Urban form for health-promoting activity spaces

With ongoing urbanisation, urban planning has emerged as an arena for improving public health.

This requires better understanding of how urban form relates to health outcomes by structuring activity spaces (routinely visited places and travelled routes), both in everyday life and during crisis when spatial behaviour is altered.

The main aim of this project is to provide evidence for how urban form relates to four features of activity spaces with relevance for health: 1) active mobility, and exposure to 2) crowded environments, 3) dense environments, and 4) nature.

A second aim is to explore how mobility and environmental exposures have differed for the same individuals at different time periods of the COVID-19 pandemic.The project builds on two ongoing studies that integrate multiple kinds of data related to urban form, mobility, and health.

First, the Barcelona Life Study Cohort (BiSC), an ERC-funded prospective cohort study of 1086 pregnant women and their offspring that includes data on locations (smartphone), physical activity (personal monitor) and stress (hair cortisol).

Second, the BIG project that tracks the locations and heart rate variability of 170 adults in Gävle, Sweden, with a smartphone application in combination with fitness bands.

Thus, the project gathers insights from a large city in Southern Europe and a small city in Northern Europe.In both cases, a comprehensive set of urban form variables are developed, based on street networks, plots, high-resolution density of buildings and trees, and permeable surfaces. Activity spaces are mapped using location data, and active mobility and environmental exposures quantified.

Exposures are also disaggregated by home, workplace, and commuting routes.

These variables are then related to the respective health indicators.Results will advance research and practice at the interface of urban planning and public health by providing translational links between urban form and health via activity spaces.