Tackling Root Causes Upstream of Unhealthy Urban Development (TRUUD): Protocol of a five-year prevention research consortium

Poor quality urban environments substantially increase non-communicable disease. Responsibility for associated decision-making is dispersed across multiple agents and systems: fast growing urban authorities are the primary gatekeepers of new development and change in the UK, yet the driving forces are remote private sector interests supported by a political economy focused on short-termism and consumption-based growth. Economic valuation of externalities is widely thought to be fundamental, yet evidence on how to value and integrate it into urban development decision-making is limited, and it forms only a part of the decision-making landscape. Researchers must find new ways of integrating socio-environmental costs at numerous key leverage points across multiple complex systems. This mixed-methods study comprises of six highly integrated work packages. It aimsto develop and test a multi-action intervention in two urban areas: one on large-scale mixed-use development, the other on major transport. The core intervention is the co-production with key stakeholders through interviews, workshops, and participatory action research, of three areas of evidence: economic valuations of changed health outcomes; community-led media on health inequalities; and routes to potential impact mapped through co-production with key decision-makers, advisors and the lay public. This will be achieved by: mapping system of actors and processes involved in each case study; developing, testing and refining the combined intervention; evaluating the extent to which policy and practice changes amongst our target users, and the likelihood of impact on non-communicable diseases (NCDs) downstream. The integration of such diverse disciplines and sectors presents multiple practical/operational issues. The programme is testing new approaches to research, notably with regards practitioner-researcher integration and transdisciplinary research co-leadership. Other critical risks relate to urban development timescales, uncertainties in upstream-downstream causality, and the demonstration of impact.

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Overcoming Systemic Barriers Preventing Healthy Urban Development in the UK: Main Findings from Interviewing Senior Decision-Makers During a 3-Year Planetary Health Pilot

Journal of Urban Health ◽

10.1007/s11524-021-00537-y ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Daniel Black ◽

Paul Pilkington ◽

Ben Williams ◽

Janet Ige ◽

Emily Prestwood ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Private Sector ◽

Urban Development ◽

Planning Process ◽

Economic Valuation ◽

National Level ◽

Poor Quality ◽

Urban Environments ◽

Lessons Learned ◽

Planetary Health ◽

The Uk

AbstractThis paper sets out the main findings from two rounds of interviews with senior representatives from the UK’s urban development industry: the third and final phase of a 3-year pilot, Moving Health Upstream in Urban Development’ (UPSTREAM). The project had two primary aims: firstly, to attempt to value economically the health cost-benefits associated with the quality of urban environments and, secondly, to interview those in control of urban development in the UK in order to reveal the potential barriers to, and opportunities for, the creation of healthy urban environments, including their views on the use of economic valuation of (planetary) health outcomes. Much is known about the ‘downstream’ impact of urban environments on human and planetary health and about how to design and plan healthy towns and cities (‘midstream’), but we understand relatively little about how health can be factored in at key governance tipping points further ‘upstream’, particularly within dominant private sector areas of control (e.g. land, finance, delivery) at sub-national level. Our findings suggest that both public and private sector appeared well aware of the major health challenges posed by poor-quality urban environments. Yet they also recognized that health is not factored adequately into the urban planning process, and there was considerable support for greater use of non-market economic valuation to help improve decision-making. There was no silver bullet however: 110 barriers and 76 opportunities were identified across a highly complex range of systems, actors and processes, including many possible points of targeted intervention for economic valuation. Eight main themes were identified as key areas for discussion and future focus. This findings paper is the second of two on this phase of the project: the first sets out the rationale, approach and methodological lessons learned.

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Re-prioritising health in urban development decision-making to prevent non-communicable disease

http://isrctn.com/ ◽

10.1186/isrctn12310546 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Rachel Brierley

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Urban Development ◽

Communicable Disease ◽

Non Communicable Disease

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The Use of Social Media for Urban Planning

Geospatial Intelligence ◽

10.4018/978-1-5225-8054-6.ch044 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 1049-1070

Author(s):

Fabian Neuhaus

Keyword(s):

Social Media ◽

Big Data ◽

Urban Areas ◽

Large Scale ◽

Urban Environments ◽

Data Systems ◽

User Management ◽

Social Nature ◽

User Data ◽

Use Of Social Media

User data created in the digital context has increasingly been of interest to analysis and spatial analysis in particular. Large scale computer user management systems such as digital ticketing and social networking are creating vast amount of data. Such data systems can contain information generated by potentially millions of individuals. This kind of data has been termed big data. The analysis of big data can in its spatial but also in a temporal and social nature be of much interest for analysis in the context of cities and urban areas. This chapter discusses this potential along with a selection of sample work and an in-depth case study. Hereby the focus is mainly on the use and employment of insight gained from social media data, especially the Twitter platform, in regards to cities and urban environments. The first part of the chapter discusses a range of examples that make use of big data and the mapping of digital social network data. The second part discusses the way the data is collected and processed. An important section is dedicated to the aspects of ethical considerations. A summary and an outlook are discussed at the end.

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Conducting Household Surveys on Reproductive Health in Urban Settings: Lessons From Karachi, Pakistan

10.21203/rs.3.rs-94413/v1 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Mir Baz Khan ◽

Sidrah Nausheen ◽

Imtiaz Hussain ◽

Kristy Hackett ◽

Zahra Kaneez ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Reproductive Health ◽

Urban Areas ◽

Large Scale ◽

Urban Environments ◽

Lessons Learned ◽

Geographical Information ◽

Health Study ◽

Computer Assisted ◽

Household Surveys ◽

Technical Problems

Abstract Background: Data collection is the most critical stage in any population health study and correctly implementing fieldwork enhances the quality of collected information. However, even the most carefully planned large-scale household surveys can encounter many context-specific issues. This paper reflected on our research team’s recent experiences of conducting surveys for a quasi-experimental evaluation of a reproductive health program in urban areas of Karachi, Pakistan. Methods: The study followed a three-stage random sampling design. Result: This paper has described the issues that were encountered around technical problems related to geographical information system (GIS) usage and computer assisted personal interviews (CAPI), household listing, interviewing respondents on sensitive topics and their expectations, and other field related concerns such as ensuring privacy etc. during the survey.Conclusion: The papers has also underscored on lessons learned from this process and presented some potential solutions for conducting future household surveys in similar urban environments.

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A VOXEL-BASED METADATA STRUCTURE FOR CHANGE DETECTION IN POINT CLOUDS OF LARGE-SCALE URBAN AREAS

ISPRS Annals of Photogrammetry Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences ◽

10.5194/isprs-annals-iv-2-97-2018 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol IV-2 ◽

pp. 97-104

Author(s):

J. Gehrung ◽

M. Hebel ◽

M. Arens ◽

U. Stilla

Keyword(s):

Change Detection ◽

Urban Areas ◽

Laser Scanning ◽

Large Scale ◽

Point Clouds ◽

Urban Environments ◽

Detection Methods ◽

Planar Surfaces ◽

Occupancy Grids ◽

Speed Up

Mobile laser scanning has not only the potential to create detailed representations of urban environments, but also to determine changes up to a very detailed level. An environment representation for change detection in large scale urban environments based on point clouds has drawbacks in terms of memory scalability. Volumes, however, are a promising building block for memory efficient change detection methods. The challenge of working with 3D occupancy grids is that the usual raycasting-based methods applied for their generation lead to artifacts caused by the traversal of unfavorable discretized space. These artifacts have the potential to distort the state of voxels in close proximity to planar structures. In this work we propose a raycasting approach that utilizes knowledge about planar surfaces to completely prevent this kind of artifacts. To demonstrate the capabilities of our approach, a method for the iterative volumetric approximation of point clouds that allows to speed up the raycasting by 36 percent is proposed.

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Assumptions in ecosystem service assessments: Increasing transparency for conservation

AMBIO ◽

10.1007/s13280-020-01379-9 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 50 (2) ◽

pp. 289-300

Author(s):

Matthias Schröter ◽

Emilie Crouzat ◽

Lisanne Hölting ◽

Julian Massenberg ◽

Julian Rode ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Data Collection ◽

Science Policy ◽

Ecosystem Service ◽

Economic Valuation ◽

Service Science ◽

Conservation Science ◽

Policy And Practice ◽

Service Concept ◽

Assessment Results

AbstractConservation efforts are increasingly supported by ecosystem service assessments. These assessments depend on complex multi-disciplinary methods, and rely on a number of assumptions which reduce complexity. If assumptions are ambiguous or inadequate, misconceptions and misinterpretations may arise when interpreting results of assessments. An interdisciplinary understanding of assumptions in ecosystem service science is needed to provide consistent conservation recommendations. Here, we synthesise and elaborate on 12 prevalent types of assumptions in ecosystem service assessments. These comprise conceptual and ethical foundations of the ecosystem service concept, assumptions on data collection, indication, mapping, and modelling, on socio-economic valuation and value aggregation, as well as about using assessment results for decision-making. We recommend future assessments to increase transparency about assumptions, and to test and validate them and their potential consequences on assessment reliability. This will support the taking up of assessment results in conservation science, policy and practice.

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The Use of Social Media for Urban Planning

Advances in Civil and Industrial Engineering - Technologies for Urban and Spatial Planning ◽

10.4018/978-1-4666-4349-9.ch006 ◽

2014 ◽

pp. 113-134 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Fabian Neuhaus

Keyword(s):

Social Media ◽

Big Data ◽

Urban Areas ◽

Large Scale ◽

Urban Environments ◽

Data Systems ◽

User Management ◽

Social Nature ◽

User Data ◽

Use Of Social Media

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Living on Past Glories and Future Dreams The Effects of Depopulation on Early Modern Urban Development in the Former Castle Town of Kanazawa

European Journal of East Asian Studies ◽

10.1163/156805808x372449 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 7 (2) ◽

pp. 263-294 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Jeremy Phillipps

Keyword(s):

Urban Development ◽

Urban Form ◽

Urban Areas ◽

Large Scale ◽

Central City ◽

Japan Sea ◽

Meiji Restoration ◽

Local Newspapers ◽

The Impact ◽

First Time

AbstractDepopulation of urban areas is a serious issue in twenty-first century Japan, as shown by the recent large-scale amalgamation of municipalities and programmes to combat declining central city areas. However, this is not the first time depopulation has had a significant effect on urban development: the decline in castle towns after the Meiji Restoration of 1868 had profound effects on both urban form and development concepts. Kanazawa, once one of the largest cities in Japan, suffered from an initial and long-lasting drop and then a more insidious decline as its Japan Sea coast location cut it off from the bulk of industrial and trade development. This article uses a two-fold approach to examine depopulation: first, an examination of the physical effects of depopulation based on statistical analysis of pre-war land registers shows the patterns of decline and regrowth throughout the modern period. Second, the impact of depopulation on the city's image of itself is examined through period documents such as council records and local newspapers. The need to regain status through population rank became an overarching goal of the urban leaders, and formed the basis of Kanazawa's reactions to the modern era and eventually towards imperialism.

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Urban Regeneration in London Docklands: A Five-Year Policy Review

Environment and Planning C Government and Policy ◽

10.1068/c060187 ◽

1988 ◽

Vol 6 (2) ◽

pp. 187-208 ◽

Cited By ~ 24

Author(s):

A Church

Keyword(s):

Urban Development ◽

Labour Market ◽

Urban Areas ◽

Large Scale ◽

Central Government ◽

Complete Solution ◽

Local Economy ◽

Development Corporation ◽

The Impact ◽

London Docklands

An urban development corporation was established in London Docklands in 1981. Recently, central government has announced its intention to set up similar organisations elsewhere in Britain, and, therefore, a review of the impact of the London Docklands' initiative is appropriate. In this paper I outline the impact of the urban development corporation, in terms of economic regeneration and of the effect on local unemployment. It is argued that demand-led economic regeneration, based on the redevelopment of derelict land, has changed the nature of the local economy, although as yet it has not had any significant effect on the numbers of jobs in the local economy, because of continued decline in existing industries and because of pressures on firms to relocate. Local unemployment has gone on increasing, and evidence is presented to show that labour-market adjustment mechanisms and recruitment patterns severely limit the impact of economic regeneration on unemployment in Docklands. Even major developments, such as the proposed office complex on Canary Wharf, will have only a relatively small effect on local unemployment. Local labour-market intervention has been slow to occur, limited in its aims, and uncoordinated. Urban development corporations are useful policy devices for the encouragement of large-scale land redevelopment, but in their present form they do not represent a complete solution to the economic and employment problems of depressed urban areas.

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Multiagent Decision Making and Learning in Urban Environments

Proceedings of the Twenty-Eighth International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence ◽

10.24963/ijcai.2019/895 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Akshat Kumar

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Reinforcement Learning ◽

Learning Strategies ◽

Multiagent Systems ◽

Intelligent Agents ◽

Large Scale ◽

Urban Environments ◽

Aggregate Level ◽

Domain Models ◽

Self Driving Cars

Our increasingly interconnected urban environments provide several opportunities to deploy intelligent agents---from self-driving cars, ships to aerial drones---that promise to radically improve productivity and safety. Achieving coordination among agents in such urban settings presents several algorithmic challenges---ability to scale to thousands of agents, addressing uncertainty, and partial observability in the environment. In addition, accurate domain models need to be learned from data that is often noisy and available only at an aggregate level. In this paper, I will overview some of our recent contributions towards developing planning and reinforcement learning strategies to address several such challenges present in large-scale urban multiagent systems.

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