Towards healthy urbanism: inclusive, equitable and sustainable (THRIVES) – anurban design and planning framework from theory to praxis
The agendas of international bodies such as the World Health Organization (WHO) and United Nations(UN) have recently converged with property development and urban planning professionals over the topic of healthy urbanism. This new healthy building and planning agenda is evident in the proliferation of guidance (e.g. World Green Building Council 2014,2016, Urban Land Institute 2015, UN-Habitat 2018,Pineo and Rydin 2018, WHO 2018b). The achievement of both health and sustainability goals through urban development has been advocated through the parallel activities of the WHO Healthy Cities and sustainable building movements (Hancock and Duhl1986, Reed et al. 2009, Rydin 2010, Hancock 2011),and historically these agendas have not intersected substantively. However, the global trends of rapid urbanisation, resource and biodiversity loss, climate change, widening inequalities, ageing populations and the rising burden of non-communicable diseases(Gatzweiler et al. 2017) are part of the context thath as brought these aligned, yet predominately separate, fields of research and practice together. The other part of this alignment relates to new perceptions among urban development professionals about health and well being. Urban planners’ increased interest in health and wellbeing (Pfeiffer and Cloutier 2016) is now met with a receptive audience among some developers and landowners who see the potential for added value or market differentiation (Chang 2018). Although eco-nomic viability remains a challenge for integrating healthy design measures and construction materials into many projects (Carmichael et al. 2019), the emergence of new standards, such as WELL and Fitwel, indicates a new way for healthy development to beassessed and valued (Pineo and Rydin 2018). The healthy building and planning agenda is thus shaped by many voices with diverse perspectives on how built environment professionals should be part of health promotion and protection. This article introducesa new way of conceptualising healthy urbanism that responds to perceived gaps in the existing professional knowledge base and guidance for urban development. The author argues that the concept of healthy urban development needs to be reframed to encompass the connected lenses of sustainability, equity and inclusion and the consideration of health impacts at multiple spatial and temporal dimensions.
source :
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/epdf/10.1080/23748834.2020.1769527?needAccess=true