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.

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.

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.

'Urban Sprawl and Public Health' offers a survey of the impact that the built environment can have on the health of the people who inhabit our cities. The authors go on to suggest ways in which the design of cities could be improved & have a positive impact on the well-being of their citizens.

This volume demonstrates how urban climate science can provide valuable information for planning healthy cities. The book illustrates the idea of "Science in Time, Science in Place" by providing worldwide case-based urban climatic planning applications for a variety of regions and countries, utilizing relevant climatic-spatial planning experiences to address local climatic and environmental health issues. Comprised of three major sections entitled "The Rise of Mega-cities and the Concept of Climate Resilience and Healthy Living," "Urban Climate Science in Action," and "Future Challenges and the Way Forward," the book argues for the recognition of climate as a key element of healthy cities. Topics covered include: urban resilience in a climate context, climate responsive planning and urban climate interventions to achieve healthy cities, climate extremes, public health impact, urban climate-related health risk information, urban design and planning, and governance and management of sustainable urban development. The book will appeal to an international audience of practicing planners and designers, public health and built environment professionals, social scientists, researchers in epidemiology, climatology and biometeorology, and international to city scale policy makers. Chapter “Manchester: The Role of Urban Domestic Gardens in Climate Adaptation and Resilience” is available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.

In modern-day society the main threats to public health are now considered ‘avoidable illnesses’, which are often caused by a lack of exercise and physical activity. Research suggests that architectural and urban design strategies play an important role in reducing the amount of avoidable illnesses by enabling physical activity through healthier streets. Practitioners must now consider how they can encourage people to lead healthier lifestyles and improve health through urban design. This book presents the path to healthier cities through six core themes - urban planning, walkable communities, neighbourhood building blocks, movement networks, environmental integration and community empowerment. Each theme is presented with an overview of the issues, the solutions and how to apply them practically with exemplars and precedents. It's an essential text that provides practitioners across urban design, architecture, master planning with the necessary knowledge and guidance to understand their role in producing healthier places and put it in to practice.

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.