The urban burden of disease estimation for policy making

In Europe, more than 70% of the population lives in urban areas. Cities have long been known to be society’s predominant engine of innovation and wealth creation, yet they are also a main source of pollution, disease and mortality, which is to some extent linked to suboptimal urban and transport planning practices.

The project aims to improve the estimation of health impacts and socioeconomic costs and/or benefits of environmental stressors, advance methodological approaches and foster their acceptance as common good practice for urban areas, to help strengthen evidence-based policy making at city, national and EU level. It will focus on nearly 1000 cities and environmental stressors including air pollution, noise, temperature/heat and lack of green space but also will include physical activity as a main determinant of health and examine the effects of gender and inequality in the impact estimations. Hence, it ultimately aims to produce a system that will provide updates every 3 years to be able to monitor progress and extensively engage stakeholders and conduct knowledge translation. Utilizing transdisciplinary and systemic approaches, the project will assemble a diverse team of experts and practitioners in urban and transport planning, environmental and public health, economics, retail and business, education, policy analysis, and knowledge translation, while also involving citizens and NGOs.