 Background
This page outlines a proposal for interested international research groups, to form an umbrella consortium to coordinate their activities in environmental health and sustainable development that focus on the assessment and reduction of the health risks and impacts of climate change, weather extremes, air pollution and other forms of environmental contamination in urban areas. This consortium on urban environmental health and sustainability will facilitate international research collaborations, enhance scientific understanding (notably by improving research methods and reducing uncertainty), identify funding sources and opportunities, enhance opportunities for environmental and public health training and capacity building, and disseminate research outcomes to key stakeholders.
Aims
The overall aim of the Healthy-Polis consortium is to help protect public health by promoting multi-disciplinary policy relevant research on urban environmental health and sustainability, improving methodologies for health risk assessment, facilitating international collaboration (including standardisation of research methods), contributing to the research training of scientists and students, and engaging with key stakeholders in Government, local authorities, international organisations (e.g. WHO and WMO), industry and academia.
Scope of Research & Capacity Building
| TOPICS |
DISCIPLINES |
| Health effects of climate change |
Environmental & public health |
| Sustainable built environment & urban vegetation |
Environmental exposure assessment |
| Sustainable transport |
Environmental epidemiology & toxicology |
| Urban air pollution |
Risk management |
| Indoor environmental quality |
Health Systems Analysis |
| Water quality & provision |
Health Impact Assessment |
| Food quality & provision |
Sustainable urban planning |
| Waste minimisation and recycling |
Sociology of consumption |
| Soil and groundwater decontamination |
Urban climatology |
| Energy generation (including microgeneration) |
Urban planning |
| Weather extremes (heatwaves, floods/droughts) |
Transport management |
| Climate change mitigation (health co-benefits) |
Waste Management |
| Climate change adaptation & community resilience |
Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis |
| Environmental education & communication |
Life Cycle Analysis |
Urban heat islands
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Environmental engineering
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Rationale
The rationale for forming Healthy-Polis is summarised in the points below:
- Rapidly increasing urbanisation, especially in the Asia-Pacific region, is stretching resources and infrastructure, and threatening environmental quality.
- Densely populated urban areas in Europe are facing environmental health challenges, including air pollution, and contamination of water and soil.
- Sprawling urban areas in Australia are contributing to traffic congestion, air pollution and long commuting times affecting public health and productivity. At the same time, poorly planned urban infill reduces quality of life and intensifies urban heat islands.
- Climate change is likely to aggravate existing health risks in urban areas by increasing the frequency and severity of extreme events such as heatwaves, droughts and floods.
- The prevalence of “lifestyle” diseases, such as certain cancers and obesity, have substantially increased in recent decades in both developed and developing countries.
- Climate change mitigation and adaptation policies can provide a range of health co-benefits associated with active transport, low carbon buildings and sustainable food consumption.
- Cities are complex systems that need systems-based interdisciplinary approaches to research.
- Methodological innovation and standardisation across countries are needed to address complex environmental health challenges and reduce uncertainty (e.g. associated with environmental health data, and epidemiological and risk assessment methods).
- Test-beds and case-studies from different cities can promote best practice in environmental health research and application.
- International collaborations can provide training opportunities and promote capacity building in rapidly urbanizing countries.
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 Updating... Healthy Polis, 23 Oct 2013, 03:39
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