May 2021 marked the launch of an Urban Health cluster Healthy Cities, by URBACT the European Territorial Cooperation programme, which has for the past 15 years championed sustainable integrated development in European Cities. The Healthy Cities action planning network aims to develop and foster linkages between health and the urban environment. The network will plan actions that focus on improving health and wellbeing of populations, and develop health impact assessment measures, exploring various factors affecting health in urban areas, such as green areas, mobility, social cohesion and sports. The goal of Healthy Cities is to make urban planning a generator of health.
Healthy Cities has prepared a tool to help monitor and assess the impact of urban planning to health, that through links health indicators with urban determinants based on scientific peer-reviwed research. The tool automatically links the potential health impact of actions into 16 urban planning areas, suppoting decision making processes. Learn more about the tool and bridging urban planning and health here.
Photo: Healthy Cities - Top photo: Eddi Aguirre via Unsplash