Smart Planning for Healthy Cities (Urban Space Is Not Just a Place)

2022 ◽  
pp. 264-277
Author(s):  
Konstantinos Asikis ◽  
Marta Rofin Serra ◽  
Georgia Skoufi

Cities are constantly increasing their importance, from any point of view: population, energy, food, transport. Healthy cities aim at wellbeing for all by creating urban spaces capable of inclusive community prosperity. Place is the combined tangible and intangible context of a location. It includes the integrated urban ecosystem: the constructed, environmental, social, economic, and cultural status. It is a human, natural, and artificial habitat whose combined conditions are able to upgrade or harm health and wellbeing. Its significant impact on people's life happens through a variety of ways, positive or negative, physical or mental. There are several urban determinants that affect the health indicators, which help us measure this impact. This process is named health impact assessment. It is conducted via specific tools, and till now it showed us that the urban environment affects public health much more than the medical system. On the other side, only vigorous communities are able to ensure thriving culture and economy, urban and regional sustainability and development.

2012 ◽  
Vol 53 (3) ◽  
pp. 321-341
Author(s):  
Beata Tarnowska

Summary This article examines the urban themes in Leo Lipski’s micro-novel Piotruś: An ApocryphalTale from 1960. The narrative relies on both traditional realism (for the most part) and the 20thcentury subjective point-of-view technique to represent urban space, which in this case belongs to be a well-defined geographical location. The use of personalized narrative perspective turns the urban space of Tel Aviv-Jafa - heterogeneous and subject to differing assessments - into a labyrinth, closed, dense, expanding horizontally, chthonic, and alien.


Author(s):  
Vanessa Heaslip ◽  
Stephen Richer ◽  
Bibha Simkhada ◽  
Huseyin Dogan ◽  
Sue Green

Background: People who are homeless experience poorer health outcomes, and challenges accessing healthcare contribute to the experienced health inequality. There has been an expansion in using technology to promote health and wellbeing and technology has the potential to enable people who are socially excluded, including those who are homeless, to be able to access health services. However, little research has been undertaken to explore how technology is used to promote health and wellbeing for those who are homeless. This review aims to address the questions: ‘what mobile health (mHealth) related technology is used by homeless populations’ and ‘what is the health impact of mobile technology for homeless populations’? Methods: An integrative review methodology was employed. A systematic search of electronic databases was carried out between 4 January 2021 and 30 April 2021, searching for papers published between 2015 and 2021, which yielded 2113 hits, relevant papers were selected using specified inclusion and exclusion criteria reported using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analysis. The quality assessment of each paper included in the review was undertaken using the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool. Results: Seventeen papers were selected for review and thematic analysis identified four themes: technology ownership, barriers to use, connectivity and health benefits. Conclusion: It is evident that technology has the potential to support the health and wellbeing of individuals who are homeless; however, there are challenges regarding connectivity to the internet, as well as issues of trust in who has access to personal data and how they are used. Further research is needed to explore the use of health technology with people who are homeless to address these challenges.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bambang Sulistyantara ◽  
Imawan W. Hidayat ◽  
A. Nasirudin Taher ◽  
Hendrawan

Trees are essential elements of an urban space. The presence of trees in urban areas is not only appreciated as physical attribute, but beyond this, it serves a fundamental function in balancing and conserving urban ecosystem. Especially in tropical countries like Indonesia which receive high levels of solar radiation, trees contribute to the protection of urban areas from the impact of excessive micro-climatic conditions. But, the presence of trees sometimes resulted in the accidents for the residences because of broken branches and human injuries. This situation leads the city to prepare a tree inventory system, which is beneficial in giving the information about tree conditions and thus the information that would be useful for tree maintenance activities. The tree inventory on application for the city of East Jakarta was built for this purpose, comprising a tree inventory and easy access to the database. The application connects the database source with the GIS map, so that the users could retrieve information for each kind of data.


2019 ◽  
Vol 40 ◽  
pp. 119
Author(s):  
Gustavo Streck Severo ◽  
Ricardo De Souza Rocha ◽  
Samuel Silva de Brito

Permeable House is the title of the present paper produced for the “Projeto III” course at the Universidade Federal de Santa Maria (Campus Cachoeira do Sul) as part of the Architecture and Urbanism program in the first semester of 2017, related to single family housing projects. Facing the traditional single-family dwelling, we were guided by a unique work methodology that emphasizes certain requests and elicits a mindset concerned about unexpected vital issues. This paper aims to present the specific features of this design planning method towards a specific outcome: Permeable house – an experimental alternative to the usual organization of house designing – identifying the refreshed understanding of architecture from the point of view of this methodology that emphasizes the structure – and the opportunity of designing it along with the initial concerns over form –, the city – considering architecture as an entity that creates the urban space – and the environment – highlighting the role architecture has when it comes to dialoguing with its natural and built surroundings.


Author(s):  
Daiki Nakamizo ◽  
Seiya Kimura ◽  
Yuichi Koitabashi

<p>In order to use urban space effectively in Transit-Oriented Development (TOD), over-track buildings (built over railways), are becoming increasingly popular in Japan. From a construction and structural design point of view, the basement structure just beneath railways generally cannot be built while railway operations continue (interruption to operations is not permitted, In general).</p><p>This paper presents the structural design of a mid-story isolated high-rise building constructed over railways in Ikebukuro, Tokyo. The paper shows, not only the philosophy of the system, but also the structural design, full-scale experiments, and evaluation of the performance in each structural element. The authors believe that such a structural design will be one of the effective solutions to the over-track building.</p>


Author(s):  
Evelyne de Leeuw ◽  
Premila Webster

‘Healthy Cities’ is a global movement in urban health that grew from a Canadian initiative in the mid-1980s to a World Health Organization programme. Healthy Cities are characterized by a strong commitment to values such as sustainability, solidarity, justice, and participation embedded in a vision that embraces ecological and community perspectives. The movement comes in different manifestations around the world; this chapter focuses mostly on the European evidence base and discusses efforts that have been made over three decades to establish validated sets of indicators to measure and assess urban health and Healthy Cities. True to the nature of the movement, indicators are both socioecological and biomedical, qualitative, and quantitative. This presents challenges to validity and applicability across urban environments.


2020 ◽  
Vol 33 (7) ◽  
pp. 1297-1312
Author(s):  
Przemysław Wechta

PurposeThe aim of the article is to analyze the process of creating spatial value. The object of the analysis concerns the riverside areas of the city of Poznan. The study focuses on spontaneous practices that are outside the legal regulations, thanks to less-visited places which have gained popularity among residents and disciplinary techniques introduced by government officials in response to such activities.Design/methodology/approachAt the theoretical level, the study is primarily based on Florian Znaniecki's spatial value concept and Michel Foucault's concept of power. The empirical research study includes quantitative (questionnaire-based interviews) and qualitative methods (expert interviews and content analysis).FindingsIdentification of the method of creating spatial value which does not require direct financial outlays; determination of disciplinary techniques used by government officials ultimately led to a reduction in the spatial value.Originality/valueThe article reveals the hidden mechanisms of functioning of the authority that defends itself against the reduction of its powers. It is an alternate way of analyzing and interpreting organizational changes in urban space to the one promoted by the Poznan authorities. The results can be used in various ways. Researchers representing the critical trend of urban research can interpret the process of creating spatial value by residents in terms of community, resistance and alternates to the actions of the authorities. From this point of view, the research study is interventional and exposing in nature. On the other hand, for city decision makers allowing the possibility to consume alcohol in a given area can be an effective, low-cost way of revitalizing it. Research can also be useful in assessing the effectiveness of particular disciplinary techniques by public officers.


Food Security ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 1461-1475
Author(s):  
Rebecka Milestad ◽  
Annika Carlsson-Kanyama ◽  
Christina Schaffer

AbstractWhile urban indoor farming is a fairly new phenomenon, there is a growing interest from producers, authorities and consumers alike. However, many assumptions are made, and expectations held, about urban indoor farming from a sustainability, food production and food provisioning point of view. These assumptions and expectations need to be tested and assessed. This study assessed greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and a number of social aspects of a newly established indoor urban farm in Stockholm. The farm was the result of a project created by commercial, civil society and municipal actors with the aim to make use of unused urban space, create jobs and produce food. While lettuce grown on the indoor farm emitted more GHG than lettuce cultivated outdoors in Sweden, it was more climate friendly than imported lettuce in our comparison. Furthermore, the indoor farm created value for the actors involved and for the city district, albeit on a small scale. Many of the positive environmental and social features owed to the small scale of the indoor farm and the context in which it developed. Thus, when evaluating production systems like this one, we need to be cautious and refrain from extrapolating the results.


2004 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 105-110 ◽  
Author(s):  
I.W. Bailey ◽  
L. Archer

A project was designed by Umgeni Water (funded by the Water Research Commission of South Africa) to monitor the implementation of water reticulation in Vulindlela and evaluate the Water Supply Scheme from a community and environmental health perspective. The findings would hopefully contribute toward the development of criteria for Health Impact Assessment on Water Reticulation Projects. One objective of this study was to evaluate the usefulness of diarrhoeal disease as opposed to other health indicators for water-associated diseases. The innovative methodology followed in the study, a “stepped wedge design”, compared four discrete areas of water reticulation implementation in Vulindlela over a 15-month period. Five surveys, including a baseline and four follow-ups at each household, were carried out. Analysis (microbiological, chemical) was carried out of samples from the household drinking water and from the source of the water. Each survey included health questionnaires, the respondent being the head of the household in each case. Overall, there was no direct correlation proved between water quality and diarrhoea per se. However, there was a marked decrease in diarrhoea with the introduction of the new water supply. There was definite correlation between hygiene behaviours and diarrhoea. Diarrhoea would seem to be the health impact associated with water, of choice.


2021 ◽  
pp. 25-33
Author(s):  
Eu.O. Maruniak ◽  
◽  
S.A. Lisovskyi ◽  
S.A. Pokliatskyi ◽  
A.A. Mozghovyi ◽  
...  

The problem of inclusive development has recently taken into account in Ukraine, although at the global level and in the EU such discussions have been going on for a long time, as well as key concepts were included in the documents shaping the international policy agenda. The paper aims to identify local markers of inclusion and/or exclusion within the capital post-socialist city, verify participatory approaches within the context of sustainable urban development research, and create a basis for developing recommendations for further improvement of urban policy in Ukraine. The example of the capital, Kyiv, a city that has been integrated into the global economic landscape for several decades, is the most indicative from the point of view of current and anticipated changes. The article outlines the main features of modern discourse in the field of inclusiveness and integrated urban development. On the case of Kyiv and a few urban neighborhoods, based on a survey and expert assessment, local features of the spatial measurement of inclusiveness, such as accessibility and openness of different types of infrastructural objects, organization of urban space, have been analyzed. The surveys, in addition to positive assessments of the availability of urban infrastructure for residents, and high quality of construction of individual facilities, simultaneously have been revealed significant shortcomings, especially for people with disabilities. The role of urban governance and international projects outcomes to achieve new goals of urban environment quality in Ukraine has been emphasized. The scientific novelty of the article is to identify local signs of inclusiveness and exclusivity in the capital city of a post-socialist country in the context of improving urban policy in Ukraine.


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