The urban planning of cities directly affects the health of its inhabitants, and European cities have the opportunity to be the healthiest in the world. This is the conclusion reached by the WHO, which has drawn up a report which looks at how urban planning can be used to promote physical activity and balanced diets.
Both contribute to the improvement of physical and mental health, in addition to the general well-being of citizens, and the size of European cities makes it easier for them to facilitate it. “More than 70% of the people who live in our region do so in small cities of less than half a million inhabitants,” says the WHO.
Currently, according to the organization, the design of most environments limits people’s ability to stay active and have healthy food options available.
But to improve cities and the lives of the people who live in them, according to the WHO, you must first know how they work. “Collecting data and building connections with local communities is essential to planning healthier urban planning,” the report says.
The organization proposes to use technology through a series of tools that allow knowing the needs of cities. Specifically, they propose the following actions:
- Collect data on mobility in the city.
- Identify local food infrastructures to improve food security.
- Calculate the economic benefits of health policies.
- Tools to connect with relevant agents and the citizens themselves.
- Analyze data for a healthier urban planning.
In addition to suggesting tools to help implement improvements, the WHO report also includes some practical examples of policies that some European cities have implemented and that are giving good results.
One of the capitals highlighted in the report is Lisbon, which works to promote a balanced diet among its inhabitants, “placing local produce at the heart of public spaces”. In addition, the organization also appreciates that the Portuguese capital is involving the little ones, explaining how to grow vegetables and instilling in them the benefits of eating healthy.
For its part, in the Irish city of Cork they have introduced parklets in several streets to build friendlier environments and that its inhabitants have more public space to sit.
In Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, work has also been done to improve the health of people living in the city. The WHO report points out that the main challenges for the city are “air quality, sedentary lifestyle and mental health.” For this reason, the capital is in full transformation and its main line of action is to make the streets for people, and not for cars.
These are some of the examples that the World Health Organization highlights, and that can be consulted in detail in the report, but the great conclusion of the institution invites us to act now. The small and measured European cities are more manageable and with more facilities to implement this type of policy.
The task is urgent due to the progress of the climate emergency. The phenomena that are taking place this year or data like that 99% of the world’s population breathes polluted air they should be enough to work on making cities good places to live.