Wellbeing: A Complete Reference Guide, Volume II, Wellbeing and the Environment

23

The Multiple Pathways between Environment and Health

Marketta Kyttä and Anna Broberg

Aalto University, Finland

Background

In our urbanizing world, planners are increasingly interested in the health impacts of urban environments. Over half of the global population already live in cities (World Urbanization Prospects, 2011) and the trend of urbanization is still continuing. While environmental health research has blossomed during recent decades, the findings reveal a rather complex view of the health impacts related to various urban planning solutions. Urbanization seems to pertain to both health problems and possibilities for promoting healthier lifestyles. The current, partly conflicting evidence base from several research fields makes it difficult for urban planners to apply environmental health research findings to their concerns.

To make the situation even more challenging, urban planners are facing strong demands to improve the ecological sustainability of urban systems; that is, the ecological health of the planet. Among the main urban planning strategies in climate-change mitigation is the urban densification policy. It includes among other things improved compactness, sustainable transport, mixed land uses, and diversity (Jabareen, 2006). Although there is rather solid evidence that urban densification in fact leads to positive outcomes, at least in regard to transport-related energy consumption (Le Néchet, 2012), there are also concerns about the social sustainability ...