How to Develop Smart Healthy City
An international comparison of 25 cities, suggests that there is a need for capacity building in enhancing urban planning that promotes public health. Despite the consensus of the importance of healthy and sustainable cities, this aspiration lacks the support of measurable policy targets in the case of these 25 cities. The City of Belfast in the UK for example, scores a perfectly in establishing policy framework in developing healthy city, however, only score 68% in the policy quality. This is due to the lack of specific, measurable, and consistent with international evidence on planning healthy cities.
This study also noted that there is a lack of commitment in realising the healthy city, as the city’s initiative lack the push from higher level of governance in regulatory and financial support. The study indicates that deficient of policies may be a symptom to insufficient of integrative planning in the cities. As healthy cities will require collaboration of many city agencies, such as in providing better transport system, provision of green spaces, provision of access to education and employment opportunities and other urban design features. Lastly, a critical founding from this study is the prominence of health inequity. City planning policies mostly are insufficient in aiming for justice and equal accessibility and opportunity for healthier living condition. For example, green spaces are more likely to be distributed and better connected in wealthier neighbourhood. Green spaces such as parks also lack the variety of use, discourage other groups of demographic such as elderly or teenager that may have different need for recreation and social activity in those parks.
Reference
Lennon, M. (2021). Green space and the compact city: Planning issues for a ‘new normal’. Cities & health, 5(sup1), S212-S215.
Lowe, M., Adlakha, D., Sallis, J. F., Salvo, D., Cerin, E., Moudon, A. V., ... & Giles-Corti, B. (2022). City planning policies to support health and sustainability: an international comparison of policy indicators for 25 cities. The Lancet Global Health, 10(6), e882-e894.
