Urban Burden of Disease Policy (UBDPolicy)

The UBDPolicy - Urban Burden of Disease Policy – project aims to examine in depth and on a large scale the health problems derived from urban life. Cities are places where people and communities live, work and play, and the quality of the urban environment has a major impact on their health and well-being. With accelerating climate change, urban heat islands have become a growing concern, with heat trapped between buildings and no chances for a cool off during the night. In the past years, many city decision-makers have taken action to improve urban environments. In these efforts to improve the quality of life in cities, policy-makers often look for expertise input, to assess if the designed measures will bring the intended (health) benefits.

The project will assess 1,000 European cities and conduct health impact studies of various exposures and behaviours related to urban environments, such as high temperatures and heat islands, green and blue spaces, as well as air pollution, noise, and physical activity.

UBDPolicy will among others rely on the ISGlobal Ranking of cities in terms of burden of a lack of green space, air pollution and noise. Beyond the Ranking of Cities, UBDPolicy will evaluate the same cities over a three-year time period to enable not only cross-city comparisons but also evolution in time. In parallel, case studies of selected cities will allow to understand urban processes in detail.