Christopher Webster (Urban Systems Institute (USI), University of Hong Kong)
Healthier Cities, Healthier People – Can we re-unite urban planning practice with epidemiological research to foster active longevity by design?
November 6th, 2024; 17:30 – G11 Alan Walters Bldg, University of Birmingham
The second session of the 2024 AESOP Lecture Series took place at the University of Birmingham UK.
The event was organized by Dr Andrea Frank (University of Birmingham, School of Geography Earth and Environmental Sciences, Centre for Urban and Regional Studies) with support from colleagues in the school.
Professor Webster and the lecture was introduced by Professor William Bloss (Head, College of Life Sciences) who underlined the importance of interdisciplinary research across health and urban planning based on his research on air pollution in the West Midlands region seeking to promote interventions to protect human and environmental health.
The lecture briefly recounted important historical links between public health and planning legislation and the weakening of this close association in the post WWII ‘antibiotic’ era. With now more than half of the world’s population living in urbanized settings, there is a strong case to be made to pay closer attention to urban form and conditions such as noise, green space or walkability as these impact risk levels of both chronic and infectious diseases. Professor Webster made a strong case for the disciplines of health and planning to be ‘remarried’ based on an impressive range of research case studies providing evidence that building shapes and urban morphology can significantly impact health outcomes such as obesity or respiratory illnesses alongside other lifestyle factors (e.g. smoking).
A lively Q&A explored methodological issues and offered observations about the mismatch in operational scales and data across the disciplines involved. Closing remarks were provided by Dr. Austin Barber (Programme Director, Master in Urban and Regional Planning) asking how planning education curricula could help equip future planning practitioners to effectively contribute to this project.*
A total of some 90 individuals consisting of researchers, students, planning practitioners and staff from the University of Birmingham, Europe and North America attended the session in person and on-line spanning the fields of applied health science, epidemiology, planning and urban design.
