. Written by a psychiatrist and public health specialist, and an environmental psychologist with extensive experience of architectural practice, this much-needed work will prompt debate and inspire built environment students and professionals to think more about the positive potential of their designs for mental well-being.

This forward-looking resource recasts the concept of healthy cities as not only a safe, pleasant, and green built environment, but also one that creates and sustains health by addressing social, economic, and political conditions. It describes collaborations between city planning and public health creating a contemporary concept of urban governance—a democratically-informed process that embraces values like equity. Models, critiques, and global examples illustrate institutional change, community input, targeted assessment, and other means of addressing longstanding sources of urban health challenges. In these ambitious pages, healthy cities are rooted firmly in the worldwide movement toward balanced and sustainable urbanization, developed not to disguise or displace entrenched health and social problems, but to encourage and foster solutions. Included in the coverage: Towards healthy urban governance in the century of the city“/li> Healthy cities emerge: Toronto, Ottawa, Copenhagen The role of policy coalitions in understanding community participation in healthy cities projects Health impact assessment at the local level The logic of method for evaluating healthy cities Plus: extended reports on healthy cities and communities in North and Latin America, Africa, Europe, Asia, Oceania, and the Middle East Healthy Cities will interest and inspire community leaders, activists, politicians, and entrepreneurs working to improve health and well-being at the local level, as well as public health and urban development scholars and professionals.

Mounting scientific evidence generated over the past decade highlights the significant role of our citiesê built environments in shaping our health and well-being. In this book, the authors conceptualize the •urban health nicheê as a novel approach to

Healthy city planning means seeking ways to eliminate the deep and persistent inequities that plague cities. Yet, as Jason Corburn argues in this book, neither city planning nor public health is currently organized to ensure that today’s cities will be equitable and healthy. Having made the case for what he calls ‘adaptive urban health justice’ in the opening chapter, Corburn briefly reviews the key events, actors, ideologies, institutions and policies that shaped and reshaped the urban public health and planning from the nineteenth century to the present day. He uses two frames to organize this historical review: the view of the city as a field site and as a laboratory. In the second part of the book Corburn uses in-depth case studies of health and planning activities in Rio de Janeiro, Nairobi, and Richmond, California to explore the institutions, policies and practices that constitute healthy city planning. These case studies personify some of the characteristics of his ideal of adaptive urban health justice. Each begins with an historical review of the place, its policies and social movements around urban development and public health, and each is an example of the urban poor participating in, shaping, and being impacted by healthy city planning.

This book represents a multidisciplinary and international vision across different countries in Europe that are facing similar challenges about ageing and quality of life in present cities. It is divided in three main topics from the global context of health in cities and reduction of health inequities to the current research of different study cases, focusing on residential models and the relationship with the built environment. The third chapter illustrates best practices with some study cases from different cities in Europe. Friendlier environments for older people come together with the need of innovation, smart and updated technologies, healthier environments and mitigation of climate change. Health re-appears nowadays as one of the priorities for urban planning and design, not only for the communicable diseases and the effect of the pandemics, but also for the non-communicable diseases, that were also triggering the wellbeing and equity of our cities. Indeed, the Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted health inequities and vulnerabilities of those areas of the city that were already deprived and facing other health problems, such as obesity, diabetes, social isolation, respiratory problems or mental health issues, specifically applying for vulnerable groups. Older adults have been one of the most affected groups from the pandemic’s threats and derived consequences. In this context, the care crisis arises intertwined with the design and planning of our cities, where there is an urgent need to regenerate our environments with a perspective of sustainability, inclusion, and health prevention and promotion. From the global urban challenges to the specific contextualisation of each city and study cases, each chapter offers an updated insight of the main questions that we should consider to address urban planning and design from the perspective of ageing and social inclusion in European cities.