The Healthy Cities movement is dedicated to creating cities that prioritize health, sustainability, and health-conscious urban design. This focus is crucial in our current era, marked by challenges like climate change, urban density, and social inequalities. Collaboration between urban planners, developers, and communities is essential to design environments that promote the health and well-being of all residents.
While assessment tools exist for evaluating urban health and sustainability, they often lack clarity on which health aspects they consider. This research addresses this ambiguity through three main objectives: conducting interviews with experts in community-based initiatives, healthy city assessment, urban design, and city accreditation networks; surveying members of the WHO Healthy Cities Program Network; and analyzing the findings to identify and categorize criteria for updating approaches and strategies.
The research uses diverse methodologies, including questionnaires, in-depth interviews with healthy urban design experts, and an analysis of assessment tools. A survey is also administered to the WHO Healthy Cities Program Network members.
The study's outcomes involve the development of criteria for promoting healthy urban design. These criteria shed light on critical issues in sustainable urban development and provide a constructive path for creating tools that foster healthier cities. Assessment tools that consider health comprehensively have the potential to significantly improve urban well-being and create healthier communities.