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Healthier Cities in Changing Urban Landscapes

A special issue of International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (ISSN 1660-4601). This special issue belongs to the section "Global Health".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (24 December 2020) | Viewed by 12144

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
CNRS, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris, France
Interests: Urban studies, spatial epidemiology, health governance

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Within the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change framework, there have been recent parallel developments of warming scenarios (Representative Concentration Pathways) based on greenhouse gases and other radiative forcings that could occur by the end of the century on the one hand and on the other, Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs) that look at different scenarios in which the world might evolve in the absence of climate policy. These SSPs deal with sustainability and broader emphasis on human well-being through increasing scenarios of social inequality and nationalistic-driven policies to a fossil-fuel filled future with an emphasis on innovation and technological solutions to environmental problems associated with an energy-intensive development. Combined, these scenarios suggest how different levels of climate change mitigation can be achieved.

Complementary to such climate scenarios, better quantitative frameworks are needed to more fully understand how climate change will impact human health in regards with other global changes.

Beside climate change, the growth of urban populations worldwide is the other major change observed in the 20th and 21st century, since more than half of the human population now resides in cities. For human health, constant affluent of population not properly integrated in urban planning, rise of pollution, increasing mobility patterns, densification, and urban heat island can clearly impact the health of urban dwellers. While most cities are currently ill-prepared to face the health impacts of current and future change, it is crucial to understand how changes induced by urbanisation, climate change, and health are interconnected to better tackle these threats.

In this respect, this Special Issue addresses the urgent need to put the urban environment and associated disparities in human health at the center of any future SSP scenarios and potential mitigation strategies for adaptation to our changing world. Research being done in this field can now take advantage of the complex and increasingly detailed geographical, environmental, and epidemiological data available within cities and for networks of interconnected urban areas. These data can clearly help in quantifying the interrelated evolutions of climate changes (urban heat island, increase in temperatures) induced by urbanisation (rural urban migration, daily commuting movement of the population between and within cities, social and environmental disparities, densification of spaces…) and human health (infectious and vector borne diseases, respiratory diseases).

Dr. Richard Paul
Dr. Olivier Telle
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • Urban public health
  • Socio-economic disparities
  • Disease mitigation
  • Adaptation strategies

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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19 pages, 3109 KiB  
Article
Effects of Variations in Color and Organ of Color Expression in Urban Ornamental Bamboo Landscapes on the Physiological and Psychological Responses of College Students
by Yuqian Wang, Huahong Qu, Tong Bai, Qibing Chen, Xi Li, Zhenghua Luo, Bingyang Lv and Mingyan Jiang
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2021, 18(3), 1151; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18031151 - 28 Jan 2021
Cited by 14 | Viewed by 3728
Abstract
Visual characteristics (e.g., the color and shape) of ornamental plants can significantly affect their beneficial influence on humans. Prior research, however, has largely focused on the effects of the color or shape of flowers and the impact of differences in the visual appearance [...] Read more.
Visual characteristics (e.g., the color and shape) of ornamental plants can significantly affect their beneficial influence on humans. Prior research, however, has largely focused on the effects of the color or shape of flowers and the impact of differences in the visual appearance of foliage plants and plants with ornamental stalks has not yet been fully explored. This study examined the psychophysiological effects of urban ornamental bamboos that expressed different colors on different organs. Three hundred Chinese college students participated in the experiment. They were randomly assigned to view images of five ornamental bamboo landscapes with the following different visual characteristics: green stalks (GS) non-green stalks (NGS) multicolored stalks (MS) green leaves (GL) and multicolored leaves (ML). Before and after viewing the images, their EEG, blood pressure, pulse, profile of mood states (POMS) score, and state-trait anxiety inventory (STAI) score were measured. The results showed that ornamental bamboo landscapes have extremely significant beneficial psychophysiological effects as compared to urban landscapes. After viewing landscapes in the NGS and MS groups, EEG, blood pressure, and pulse rate of subjects showed more beneficial changes. Significant gender differences were observed only in systolic blood pressure and in the vigor score. In addition, an extremely significant interaction between color and organ of color expression was observed on systolic and diastolic blood pressure. Organ of expression had significant main effects on all the physiological indicators and the fatigue, vigor, and irritability scores, while color only had a main effect on systolic blood pressure. Our study concluded that viewing urban ornamental bamboo landscapes with different visual characteristics has different effects on humans. With regards to ornamental bamboo, the organ expressing the color had a greater impact on psychophysiological responses than did the type of color itself. These study results can provide guidance for landscape construction of urban greening. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Healthier Cities in Changing Urban Landscapes)
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20 pages, 4628 KiB  
Article
Exploration of Urban Interaction Features Based on the Cyber Information Flow of Migrant Concern: A Case Study of China’s Main Urban Agglomerations
by Chun Li and Xingwu Duan
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2020, 17(12), 4235; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17124235 - 13 Jun 2020
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 2722
Abstract
In the context of “space of flow”, urban interaction has become the key force impacting urban landscape evolution and urban sustainable development. Current research on urban interaction analysis is mainly conducted based on the interaction of geographical elements, the virtual flow of information [...] Read more.
In the context of “space of flow”, urban interaction has become the key force impacting urban landscape evolution and urban sustainable development. Current research on urban interaction analysis is mainly conducted based on the interaction of geographical elements, the virtual flow of information in cyberspace has not been given sufficient attention, particularly the information flows with explicit geographical meaning. Considering the dramatic population migration and the explosive growth of cyberspace in China’s main urban agglomerations, we constructed the information flow of migrant attention (IFMA) index to quantify the urban information interaction derived from public migrant concern in cyberspace. Under the framework coupling spatial pattern analysis and spatial network analysis, exploration spatial data analysis (ESDA) and complex network analysis (CNA) were adopted to identify the urban interaction features depicted by IFMA index in the three main urban agglomerations in China. The results demonstrated that, in the study area: (1) The IFMA index presented a reasonable performance in depicting geographical features of cities; (2) the inconformity between urban role in the network and development positioning confirmed by national planning existed; (3) in the context of New-type urbanization of China, urban interaction feature can be a beneficial reference for urban spatial reconstruction and urban life improvement. Using the cyber information flow with geographical meaning to analyze the urban interaction characteristics can extend the research angle of urban relationship exploration, and provide some suggestion for the adjustment of urban landscape planning. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Healthier Cities in Changing Urban Landscapes)
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12 pages, 384 KiB  
Commentary
Challenges to Mitigating the Urban Health Burden of Mosquito-Borne Diseases in the Face of Climate Change
by Antonio Ligsay, Olivier Telle and Richard Paul
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2021, 18(9), 5035; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18095035 - 10 May 2021
Cited by 24 | Viewed by 5138
Abstract
Cities worldwide are facing ever-increasing pressure to develop mitigation strategies for all sectors to deal with the impacts of climate change. Cities are expected to house 70% of the world’s population by 2050, and developing related resilient health systems is a significant challenge. [...] Read more.
Cities worldwide are facing ever-increasing pressure to develop mitigation strategies for all sectors to deal with the impacts of climate change. Cities are expected to house 70% of the world’s population by 2050, and developing related resilient health systems is a significant challenge. Because of their physical nature, cities’ surface temperatures are often substantially higher than that of the surrounding rural areas, generating the so-called Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect. Whilst considerable emphasis has been placed on strategies to mitigate against the UHI-associated negative health effects of heat and pollution in cities, mosquito-borne diseases have largely been ignored. However, the World Health Organization estimates that one of the main consequences of global warming will be an increased burden of mosquito-borne diseases, many of which have an urban facet to their epidemiology and thus the global population exposed to these pathogens will steadily increase. Current health mitigation strategies for heat and pollution, for example, may, however, be detrimental for mosquito-borne diseases. Implementation of multi-sectoral strategies that can benefit many sectors (such as water, labor, and health) do exist or can be envisaged and would enable optimal use of the meagre resources available. Discussion among multi-sectoral stakeholders should be actively encouraged. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Healthier Cities in Changing Urban Landscapes)
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