What is Urban Health?

What is Urban Health?

By 2050, over 68% of the world's population will live in cities full of opportunity, yet brimming with challenges. Urban populations, in both low- and high- income countries, have some of the world’s most prominent health disparities impacted by natural and built environments, social and economic development, food security, air pollution, overcrowding, and politics. All of these factors deem urbanization as one of the most important demographic shifts worldwide. A career that specializes in urban health aims to analyze how such factors affect the health outcomes of large populations and develop innovative solutions to improve the quality of urban living.

Labs & Clubs

Global Action for Urban Health

Urban health is an evolving area of research, education, practice, and policy making. Students are in a strong position to be part of these developing activities to advance the evidence base on research, implementation and evaluation in urban health. The Global Action for Urban Health Lab, co-developed by Dr. Jo Boufford and Dr. Alexis Merdjanoff, provides a space for students both within and outside of GPH to collaborate on various projects around urban health. The primary goals of this lab are for students: (1) to learn about the role of cities in global health and the role of urban governance in health, including policy approaches both across agencies and in public-private partnerships in the context of the SDGs and UNHabitat’s New Urban Agenda (2) to develop a network of academic programs, faculty, and students across NYU focusing on urban health; (3) to engage with UN agencies and national/ municipal governments, international and domestic NGOs, urban health researchers, practitioners and policy makers worldwide (4) to develop skills for data collection, analysis and project implementation of priority urban health programs from collaborating organizations; and (5) to build on the platform of the  International Society for Urban Health  as a global network of researchers, educators, practitioners and policy makers committed to improving health and health equity in cities.

Urban Epidemiology Lab

In 2007, the world achieved a major milestone: 50% of the world’s population was living in urban settings and the proportion of people living in urban settings is expected to increase to 68% by 2050 (United Nations, World Urbanization Prospects: The 2018 Revision.) Given this reality, the Urban Epidemiology Lab (UEL) engages in research that aims to: (1) understand and improve the health of people living in urban settings and (2) help us conceptualize urban settings as “exposures” that may improve or detract from the health of urban dwellers. 

The UEL’s primary focus is on substance use and infectious diseases such as HIV, Hepatitis B and C, and sexually transmitted infections.  The UEL includes doctoral students, MPH students who are working on their thesis with Dr. Ompad, recent NYU GPH graduates, and post-doctoral fellows from New York University training programs. Most UEL members analyze epidemiologic data from one of Dr. Ompad’s studies.  Opportunities exist for collaboration with other students, other NYU faculty, and faculty from outside of NYU.

Faculty at GPH

Jo Ivey Boufford

Jo Ivey Elizabeth Boufford

Emily Goldmann

Emily Goldmann

Goodman, Melody

Melody Goodman

Alexis Merdjanoff

Alexis A Merdjanoff

Danielle Ompad

Danielle C Ompad

Dr. Danielle Ompad is an epidemiologist whose work is focused in the areas of urban health, HIV, illicit drug use, and adult access to vaccines.

The conceptual framework that many people use to think about cities is that they’re dense, very diverse, very complex, and have a lot of health disparities…It’s great to create a prescription for health and social care for an individual but wouldn’t it be even better if those conditions already existed where that person could easily find the healthy solutions in their community? - Jo Ivey Boufford, MD, Clinical Professor of Global Health

I AM GPH

With extensive experience in medicine, international affairs, health policy, and public administration, Dr. Jo Ivey Boufford is an expert in urban health, healthy aging, disease prevention, and health promotion and health disparities. Since college, Dr. Boufford has integrated activism and social justice in her education and practice by advocating for patient-driven care and more engagement with the community and the underserved. In 1985, she became the first woman to be elected President of New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation, the largest municipal system in the United States. She then entered federal government, serving as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for health in the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). While at HHS, she was the U.S. representative on the Executive Board of the World Health Organization. At NYU, Dr. Boufford has been a Professor of Public Administration and Dean of the Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, as well as a Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at the NYU Medical School. In this episode she will tell us more about Urban Health and Governance as well as advice to MPH students.

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Articles on Urban health

Displaying all articles.

urban health research topics

How cars and road infrastructure became part of the UK’s culture wars

Dominic Davies , City, University of London

urban health research topics

LA’s long, troubled history with urban oil drilling is nearing an end after years of health concerns

Jill Johnston , University of Southern California and Bhavna Shamasunder , Occidental College

urban health research topics

Searing summers in European cities pose a continent-wide health inequality challenge

Pedro Gullón Tosio , Universidad de Alcalá and Manuel Franco , Universidad de Alcalá

urban health research topics

Los Angeles’ long, troubled history with urban oil drilling is nearing an end after years of health concerns

urban health research topics

Maternal and child healthcare isn’t reaching everyone in urban sub-Saharan  Africa

Amanuel Abajobir , African Population and Health Research Center ; Estelle Monique Sidze , African Population and Health Research Center , and Frederick Murunga Wekesah , African Population and Health Research Center

urban health research topics

More parks and waterways in cities could prevent premature deaths, study finds

Razieh Zandieh , University of Manchester and Mark Nieuwenhuijsen , Australian Catholic University

urban health research topics

The new architectural frontier: buildings and their microbiomes

Jako Nice , Council for Scientific and Industrial Research

urban health research topics

What cities can learn from lockdown about planning for life after the coronavirus pandemic

Jill L Grant , Dalhousie University

urban health research topics

Oh no, oBikes are leaving Melbourne! But this doesn’t mean bike sharing schemes are dead

Dorina Pojani , The University of Queensland and Jonathan Corcoran , The University of Queensland

urban health research topics

Monitoring populations helps to put the right health services in place

Mark A. Collinson , University of the Witwatersrand and Kobus Herbst , University of KwaZulu-Natal

urban health research topics

It will take more than good intentions to clear Nairobi’s garbage mountains

Dr Dickson Amugsi , African Population and Health Research Center and Blessing Mberu , African Population and Health Research Center

urban health research topics

How do we turn a drain into valued green space? First, ask the residents

Leila Mahmoudi Farahani , RMIT University and Cecily Maller , RMIT University

urban health research topics

Can virtual nature and poo transplants solve city dwellers’ health problems?

Anne Cleary , Griffith University and Dave Kendal , The University of Melbourne

urban health research topics

Vanishing Australian backyards leave us vulnerable to the stresses of city life

Linley Lutton , The University of Western Australia

urban health research topics

Higher-density cities need greening to stay healthy and liveable

Melanie Davern , RMIT University ; Alison Farrar , The University of Melbourne ; Dave Kendal , The University of Melbourne , and Lucy Gunn , RMIT University

Related Topics

  • Cities & Policy
  • Environmental health
  • Green space
  • Higher-density housing
  • Liveability
  • Urban heat islands
  • Urban planning

Top contributors

urban health research topics

Associate Professor of Urban and Environmental Policy, Occidental College

urban health research topics

Associate Professor of Population and Public Health Sciences, University of Southern California

urban health research topics

Senior Lecturer in Environmental Management, University of Tasmania

urban health research topics

Adjunct Senior Teaching Fellow in Urban Planning and Design, The University of Western Australia

urban health research topics

Reader in Population and Public Health, MRC/Wits Rural Public Health and Health Transitions Research Unit, School of Public Health, University of the Witwatersrand

urban health research topics

Research Fellow, School of Medicine, The University of Queensland

urban health research topics

Head of Urbanisation and Wellbeing, African Population and Health Research Center, African Population and Health Research Center

urban health research topics

Postdoctoral Research Scientist, African Population and Health Research Center

urban health research topics

Research scientist, African Population and Health Research Center

urban health research topics

Research Assistant, School of Ecosystem & Forest Sciences, The University of Melbourne

urban health research topics

Associate Professor in Urban Planning, The University of Queensland

urban health research topics

Professor, School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, The University of Queensland

urban health research topics

Research Fellow in Urban Studies, RMIT University

urban health research topics

Associate Research Scientist, African Population and Health Research Center

urban health research topics

Chief Information Officer at the Africa Health Research Institute, University of KwaZulu-Natal

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Health & Well Being

News | November 23, 2016

‘You can’t escape’: Clouds of filth are choking Asia’s cities

The winter air in Tehran is often foul but for six days last week it was hardly breathable. A dense and poisonous chemical smog made up of traffic and factory fumes, mixed with construction dust, burning vegetation and waste has shrouded buildings, choked pedestrians, forced schools and universities to close, and filled the hospitals. Anyone…

News | December 12, 2019

‘Blue’ space: Access to water features can boost city dwellers’ mental health

Officials are increasingly recognizing that integrating nature into cities is an effective public health strategy to improve mental health. Doctors around the world now administer “green prescriptions” – where patients are encouraged to spend time in local nature spaces – based on hundreds of studies showing that time in nature can benefit people’s psychological well-being and increase…

News | August 22, 2019

‘Hidden’ data exacerbates rural public health inequities

Differences in the health of rural residents compared to their urban neighbors are startling. In Washington, for instance, rural residents are one-third more likely to die from intentional self-harm or 13 percent more likely to die from heart disease. However, while statistics like these help guide public health policy and spending, they can hide even…

News | August 5, 2019

‘I’d drink my jacuzzi’: how earthquake scientists prepare for the ‘big one’

Two back-to-back earthquakes, of magnitude 6.4 and 7.1, hit southern California in less than 24 hours last month, and seismologists have warned of an increased chance of more shaking in the near future. We spoke with four earthquake scientists living in high-risk areas to see what the people who think about earthquakes the most plan to do…

News | August 2, 2023

‘Silent Killer’: Experts Warn of Record US Deaths from Extreme Heat

The punishing heatwaves that have scorched much of the US could result in a record number of heat-related deaths this year, experts have warned, amid a spike in hospitalizations from collapsing workers. Among those needing hospital treatment are heat-exhausted hikers and even people who have suffered severe burns from touching blistering concrete and asphalt. Heat…

News | August 14, 2019

‘Vehicle ranching’ in Seattle: Inside the underground market of renting RVs to homeless people

Richard Winn considered himself a decent landlord, particularly in a cutthroat rental market like Seattle’s. Sometimes his tenants did not pay their $75 weekly rent, and weren’t required to sign a lease or put down a deposit. But there were trade-offs. Winn never gave residents keys to their units. Tenants were not to use the…

News | June 17, 2019

2 hours/week in nature: Your prescription for better health?

Spending just a couple of hours a week enjoying nature may do your body and mind some good, a new study suggests. The study, of nearly 20,000 adults in England, found that people who spent at least two hours outdoors in the past week gave higher ratings to their physical health and mental well-being. Most…

News | September 7, 2021

2021 Urban@UW Spark Grants awardees announced

Urban@UW is excited to announce awardees for the second round of funding through our Spark Grants program. The two projects selected address critical urban challenges, with a focus on transdisciplinary scholarship and engagement with vulnerable populations.    Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene Among Vehicle Residents: A Case Study of the Seattle Public Utilities’ Recreational Vehicle Wastewater…

News | January 14, 2022

2021: The deadliest and most dangerous year on Washington’s roads since 2006

As Washington went quiet in the early days of the pandemic, Staci Hoff figured at least it would mean fewer deaths on the roads in 2020. She was wrong. Then, as cars began returning in 2021, she hoped maybe the carnage would slow as congestion increased and speeds decreased. She was wrong again. Washington ended…

News | September 14, 2022

2022 Urban@UW Spark Grants Awardees Announced

Urban@UW is excited to announce awardees for the third round of funding through our Spark Grants program. The three projects selected address critical urban challenges, with a focus on transdisciplinary scholarship and engagement with vulnerable populations. Analysis of a Food Bank Home Delivery Program Food security, defined as access at all times to nutritious food,…

News | July 31, 2019

4.6 earthquake shakes Seattle region, no damage reported

A magnitude 4.6 earthquake shook Seattle and the Puget Sound region at 2:51 a.m. Friday, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), rattling some people out of bed, while leaving other people blissfully dormant and unfazed. The earthquake emanated from Three Lakes, Snohomish County, about 9 miles east of downtown Everett. The temblor raises…

News | August 14, 2023

A Crisis of Isolation Is Making Heat Waves More Deadly

When Donna Crawford didn’t hear back from her brother Lyle, she began to fear the worst. It was Monday, June 28, 2021, at the tail end of a blistering heat dome that had settled over the Pacific Northwest. Two days prior, daytime temperatures had soared to 108 degrees Fahrenheit in Gresham, Oregon, where Lyle lived…

News | March 10, 2018

A Homeless Camp in Our Back Yard? Please, a University Says

For months, 65 homeless people lived in tents they set up in a parking lot behind the Seattle Pacific University bookstore, with a row of portable toilets and layers of clothes to guard against the damp chill of winter. It was a homeless camp like so many that crop up along roads and ramshackle lots…

News | November 1, 2022

A new approach, not currently described by the Clean Air Act, could eliminate air pollution disparities

While air quality has improved dramatically over the past 50 years thanks in part to the Clean Air Act, people of color at every income level in the United States are still exposed to higher-than-average levels of air pollution. A team led by researchers at the University of Washington wanted to know if the Clean…

News | August 26, 2021

A new book chronicles the history of homelessness in Seattle

Josephine Ensign is a professor at the University of Washington School of Nursing and the author of a new book called “Skid Road: On the Frontier of Health and Homelessness in an American City.” The book digs through layers of Seattle history to reveal the stories of overlooked and long-silenced people who live on the…

News | January 25, 2021

A new investigation about who’s getting sick from heat-related illness should be a wakeup call for America

Mario Wilcox won’t set out in the summer without an emergency kit in his car trunk: a cooler with an ice pack and a blanket. He learned this improvised life saver from his time in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars; ice and a wet cloth can cool down an overheated body. Now he finds it…

News | August 17, 2021

A triple whammy has left many U.S. city neighborhoods highly vulnerable to soaring temperatures

In New York City, several Hunts Point residents have lists of neighbors they’re checking on to help keep the most vulnerable alive during heat waves. The city has also subsidized 74,000 air conditioners for low-income, elderly residents and is spending tens of millions to plant trees, as part of a “cool neighborhoods” program that also…

News | November 9, 2020

A UW student’s 3D video game depicts life during COVID-19 pandemic for people of color

During the pandemic, many people have leaned into art and hobbies to ease the stress of everyday life. For Chanhee Choi, a multidisciplinary interactive artist and Ph.D. candidate in the University of Washington Digital Arts and Experimental Media department, art became a way to reflect on her experience with discrimination and racism as a Korean in America during the…

Abraham Flaxman

News | August 3, 2023

Access to Culturally Relevant and Healthy Foods Is Critical to Improving Health Equity in Seattle

For several months, Priyasha Maharjan traveled with a translator to the homes of Seattle Afghan community members. She’d remove her shoes, greet the women who welcomed her into their homes, and then watch them cook dinner. Maharjan ate with families, asked them about their recipes, and listened as they told stories about their search for…

News | June 7, 2016

Access To Nature In Urban Areas Is Key To Healthier Living

Mental illnesses and mood disorders are more prevalent in urban areas partly due to reduced access to nature, according to a new study. Researchers probed the rising tension between the critical role of urban areas and these cities’ debilitating aspects that disconnect people from nature – and even raise mental illnesses. “There’s an enormous amount…

Adam Drewnowski

Degree Program

Advanced Practice Environmental and Occupational Health (Cert)

The Advanced Practice Environmental and Occupational Health (APEOH) graduate certificate is open to current graduate students or post-master’s professionals in any discipline who wish to develop advanced skills and expertise in environmental and occupational health nursing. More than a quarter of the global disease burden is attributable to environmental exposures, with children bearing a disproportionate…

Research Beyond UW | University of Cape Town

African Centre for Cities

The African Centre for Cities (ACC) is an interdisciplinary research and teaching programme focused on quality scholarship regarding the dynamics of unsustainable urbanisation processes in Africa, with an eye on identifying systemic responses. Rapid and poorly governed urbanization in Africa points to a profound developmental and philosophical crisis. Most scholarship focuses on the development challenges…

News | August 6, 2020

After three decades, most polluted U.S. neighborhoods haven’t changed

If your neighborhood was among the most polluted in 1981, it probably still is. Likewise, the least polluted areas are still faring the best, according to a study published on Thursday in the journal Science that analyzed concentrations of fine particulate matter over more than three decades in the United States. Overall, pollution from fine…

News | August 4, 2020

After two months of protests, Seattle activists say work not done

The mass protests against police brutality and for racial equity that have dominated Seattle and the nation for the past two months are like few others in American history — a sustained, daily movement, in major cities, sleepy suburbs and rural towns, with no central organizing hub, driven by social media and word-of-mouth. Locally, the…

News | February 18, 2020

Air Pollution Crosses Borders

Mount Marcy, the highest peak in New York State’s Adirondack Park, offers breathtaking views to hikers on a clear day. But despite being hundreds of miles from the nearest smokestack, summer air pollution levels here can sometimes be worse than in Times Square in New York City. “Often you’re going to feel lung burn in…

News | June 22, 2020

Air pollution ebbs during the pandemic in Washington state

Kristi Straus, a lecturer in the University of Washington’s College of Environmental Studies program, said reduced traffic and work commutes have likely lowered nitrogen dioxide pollution and improved people’s quality of life during the COVID-19 pandemic. “Certainly commuting is a big way we spend our time and burn fossil fuels,” she said. “The reduced traffic…

News | February 1, 2022

Air pollution from planes, roads infiltrates schools and can be dramatically reduced with portable air filters

What started as a University of Washington-led project to measure air pollution near Sea-Tac International Airport has led to schools in the area installing portable air filters to improve indoor air quality. First, UW researchers found they were able to parse aircraft pollution from roadway pollution in the communities under Sea-Tac International Airport flight paths and map…

Center & Lab

Alcohol and Drug Abuse Institute

Alison c. cullen, alissa bilfield, allison m cole, amazon catalyst grant.

Amazon Catalyst’s goal is to help people develop solutions to key problems faced in the world today. Problems can be diverse, from computer security, to immigration, to climate change. Because issues like these are complex, solutions will come from many different fields and many different perspectives. Therefore, the grants are open to all disciplines, including…

News | October 29, 2020

Amazon’s work from home policy means ‘tale of two cities’ for Seattle, Kent

Amazon’s decision to allow many employees to work from home until next summer is having dramatically different effects on two Puget Sound cities – Seattle and Kent. Seattle’s South Lake Union, the heart of the Amazon campus, is much quieter now than it was before the pandemic with so many employees working from home. “We’re seeing…

News | April 21, 2020

Amid a pandemic, geography returns with a vengeance

The pandemic is redefining our relationship with space. Not outer space, but physical space. Hot spots, distance, spread, scale, proximity. In a word: geography. Suddenly, we can’t stop thinking about where. Over the past few centuries, new technologies in transportation and communication made geography feel less critical. The advent of railway and refrigerated train cars in the…

Amy Hagopian

News | July 6, 2018

An interactive ‘storymap’ of trees in South King County

If a tree falls in the course of urban development and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound? A new art project based in South King County aims to ensure the answer is yes — and the sound is a cacophony of arboreal anecdotes. “My goal is to create a…

Andrew Saxon

Andy dannenberg, anjum hajat, anne taufen, anne vernez-moudon.

News | May 28, 2020

Annual innovation report details Seattle’s growing tech and science ecosystem

The latest Seattle Tech Ecosystem Report shows that the region’s innovation ecosystem continues to grow, though the short and long-term effects of COVID-19 crisis are still to be determined. The fifth annual report from the University of Washington-Bothell School of Business and iInnovate Network provides an overview of the tech, health, and life sciences activity in and around Seattle. It cites…

News | September 26, 2022

Annual letter recaps urban efforts across UW, beyond

As we all head into another autumn and academic year under the COVID-19 pandemic, Urban@UW wishes to acknowledge the ongoing impacts of this and so many other acute and chronic drivers of struggle, inequality and injustice. Along with the uncertainty, loss, and weariness, we also acknowledge this community’s perseverance and commitment to co-creating cities that…

News | June 22, 2021

Another smoky summer could be on Washington’s horizon

Record-breaking rainfall drenched Seattle and Olympia on Sunday. Even with the wet weather and snowpack in the Cascades about 40% deeper than normal for this time of year, western Washington could be in for a smoky summer from forest fires. Much of eastern Washington and most of the western United States are experiencing severe droughts,…

Anthropology (BA, BS)

Anthropology is one of those rare fields that touches on all others. It is not a "conveyor belt" to a specific job, but, rather, an avenue to reach many possible career paths. Anthropologists today don't just work in exotic locals, but are making significant contributions right here at home. They can be found working in…

Applied Research Consortium

The Applied Research Consortium (ARC) is rooted in the idea that collaboration across academia and industry will accelerate progress in our fields. ARC brings together an interdisciplinary group of built environment firms with faculty experts and graduate student researchers at the University of Washington’s College of Built Environments (CBE) to address the most vexing challenges…

News | December 11, 2020

Are cities a safe place to live during a pandemic?

In the spring, as thousands of people were sickened by the coronavirus, the bodies began to pile up in one of the country’s densest urban centers: New York City. News headlines rolled like a steady drumbeat of doom. The region became known as the epicenter of the pandemic. Economists predicted that the city’s recovery would take…

Arnold Ventures

Arnold Ventures funds efforts to understand problems and identify policy solutions. Our giving centers on issues in Criminal Justice, Health, Education, and Public Finance, and is guided by Evidence-Based Policy, Research, and Advocacy. We have supported more than 1,000 projects since we began in 2010.

News | September 5, 2018

Artificial intelligence can estimate an area’s obesity levels by analyzing its buildings

Two researchers from the University of Washington Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation have found a way to estimate a US city’s obesity level without having to look at its inhabitants. The duo trained an artificial intelligence algorithm to find the relationship between a city’s infrastructure and obesity levels using satellite and Street View images…

News | July 28, 2020

As districts seek revenue due to pandemic, Black homeowners may feel the biggest hit

New research bolsters the case that Black homeowners bear a disproportionate tax burden for underfunded public schools. Now those same homeowners are likely to see their property tax rates climb even higher due to the coronavirus pandemic’s economic devastation. That’s because cash-strapped school boards that oversee majority-Black school districts are expected to ask their residents…

News | September 28, 2020

As wildfire smoke clears, King County’s airport communities continue fight for clean air

As massive clouds of smoke from wildfires throughout the region obscured the sky last week, SeaTac Deputy Mayor Peter Kwon filtered the air in his own home by attaching a furnace filter to a box fan and then duct-taping a triangular piece of cardboard over the gaps. When the air quality index (AQI) rose to…

News | September 14, 2020

At center of police defunding debate, King County Equity Now and Decriminalize Seattle reimagine public safety

Thousands of activists and community leaders gathered June 5 in front of the decommissioned Fire Station 6 to discuss the future of Seattle. The 1930s building represented a juncture in the Central District’s past and present: Its art deco façade stood at the corner of a once-thriving Black neighborhood dating back to the 1800s that, largely due…

News | November 21, 2019

Baking cities advance ‘slowly’ in race against rising heat threat

With urban populations surging around the world, cities will struggle to keep residents safe from fast-growing heat risks turbo-charged by climate change, scientists and public health experts warned this week. Heat is already the leading cause of deaths from extreme weather in countries including the United States. The problem is particularly severe in cities, where…

Barbara Baquero

News | April 20, 2017

Bellevue, Renton Among Top 100 U.S Cities for Livability

​Watch as King 5 News brings in Branden Born to shed light on the weighting mechanisms employed by a survey recently published on livability.com which ranked Renton and Bellevue among their top 100 cities for livability. Watch the whole clip on iQmediacorp.com

Benjamin Danielson

Benjamin de haan.

News | November 25, 2020

Biden’s COVID-19 strategy should prioritize low-income communities like Philly’s

As America focused on the presidential election, COVID-19 cases surged. This alarming trend underscores the task now before President-elect Joe Biden and his COVID-19 task force: to “listen to science” and implement strategies that minimize pandemic-related suffering for Americans — particularly those living in poverty. The pandemic has hit poor communities like much of Philadelphia…

News | January 9, 2017

Big Data and Human Services: A Brief Annotated Reading List

On January 17-18th 2017, the Metrolab workshop on Big Data and Human Services hosted by City of Seattle, MetroLab Network, and the University of Washington will convene experts from local government and universities to discuss common challenges and propose collaborative, data-driven solutions to human service issues. Urban@UW has compiled a brief reading list to help…

News | January 24, 2023

Big Green School Bus

Hop in an Uber these days, and you’ll likely find yourself in a quiet, fuel-efficient hybrid vehicle. But millions of children are still riding to school in buses belching diesel fumes, a fuel more closely associated with a prior generation of tractor-trailer trucks. Maggie Polachek, graduate of the Foster School of Business, is working to…

News | August 3, 2020

Black pastors and activists want Central District land as reparations

In the midst of ongoing protests against police brutality and the death of George Floyd, Black communities in the Seattle area have begun a push for bigger, more long-term actions toward overcoming the poverty created by decades of racist policies. “We need reparations for our Black and brown communities,” said Pastor Angela Ying of Bethany…

News | October 13, 2020

Black, Latino, and Indigenous communities hit hardest by heat waves

On average, extreme heat over the past 30 years has killed more people in the United States than any other weather event, according to the U.S. Natural Hazard Statistics. That means more lives have been lost to heat over the past three decades than to hurricanes, floods, or tornadoes — and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) data shows that…

Bonnie Duran

News | August 19, 2019

Breathing dirty city air is as bad for your lungs as smoking

Even if you’ve never smoked, just living in a city with polluted air could lead to emphysema. A new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that air pollution—and in particular ozone, which is increasing with climate change—makes the lung disease progress faster. If you live in a city with high ozone levels for a…

Bridge Funding Program

The University of Washington Provost’s Office provides bridge funding to support faculty to span the gap in critical research programs. Applications from faculty should be submitted to the applicant’s department chair, who should prioritize requests before forwarding them to the dean of the college/school. In non-departmentalized colleges/schools, applications should be submitted to the dean or…

News | January 23, 2024

Building community resilience: A $2 million NSF grant will transform disaster response

Amy Sprague January 16, 2024 “Our advantage of being an interdisciplinary project at the University of Washington is that we are drawing from an excellent corps of researchers with complementary expertise at a University whose mission includes working for the greater good across the state of Washington and has excellent ties into our communities.” Professor…

News | September 13, 2023

Building Resilience in Children at the Start of the New School Year

As the academic year kicks off, parents and guardians across Seattle fill out last-minute paperwork, pack backpacks and lunch sacks, and remind countless children to set out their clothes the night before. While adults nudge children and teenagers to grab a sweater on their way out the door, many can forget to actively check in…

News | May 24, 2021

Built on pudding: Can modern quake engineering prevail?

This is the second of three stories about a little-known geologic fault that could trigger a major earthquake in Snohomish and Island counties. EVERETT — You’re strolling across a flat sandy beach, on the wet part, where the waves roll in and out. You stop to wiggle your toes. You sink. In an earthquake, this can happen…

Bullitt Center Discovery Commons

The UW-Center for Integrated Design (CID), a self-sustaining entity of the University of Washington, is located on the second floor of the Bullitt Center, serving as the home for the Integrated Design Lab and the Discovery Commons. The Integrated Design Lab (IDL) carries out research and technical assistance aimed at advancing knowledge and implementation of…

Bullitt Foundation Grants

The Foundation’s resources are modest when compared to the ambitious mission of promoting sustainable development over a huge region. So its role is mostly catalytic. The Foundation looks for high risk, high potential payoff opportunities to exert unusual leverage. It has a special interest in demonstrating innovative approaches that promise to solve multiple problems simultaneously.…

News | July 18, 2019

Bus PASS: Testing pedestrian collision avoidance technology

Already, many cars have sensors on board that help drivers avoid collisions. But not many commercial vehicles do. With pedestrian fatalities due to collisions, on the rise, the Federal Transit Administration is working on a “Pedestrian Avoidance Safety System: ‘PASS’ for short. And it picked Virginia Tech’s Transportation Institute to give it a test drive….

News | October 31, 2019

California fires, from the Getty Center to Kincade, unleash another danger: Air pollution

The defining story of the raging Sonoma and Los Angeles wildfires is one we’re barely talking about: Wildfire smoke, and its contribution to rising air pollution levels across much of the United States, is irreversibly harming human health. While the blazes may seem like a problem limited to California and the West Coast, it’s a dangerous and increasingly frequent contributor…

News | July 19, 2023

Can virtual reality mimic nature’s power to make us healthier?

For decades, scientists have been exploring how exposing humans to nature—by planting trees along urban streets, visiting forests or even just growing houseplants—may improve physical and psychological health. Now researchers are also testing whether we can reap at least some of the same benefits from experiencing nature in virtual reality. This strange twist speaks to…

News | October 18, 2016

Cars vs health: UW’s Moudon, Dannenberg contribute to Lancet series on urban planning, public health

Automobiles — and the planning and infrastructure to support them — are making our cities sick, says an international group of researchers now publishing a three-part series in the British medical journal The Lancet. University of Washington professors Anne Vernez Moudon and Andrew Dannenberg are co-authors of the first of this series that explores these…

News | August 31, 2022

CBE Research Team Measures Health and Happiness at Dune Peninsula

On a little peninsula in Tacoma, Washington, a native prairie grows on a remediated toxic waste site. Paths loop around the 11-acre property, known these days as Dune Peninsula at Point Defiance Park, giving visitors up-close and personal experiences with a variety of wildlife species, from eagles, hawks and heron to deer, sea lions and orcas….

News | July 16, 2020

CEE researchers develop first-ever map that quantifies landslide risk in Seattle

When it comes to safeguarding Seattle from landslide hazards, UW CEE Ph.D. student William Pollock has a plan mapped out – quite literally. He will soon be releasing a first-of-its-kind map that predicts landslide risk throughout the city. “As far as I know, this is the first map in the nation to quantify landslide risk…

Research Beyond UW | Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Center for Advanced Urbanism

The Center for Advanced Urbanism is committed to fostering a rigorous design culture for the large scale; by focusing our disciplinary conversations about architecture, urban planning, landscape architecture, and systems thinking, not about the problems of yesterday, but of tomorrow. We are motivated by the radical changes in our environment, and the role that design…

Center for Anti-Racism and Community Health (ARCH)

The ARCH Center serves as a community-driven academic hub focused on the critical interrogation and disruption of racism and racialization within systems while centering those most impacted by legacies of U.S. colonization. Guided by anti-racism, critical race theory, and community-based participatory research principles, the ARCH Center’s research will focus on testing strategies to break down…

Research Beyond UW | University of Virginia

Center for Design & Health

The Center for Design and Health pursues cross-disciplinary research to aid the design and planning of effective environments for human health and well being. The work of the Center focuses on a variety of health issues, including the design and planning of patient-centered medical facilities, housing, neighborhoods, communities, cities, and regions.

Center for Education and Research in Construction (CERC)

The Center for Education and Research in Construction (CERC) is a locus of research, scholarship and discovery in the UW’s Department of Construction Management and allied disciplines of architecture, engineering and real estate. Focused on the people and practices of a dynamic, innovative construction industry, CERC develops new concepts and innovative solutions as well as…

Center for Global Studies

The Center for Global Studies (CGS) is dedicated to fostering language excellence, international studies expertise, and global literacy in the Pacific Northwest and throughout the nation with the overall objective of enhancing the nation’s capacity to address contemporary global challenges. The Center is especially focused on increasing the diversity of students engaged in international studies…

Center for Health and the Global Environment (CHANGE)

CHANGE collaboratively develops and promotes innovative approaches to understanding and managing the risks of global environmental change. CHANGE conducts research and policy analysis, education and training, and technical assistance and capacity building, integrating health, environmental, and social sciences. CHANGE focuses on health outcomes associated with the consequences of global environmental changes, such as extreme weather…

Center for Health Systems and Population Health (HSPop)

The University of Washington Department of Health Systems and Population Health (HSPop) prepares future health practitioners, managers, and researchers to conduct the work of improving the well-being of communities in the United States and throughout the world. We envision a future where systems effectively, efficiently, and equitably promote the health of all populations. We are…

Center for Integrated Design

The mission of the Center for Integrated Design is to discover solutions that overcome the most difficult building performance barriers, and to meet the building industry’s goals of moving towards radically higher performing buildings and healthy urban environments. The Center for Integrated Design, composed of the Integrated Design Lab and the Discovery Commons, builds knowledge…

Center for Livable Communities

The mission of the Center for Livable Communities is to enhance the livability of communities in the Pacific Northwest through applied research and outreach in the areas of land use planning, policy, and design; healthy communities; food security; and public participation and democracy. The Center is a research and policy center focused on issues of…

Center for One Health Research

One Health is an integrated, transdisciplinary approach to health problems involving humans, animals and the rapidly changing environments we share. These problems are complex and interconnected. They require new scientific and professional competencies to understand and address them. One Health incorporates multiple perspectives to assess the underlying causes of these health challenges and to develop…

Center for Public Health Nutrition

The Center for Public Health Nutrition’s mission is to: Advance public health approaches to improve nutrition and physical activity through environmental and policy change Build partnerships and collaborations with practitioners, government agencies and communities Provide technical assistance in the translation of research into policy and practice Shape obesity and chronic disease prevention and reduction efforts

Center for Southeast Asia and Its Diasporas (CSEAD)

The University of Washington Center for Southeast Asia & its Diasporas (CSEAD) is a National Resource Center for Southeast Asian Studies funded by the U.S. Department of Education pursuant to Title VI of the Higher Education Act (HEA). Established in 1986, the Center and the Southeast Asia Studies Program are a source of information on…

Center for Statistics and the Social Sciences

The Center for Statistics and the Social Sciences started in 1999, with funding from the University Initiatives Fund. It was the first center in the nation devoted to this interface, with the triple mission of galvanizing collaborative research between social scientists and statisticians, developing a menu of new graduate courses for social science students, and…

Center for Studies in Demography and Ecology (CSDE)

The Center for Studies in Demography and Ecology (CSDE) supports population research and training at the University of Washington. It also functions as a regional center that gives population scientists at affiliated institutions in the Pacific Northwest access to cutting-edge demographic infrastructure and services. The core of CSDE consists of a large group of productive…

Center for Urban Horticulture

The Center for Urban Horticulture, opened in 1984, is part of the University of Washington Botanic Gardens. It includes a 16-acre landscaped site with buildings and gardens, and the 74-acre Union Bay Natural Area, which provides publicly accessible wildlife habitat (more than 200 bird species have been sighted there) and an outdoor laboratory for UW…

Center for Urban Waters

Research conducted by University of Washington Tacoma scientists at the Center for Urban Waters seeks to understand and quantify the sources, pathways and impacts of chemical pollutants in urban waterways.Highly sensitive analytical tools to measure contaminant levels are combined with sophisticated computer models to track pollutant sources and transport in the Puget Sound region. UW…

Research Beyond UW | University of Toronto

Centre for Urban & Community Studies

The Centre for Urban and Community Studies (CUCS) was established in 1964 to promote and disseminate multidisciplinary research and policy analysis on urban issues. The Centre's activities contributed to scholarship on questions relating to the social, economic and physical well-being of people who live and work in urban areas large and small, in Canada and…

Research Beyond UW | University of Nairobi

Centre for Urban Research and Innovations

Centre for Urban Research and Innovations (CURI), formerly Urban Innovations Program (UIP), is a think tank based at the University of Nairobi's Department of Urban and Regional Planning. The Centre seeks to create a forum for exploring innovative methodologies for enabling planners and professionals in the built environment to be more responsive and effective in…

News | August 24, 2018

Certified healthy buildings? Bellevue and UW are working on it

Considering that most people spend one-third of their day at work, UW Civil and Environmental Engineering researchers are advocating for healthier buildings. And they aren’t wasting any time. The first government building in Puget Sound, Bellevue City Hall, recently gained Fitwel Certification thanks to their help. “Since the built environment affects human health, the certification symbolizes the city’s commitment…

Change is a group at the University of Washington exploring how technology can improve the lives of underserved populations in low-income regions. Change’s members primarily come from Computer Science and Engineering (CSE), Technology and Social Change (TASHA),Information School (iSchool), Evans School of Public Affairs (Evans), Human Centered Design and Engineering (HCDE), Bio and Health Informatics…

Research Beyond UW | University of Chicago

Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago

Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago has, since its inception in 1985 as a research and policy center, focused on a mission of improving the well-being of children and youth, families, and their communities. We do this through policy research—by developing and testing new ideas, generating and analyzing information, and examining policies, programs, and…

Charles H. Lea III

Research Beyond UW | Lesley University

Child Homelessness Initiative

The mission of the CHI is to prepare Lesley University graduates---next-generation teachers, policy advocates, therapists and child care providers--with a trauma-informed asset model that enables practices and policies consistent with maximizing infant and toddler health, happiness and well-being, securing their protection from injury and insult, and advancing their educational opportunities and citizenship.

Christine Stevens

Christopher beasley.

News | May 5, 2020

Cities and the SARS CoV2 coronavirus in the Global South: Breaking points in an interconnected system

Since COVID-19 first erupted in China in December and began spreading across the world, the pandemic’s early outbreaks have “burned hottest in the richer, globalized quarters of the world linked by busy commercial air routes—Europe and the United States.” (National Geographic, 2020a [website]) Now, four months into the pandemic, compounding factors of urban density and…

News | June 9, 2020

Cities have changed – for rats

After Chicago’s stores and restaurants shut down in March, Rebecca Fyffe, the director of research at a pest-control company, went on one of her usual evening “rat safaris.” Her employer, Landmark Pest Management, services many of the city’s high-end, Michelin-rated restaurants, which had been forced to close hastily, dumping piles of produce. Beside a dumpster…

News | March 9, 2018

Cities, scientists unite in battle against climate change at U.N. summit

Climate scientists and city planners are to start charting a global roadmap on how cities can best battle climate change, when they gather at a U.N.-backed summit in Canada’s Edmonton on Monday. The three day gathering marks the first time cities rather than nations are offered a seat at the table of the Intergovernmental Panel…

News | July 30, 2020

Cities’ summer challenge: Keep people cool while keeping COVID-19 at bay

In the age of social distancing and other efforts to limit the spread of COVID-19, cities are grappling with whether to encourage vulnerable populations to leave their homes during extreme heat and congregate under a communal air-conditioning system or stay home and hope that the summer heat doesn’t make them sick. “It’s a hard time…

News | March 23, 2018

City of Bellevue selected as 2018-2019 UW Livable City Year partner

The University of Washington Livable City Year program has selected the City of Bellevue to be the community partner for the 2018-2019 academic year. The year-long partnership connects city staff with students and faculty who will collaborate on projects to advance the Bellevue City Council Vision Priorities, specifically around livability and sustainability. In the upcoming…

Map | Melbourne

City of Melbourne Maps

This site includes information, maps and images relating to properties, features and assets located within the City of Melbourne municipal area. Map data includes childcare and schools, community facilities, development activities, historic maps, mobility information, districts, walking tours and more.

City of Vancouver looks west to continue restoration of Burnt Bridge Creek greenway

For decades, Burnt Bridge Creek was little more than a polluted drainage ditch lined by invasive vegetation. The creek flows west for about 13 miles through the city, from its headwaters in east Vancouver, before emptying into a natural wetland near Northwest Lakeshore Avenue and flowing through two culverts into Vancouver Lake. It has a…

Civic Innovation Challenge

The Civic Innovation Challenge, funded by the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy, and the Department of Homeland Security, supports partnerships between communities and universities that address mobility and resilience priorities. Teams will compete for awards of up to $1 million to support ready-to-implement, research-based pilot projects that have the potential for scalable, sustainable,…

News | February 11, 2018

Climate change and equity – A community conversation

Join UW Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences, Front and Centered, the Climate Impacts Group, Urban@UW, and UW School of Public Health for an evening discussion about climate change and equity in Washington State on February 21st, 2018 at 5:30 PM. Front and Centered, Urban@UW, the Climate Impacts Group and the UW School of…

News | December 6, 2018

Climate change consequences ‘already being felt’ in communities across U.S.

As California’s catastrophic wildfires recede and people rebuild after two hurricanes, a massive new federal report warns that these types of extreme weather disasters are worsening in the United States. The White House report quietly issued Friday also frequently contradicts President Donald Trump. The National Climate Assessment was written long before the deadly fires in California this…

News | July 21, 2022

Climate change is pushing hospitals to tipping point

When an unprecedented heat wave baked the Pacific Northwest last July, emergency rooms sought any way possible to lower the core body temperatures of patients coming in droves with heat-related ailments. Many emergency departments in the region began putting people in body bags filled with ice to help safely adjust their temperatures. But despite their…

News | June 5, 2023

Climate Hazards Are the Duwamish Valley’s Top Concern, Survey Finds

A new study of Duwamish Valley residents in South Park and Georgetown shows that more people list environmental impacts as one of their top-three concerns than any other problem facing the area, followed by crime and cost of living. The Duwamish Valley Climate Resilience Survey was a joint project of city agencies, university researchers and community groups…

News | November 20, 2019

Climate Migration and Global Cities

Between 2009 and 2018, 71 million people worldwide were forcibly displaced. This includes 41 million people who have been displaced within their own country, including the majority of climate migrants (World Bank Group, 2018 [PDF]); 26 million refugees, those forced to flee because of violence or persecution; and 4 million asylum-seekers, those who are waiting for…

News | August 10, 2021

Co-designing a technology intervention to support the health and development of children

The King County’s 2018-2019 Community Needs Assessment revealed that infants from racially and economically marginalized groups encounter the highest rates of infant mortality and lowest birth weights compared to any other population. King County has offered developmental screening services and virtual information to help child caregivers address this issue. However, there is growing consensus among…

News | September 8, 2017

College of Built Environments’ David de la Cruz partners with communities for environmental justice

David de la Cruz has a question about power. “When we think about toxic sites and where they’re placed in relation to where people live, who’s left out of making those decisions?” “Often,” he answers, “it’s the people who live there. It’s low-income communities, working-class communities and communities of color who don’t have a say….

News | June 8, 2022

College of Built Environments’ unique Inspire Fund aims to foster research momentum in underfunded pursuits college-wide. And it’s working.

“For a small college, CBE has a broad range of research paradigms, from history and arts, to social science and engineering.” — Carrie Sturts Dossick, Associate Dean of Research Upon taking on the role of Associate Dean of Research, Carrie Sturts Dossick, professor in the Department of Construction Management, undertook listening sessions to learn about…

News | December 23, 2020

Community care research during dual pandemics: An update from Urban@UW Affiliates

This fall, with a grant from Population Health Initiative: COVID Rapid Response, the Center for Communication, Difference, and Equity’s research team began a project on community care and mental health of Black/African American communities in Seattle. Led by Urban@UW Affiliates Ralina Joseph, Professor, Department of Communication and Director of CCDE; and N. Gina Aaftab, Assistant…

Research Beyond UW | Columbia University

Community Impact at Columbia University

Community Impact serves individuals in need in the communities of Upper Manhattan while providing meaningful volunteering and leadership opportunities for students at Columbia University and Barnard College. Community Impact oversees the operation of 27 programs that provide a variety of services for residents in the surrounding Harlem, Morningside Heights, and Washington Heights communities. Columbia and…

News | April 16, 2020

Community science project tracks changes in bird behavior during coronavirus

The predictable, daily routines of humanity have all but stopped with the arrival of COVID-19. For most of us, we no longer head to the office each morning or have friends and family over for dinner in our homes. Our day-to-day activities now look entirely different than they did six weeks ago. But does this…

Community, Environment & Planning (BA)

Community, Environment, and Planning is a self-directed, diverse undergraduate major comprised of students, faculty, and staff engaged in holistic growth and a collaborative process of experiential and interdisciplinary learning. In our major, we develop skills, techniques, and knowledge necessary to be active leaders and conscientious planners in our communities and environments. Our values are presented…

News | March 23, 2020

Continued Support for the Homeless from The Doorway Project

Urban@UW is a proud partner in The Doorway Project. Below we share their quarterly update: Like everyone else, we at the Doorway Project are practicing flexibility to quickly-changing systems and environments as a result of the covid-19/coronavirus global pandemic. Because of these changes, we have prioritized the health and safety of our Community Advisory Board…

News | December 7, 2020

Coronavirus cases spike among Puget Sound-area transit workers

As a new wave of coronavirus sweeps Washington state, positive cases are ticking up at local transit agencies, where workers have continued driving and servicing buses since the start of the pandemic. At King County Metro, employees have reported 20 positive tests from the start of this month to Nov. 21. That’s up from six in October…

News | March 30, 2020

Coronavirus pandemic highlights economic inequality in the US

Jennie Romich, associate professor at the University of Washington School of Social Work and director of the West Coast Poverty Center, discusses how different economic classes are able to respond to the coronavirus pandemic: For a lot of low and moderate income families, the primary economic concerns of this pandemic are keeping enough food in the…

News | May 7, 2020

Coronavirus pushed Seattle to treat homelessness differently. Will those changes last?

Lola Anderson-Najera finally has a door that locks. After years of weaving in and out homelessness, sleeping “elbow-to-elbow” in shelters and sometimes outside, she’s found a tiny, temporary home. It’s small, but it has a chair to read in, an end table to hold her things, and fresh sheets. Above all, she said, there’s a new feeling of…

News | April 3, 2020

Coronavirus: Homeless families lose key support as schools close

In a typical year, homeless shelters experience the biggest surge in demand not during the cold winter months, but rather during the summer. In the summer, schools close and parents lose the usual daily eight hours of childcare and meals. With the additional burden of sleeping on the streets, parents seek out shelter more often, research…

News | June 26, 2015

CoSSar presented by Scott Miles

​Presented at June 1st Urban@UW Launch Meeting

News | July 11, 2019

Could court fines and fees be keeping people homeless?

A new University of Washington School of Public Health study sustains a long-held argument that court-imposed fees and fines may keep the most vulnerable people ensnared in a vicious cycle of poverty and incarceration. The researchers found that, among a group of adults experiencing homelessness in the Seattle area, people with outstanding legal debt spent…

News | March 14, 2023

Could Walks in the Park Ward Off Postpartum Depression?

New moms who live on tree-lined streets may be somewhat less vulnerable to postpartum depression, according to a new study — the latest to link “green space” to better mental health. The study, of medical records from more than 415,000 new mothers, found that those living in urban areas with more tree coverage had a…

News | October 28, 2020

COVID-19 accelerating trend of out-of-area buyers in Spokane, housing experts say

The coronavirus pandemic is accelerating a growing trend of out-of-area buyers and remote workers moving to Spokane in search of a better quality of life and affordable housing, real estate experts said at the Association of Washington Business Housing Forum Virtual Series earlier this week. Part of the housing demand is coming from retirees, who…

News | September 24, 2020

COVID-19 testing in King County homeless shelters shows need to create safer conditions in crowded settings

Border detention facilities, prisons and refugee camps have something in common with communal homeless shelters, University of Washington School of Medicine researchers say. They’re home to “closed, crowded conditions where people have to live in small spaces and share a lot of common facilities,” said Dr. Helen Y. Chu, associate professor at the UW School…

News | January 18, 2022

COVID’s invisible toll on Seattle’s trans community

A Seattle Times analysis found that among all groups, a disproportionate percentage of trans people were on the brink of poverty, homelessness and starvation. This, in a city where over 10% of the population identifies as queer. As their social determinants for good health plummeted, so has their access to health care, a worrying development as…

News | December 13, 2019

Creating mental health friendly cities for youth

What would it take to make Seattle a mental health friendly city for young people? What innovations and actions might promote adolescent mental health in Seattle, as a model for other cities? The Population Health Initiative recently partnered with the University of Washington’s Global Mental Health program and Urban@UW to host an in-depth conversation with a multidisciplinary group of…

Cynthia Pearson

News | December 3, 2019

Dads in prison can bring poverty, instability for families on the outside

Studies of the societal effects of prison often focus on the imprisoned: their physical and mental health, job prospects after release, their likelihood of returning to jail. A new study from the University of Washington looks instead at families of men who are, or were recently, incarcerated — specifically, at where these families live, how…

Danae Dotolo

News | July 7, 2016

Data Science for Social Good 2016

This summer we are thrilled to be supporting the eScience Institute’s Data Science for Social Good (DSSG) program. Modeled after similar programs at the University of Chicago and Georgia Tech, with elements from eScience’s own Data Science Incubator, sixteen DSSG Student Fellows have been working with academic researchers, data scientists, and public stakeholder groups on…

News | September 3, 2020

Data Science for Social Good fellows present their project results

This year, two interdisciplinary teams at the eScience Institute’s Data Science for Social Good (DSSG) program tackled timely issues, conducting projects to identify disinformation articles about the coronavirus and detect minority vote dilution resulting from geographic boundary setting in state, city, county and school board districts. On August 19th, the DSSG student fellows presented the results of their projects, conducted with…

News | October 12, 2018

Data Science for Social Good shares its fourth year of partnership-based projects

The fourth annual Data Science for Social Good (DSSG) program at the eScience Institute culminated on August 17th with final presentations from three interdisciplinary teams. The 15 DSSG Student Fellows – representing fields from public policy and sociology to biology, statistics and electrical engineering – presented their findings based on 10 weeks of full-time work with in-house data scientists…

News | April 7, 2020

Data suggests coronavirus is disproportionately affecting Black communities in the US

Preliminary demographic data – where available — and early anecdotal evidence suggest that poor African-Americans are contracting and dying from the coronavirus in disproportionate rates. In the state of Michigan, while blacks represent only 12% of the total population, they account for at least 40% of its coronavirus-related deaths, said the Michigan Department of Health and…

Davon Woodard

News | August 18, 2022

Dean Cheng at AIA ’22

The Soul Children of Chicago, an acclaimed youth choir, delivered an energetic start to Day 2 of A’22. The group performed four songs to warm up the crowd for the impending keynote panel conversation. Moderated by Lee Bey, a Chicago-based photographer, author, lecturer, and architecture critic, the conversation featured renowned architects Vishaan Chakrabarti, FAIA, Renée…

Dean Heerwagen

News | March 30, 2023

DEOHS Researchers Testing Air Quality on Buses and Trains

University of Washington researchers are working with Pacific Northwest transit agencies to study whether illicit drug use on buses and trains may affect air quality in the vehicles. The research team is collecting samples and assessing airflow on buses and trains this spring in a first-of-its-kind study to address concerns about increased use of fentanyl…

Department of Homeland Security – Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities

The Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) program makes federal funds available to states, U.S territories, Indian tribal governments, and local communities for pre-disaster mitigation activities.

Derek Fulwiler

Derek jennings, designing healthy cities by andrew dannenberg.

Presented at the June 1st Urban@UW Launch

Diana Pearce

News | December 24, 2020

Did COVID lockdowns really clear the air?

The early days of the Covid-19 lockdowns were seen as an environmental marvel. With fewer commuters and empty highways, residents of cities from Los Angeles to New Delhi witnessed clear blue skies and mountain views that had long been obscured by smog. The dramatic atmospheric transformation was one of first of the “silver linings” that the coronavirus…

News | December 9, 2020

Did COVID-19 heal nature?

The Welsh village of Llandudno went quiet in March as stay-at-home orders began. Then the goats descended from the mountain. A wild herd of Kashmiri goats has lived near Llandudno for almost two centuries, and they sometimes come down from the Great Orme Mountain during inclement weather. But this spring, while the human world hit…

Disability Studies (Minor, Major, and Graduate Certificate)

Disability Studies is a multi-disciplinary field that investigates, critiques, and enhances Western society’s understandings of disability. The Disability Studies Program's Minor, Major, and Graduate Certificate will introduce you to a critical framework for recognizing how people with disabilities have experienced disadvantages and exclusion because of personal and societal responses to impairment, and for exploring how…

News | October 4, 2018

Disaster response needed to bring homeless people inside, says King County health board

The King County Board of Health is urging local governments to use emergency homeless shelters in anticipation of the quickly approaching cold weather. The board of health this week unanimously approved board member Bill Daniell’s proposal to call homelessness a public health disaster and advise local governments to do whatever is necessary to get people inside. The board’s…

News | December 16, 2019

Doorway Project Winter Update: Building at the Speed of Trust

The Doorway Project, a cross-campus and community-engaged project under Urban@UW’s Homelessness Research Initiative, has been busy! Check out their activities and plans for the future in their latest blog post:   With the end of the year and the end of the decade approaching in the next few weeks, this moment feels like a perfect time to…

News | September 10, 2021

Doorway Project: 2020-2021 Year End Report

The Doorway Project is an initiative co-led by the University of Washington and YouthCare, an agency offering individualized services to young people experiencing homelessness in Seattle/King County. The Doorway Project works to address youth and young adult homelessness in the University District through centering youth wellbeing and agency in the development of emancipatory and creative…

News | April 22, 2020

Dose of nature even in your own backyard can help mental health during coronavirus pandemic

Many Washingtonians are spending more time in their homes or apartments due to the stay-at-home order to help slow the spread of coronavirus, which means they may be missing out on their usual weekend hikes and other nature escapes. But University of Washington researchers say you don’t have to go to a remote location to…

News | July 2, 2018

Driving? Your phone is a distraction even if you aren’t looking at it

I was in the car with a friend recently when she pulled up to a stoplight, picked up her phone and replied to a text. I gave her the side eye. What? she glared back. “I only use my phone when we’re stopped.” “OK, fine,” I said. But, I wondered, is it? We all know that…

News | July 8, 2019

Drug-related deaths continue to rise in King County

Drug-related deaths have continued to climb in King County, with fatal overdoses involving methamphetamine and fentanyl on the rise, according to Public Health — Seattle & King County. King County, like cities across the country, have focused their efforts on combating opioids. Syringe exchanges in King County distributed nearly 8 million needles last year, along…

News | May 20, 2020

EarthLab announces Innovation Grant recipients for 2020

Research projects funded for 2020 by EarthLab’s Innovation Grants Program will study how vegetation might reduce pollution, help an Alaskan village achieve safety and resilience amid climate change, organize a California river’s restoration with tribal involvement, compare practices in self-managed indigenous immigrant communities and more. EarthLab is a University of Washington-wide institute connecting scholars with community…

Education, Communities and Organizations (BA)

The University of Washington's Education, Communities and Organizations (ECO) degree believes teaching and learning happens not only within the formal classroom, but also across a host of professions such as youth development, policy reform, business, healthcare and in a variety of other organizations serving communities.

News | August 20, 2020

Educational inequities didn’t begin with COVID-19, but they’re far from over

As schools across the country are starting to resume instruction, which schools – and which students – remain online, while others push for in-person learning? The divide between parents and families who have the time, money, and resources to support a remote learning environment for their children and those who don’t is largely split along…

Edward Kasner

Edwina uehara, elaine faustman, eliot brenowitz, elizabeth kirk, emily hovis, environmental health (bs, minor, ms, phd, mph).

The University of Washington’s Bachelor of Science in Environmental Health is a great fit for students who love science, and who are passionate about using their scientific skills to address human health issues related to the built and natural environments. Environmental Health is designated as a STEM discipline (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) by the…

Environmental Justice Fund

The Environmental Justice Fund is a grant opportunity for community-led projects that improve environmental conditions, respond to impacts of climate change and get us closer to achieving environmental justice. Created in 2017, the Fund is overseen by the Environmental Justice Committee, people with deep community roots working closely with communities on environmental justice issues. Environmental…

News | September 15, 2023

Environmental Protection Agency Delays New Ozone Pollution Standards Until After the 2024 Election

The Environmental Protection Agency is delaying plans to tighten air quality standards for ground-level ozone — better known as smog — despite a recommendation by a scientific advisory panel to lower air pollution limits to protect public health. The decision by EPA Administrator Michael Regan means that one of the agency’s most important air quality…

Erin Blakeney

News | June 17, 2015

eScience Institute’s Data Science for Social Good Projects Announced

eScience Institute’s Data Science for Social Good Projects Announced Bringing together data scientists to work on focused, collaborative projects designed to impact public policy. This Summer teams will be looking at: Assessing Community Well-Being Through Open Data and Social Media – providing neighborhood communities with a better understanding of the factors that impact their well-being….

Evans School Policy Analysis & Research Group (EPAR)

Established in 2008, the Evans School Policy Analysis and Research Group (EPAR) uses an innovative student-faculty team model to provide rigorous, applied research and analysis to international development stakeholders. EPAR has prepared more than 300 technical reports and briefs including: statistical data analysis and research, literature reviews and analysis, and portfolio analysis and strategy support.…

Eviction Lab

We're unpacking America's eviction crisis. The Eviction Lab at Princeton University has built the first nationwide database of evictions. Find out how many evictions happen in your community. Create custom maps, charts, and reports. Share facts with your neighbors and elected officials.

News | February 27, 2019

Evictions, rent spikes contribute to Washington’s homelessness crisis, study finds

With rent spikes and the decline of affordable housing, a team of University of Washington researchers are finding that evictions are contributing to the rise in homelessness across Washington state. Tim Thomas is the Principal Investigator of the study, and post-doctoral fellow at the UW eScience Institute. Now they’ve created a “living document” that shows eviction rates…

News | June 4, 2021

Fast food, supermarkets, other aspects of built environments don’t play expected role in weight gain

People don’t gain or lose weight because they live near a fast-food restaurant or supermarket, according to a new study led by the University of Washington. And, living in a more “walkable”, dense neighborhood likely only has a small impact on weight. These “built-environment” amenities have been seen in past research as essential contributors to losing weight or tending…

News | February 25, 2020

Fatal Fentanyl Overdoses Continue to Climb in King County.

Last year marked the fifth in row in which fentanyl overdoses continued to climb in King County. Three fatal overdoses on the same day earlier this month prompted county officials to issue statements. The three deaths, which happened in South King County, add to the grim toll health officials have documented in recent years. Already…

News | July 2, 2020

Fearful commuters on trains, buses hold one key to U.S. recovery

Masks are mandatory on subways and buses in Washington. San Francisco is betting longer trains will help riders social distance. Crews disinfect New York’s trains daily — stations twice a day — and are testing ultraviolet light devices to see if they kill Covid-19 on surfaces. As states gradually reopen, transit agencies are taking steps…

News | July 31, 2018

FEMA-style tents as homeless shelters? Maybe, say some King County officials

Three health officials on the King County Board of Health are urging the panel to declare homelessness a “public health disaster” and advise local jurisdictions to respond accordingly — including potentially deploying large scale FEMA-style tents as emergency shelter before winter. Two and a half years after both Seattle and King County declared a state of…

News | February 24, 2022

Fight over homeless hotel shelters arrives in Kirkland

Homeless hotel shelters continue to be difficult sells for those living in cities outside of Seattle, with Kirkland residents now expressing concerns over the potential purchase of a vacant La Quinta Inn. Snohomish County Councilmember pushes back against hotels for homeless residents King County is reportedly considering the La Quinta Inn — located near SR 520 on…

Fighting climate change means fighting racial injustice

“You can’t let one segment of society become a sacrifice.” Michael Méndez, an assistant professor at the University of California, Irvine, was on the phone talking about the protests sparked by the killing of George Floyd beneath a white police officer’s knee. But he was also talking about environmental justice and climate change. And he could…

News | December 4, 2020

Final Report: Impact of Hotels as Non-Congregate Emergency Shelters

A King County initiative that moved people out of homeless shelters and into hotel rooms earlier this year helped slow the transmission of the coronavirus SARS-CoV2, according to the final report from a study of the intervention. The study is co-authored by Gregg Colburn and Rachel Fyall, faculty co-leads of Urban@UW’s Homelessness Research Initiative, and the…

News | March 16, 2017

First UW Livable City Year project reports delivered to the City of Auburn

Teams of University of Washington students have been working throughout this academic year on livability and sustainability projects in the City of Auburn. The yearlong Livable City Year partnership has given students a chance to work on real-world challenges identified by Auburn, while providing Auburn with tens of thousands of hours of study and student…

News | May 21, 2021

Five months and $100,000 later, Seattle City Council asks: Where are the street sinks?

Last November, the Seattle City Council earmarked $100,000 intended to quickly set up dozens of new hand-washing facilities around the city — a resource to meet the desperate needs of more than 3,700 unsheltered people in Seattle after the pandemic closed access to running water at businesses and other public spaces. Five months later, as shelters…

News | July 6, 2021

Food for thought: Urban lakes contaminated with arsenic pose consumption risk

After analyzing the human health risks of eating aquatic organisms from arsenic-contaminated urban lakes in the Puget Sound lowlands, UW researchers have a menu of concerns. Specifically, they found that consuming certain aquatic organisms in the lakes elevates cancer risk. “The idea was to focus on organisms that people might eat, so we studied snails,…

News | June 18, 2018

Food insecurity is a growing obstacle for college students

Expanding access to higher education is a core part of the mission at the University of Washington Tacoma, which had its commencement Monday. Many of the campus’ students commute from nearby communities, 58 percent have parents without college degrees, and 73 percent receive financial aid. “We have a lot of first-generation students,” said Christine Stevens, a professor who…

News | September 18, 2020

Food insecurity rates have more than doubled since start of COVID-19 pandemic

Since the onset of the pandemic, food insecurity rates have more than doubled in our state. That’s according to researchers at the University of Washington who have just compiled the results from their first round of a statewide survey. It was done this summer in cooperation with Washington State University and Tacoma Community College, as well…

Ford Foundation

We believe in the inherent dignity of all people. Yet around the world, billions of people are excluded from full participation in the political, economic, and cultural systems that shape their lives. We view this fundamental inequality as the defining challenge of our time, one that limits the potential of all people, everywhere. Addressing inequality…

Map | Seattle

Forest bathing at the University of Washington

The tri-campus Forest Bathing map represents the collective action of the UW Sustainability Action Plan Engagement Committee. Forest bathing is a simple relaxation activity for people of all ages to de-stress and boost their health and well-being.

News | June 13, 2018

Forest loss in one part of US can harm trees on the opposite coast

Large swaths of U.S. forests are vulnerable to drought, forest fires and disease. Many local impacts of forest loss are well known: drier soils, stronger winds, increased erosion, loss of shade and habitat. But if a whole forest disappears, new research shows, this has ricocheting effects in the atmosphere that can affect vegetation on the…

News | June 12, 2018

Four Lessons From the Tacoma Whole Child Initiative

Five years ago, Tacoma launched the Whole Child Initiative, with the goal of supporting the comprehensive development and success of each student. We have seen firsthand that supporting the whole child comes with a new set of challenges. But, with the right partners and a focused plan, this approach can make all the difference for…

Gentrification and changing foodscapes in Seattle

Seattle is the third most quickly gentrifying city in the US, after Washington, DC and Portland, OR (The Seattle Times [web]). Gentrification is often the outcome of decades of segregation, redlining, and urban renewal policies that exploit the large gap between existing and potential property values, which in turn encourages an influx of wealthier residents….

Glen Duncan

News | February 1, 2019

Got the flu? Seattle wants to swab your nose for a massive health data project

Calling all feverish, coughing, achy Seattleites: Your germs could help prevent the next big pandemic. At least, that’s the hope of a new project from the Brotman Baty Institute for Precision Medicine (BBI). The Seattle Flu Study will gather swabs from 10,000 resident schnozzes to better understand how contagious diseases spread in a community. Researchers have set…

Grace Lasker

Green cities: good health.

Metro nature - including trees, parks, gardens, and natural areas - enhance quality of life in cities and towns. The experience of nature improves human health and well-being in many ways. Nearly 40 years of scientific studies tell us how. Here's the research ...

Green Futures Lab

The Green Futures Lab mission is to support interdisciplinary research and design that advances our understanding of, visions for, and design of a vital and ecologically sustainable public realm. Apply Green Futures research and designs to policy develop potential urban green infrastructure solutions within Seattle and the Pacific Northwest region and work with the University…

News | March 31, 2021

Green ways to keep food trucks clean

Originally published by UW Bothell.  Nearly everyone who has undertaken a heavy-duty cleaning job with a concentrated chemical has likely gasped for air. Your nose, throat and eyes irritated, you realize why product labels recommend ample ventilation and wonder if you might be doing something wrong. A common and potentially fatal mistake is mixing ammonia…

Greg Bratman

Gregg colburn.

News | April 26, 2021

Gridlock is coming back. Noise doesn’t have to.

What does a city sound like? Asked that question, do you think of the dull roar of traffic, the staccato yelp of a horn, the wobbling screech of an alarm? In other words, do you think of cars? Automobiles are such a fixture of the urban landscape that it’s easy to overlook just how much…

Gunnar Almgren

Harborview injury prevention and research center.

The Harborview Injury Prevention & Research Center (HIPRC) is dedicated to reducing the impact of injury and violence on peopleʼs lives through research, education, training, and public awareness. HIPRC’s goal is to reduce the rates of injury and death from unintentional events such as car crashes and drownings, and from purposeful violent acts such as…

News | February 27, 2020

Health and Well-Being Linked to Wilderness in Urban Parks

As metropolises balloon with growth and sprawl widens the footprint of cities around the world, access to nature for people living in urban areas is becoming harder to find.If you’re lucky, a pocket park might be installed next to a new condominium complex on your block, or perhaps a green roof tops the building where…

Health Promotion Research Center

The Health Promotion Research Center (HPRC) is one of 26 Prevention Research Centers funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. We conduct community-based research that promotes the health and well-being of middle-aged and older adults, particularly those with lower incomes and in ethnic/cultural minority populations most at risk of health disparities. We are…

News | August 2, 2022

Heat wave serves WA a lesson in climate adaptation, mitigation

For better or worse, this heat wave is forcing Washington to recognize and confront the impacts of climate change. Last year’s “heat dome,” while jarring and traumatic for many, was an exceptional event. Earlier this week, King County officials warned that wildfires near Seattle, once thought impossible, are a growing threat. While that would be…

Heather Burpee

Heather d. hill.

News | September 10, 2020

Here’s how to stay safe as wildfire smoke creates unhealthy air quality in Seattle

People in the Seattle area woke up Tuesday morning to hazy orange skies and the smell of smoke over the region as winds blew wildfire smoke from Eastern Washington into the Puget Sound. The Puget Sound Clean Air Agency rated the air quality in the region as “unhealthy for everyone” and advised people to take precautions to stay safe….

Hilary Godwin

News | February 1, 2024

History uncovered: UW research finds thousands of past racial restrictions in Kitsap

Reported in The Kitsap Sun By Peiyu Lin It’s not a secret that Kitsap County possesses a history of segregation, where some areas of the peninsula were only allowed to sell or rent to white people in the early and mid-20th century. But a specific geographic distribution of the over 2,300 properties that carry racial…

News | October 26, 2017

Homeless artists showcase work at UW

One way to humanize the homeless is through art. “Telling our stories: art and home(lessness)” is a show Oct. 11-Dec. 15 featuring the work of six artists living in a low-barrier supportive housing project. They are part of an artists’ collective developed out of collaboration with University of Washington researchers, the Downtown Emergency Service Center…

News | September 28, 2021

Homeless in Silicon Valley’s shadow get help, but ‘sustainable’ change is elusive

Andrea Urton, who grew up homeless in Los Angeles, has seen how little corporate interests  tend to care about helping the impoverished. So it was with some surprise when she received a phone call from an Apple representative. “I have never had an Apple or a Google or a Facebook reach out to me personally…

News | October 27, 2017

Homelessness is Seattle’s public health crisis

In this Crosscut editorial, UW professors Ben Danielson in the Department of Pediatrics and Bill Daniell in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences discuss homelessness as a public health crisis: “In 2015, Seattle and King County each declared a homelessness State of Emergency. Both have made commendable efforts since then to intensify outreach,…

News | January 26, 2023

Hospitals send performance reports to cut greenhouse gas use in anesthesia

At Massachusetts General Hospital, anesthesiologist Dr. Sam Smith co-founded a committee to discuss changes for the anesthesiology department as a whole. Nurse anesthetists and anesthesiologists were already getting monthly performance reports that showed how well they avoided low blood pressures during surgery and postoperative nausea. Now, they also see two climate assessments: The global warming…

News | July 24, 2023

How ‘forever chemicals’ impact your health: HealthLink

A study from the U.S. Geological Survey released this month, reported an estimated 45% of U.S. tap water contains at least one type of PFAS. Short for polyfluoroalkyl substances, they are commonly referred to as “forever chemicals” because they take a long time to break down in the environment. What PFAS presence does to the human body,…

News | March 10, 2020

How Coronavirus Shut Downs and Fears are Effecting Businesses in Seattle

Here at ground zero of the first and largest outbreak of the coronavirus in the United States, hardy residents in fleece and flannel are going about their daily lives as normally as possible.Children attend schools that have been deep-cleaned. Shoppers stock up on canned foods and paper towels, emptying pallets of toilet paper at their local Costco. Fishmonger…

News | December 2, 2021

How Does Climate Change Affect Human Health?

Over the past century, the Earth’s average temperature has risen by 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit. Although it seems like a negligible amount, this global warming is out of the ordinary in the planet’s recent history, causing dramatic shifts in climate patterns and weather. Beyond that, scientists predict it will get even worse in the years to come. Every human being…

News | October 5, 2021

How extreme heat hits our most vulnerable communities the hardest

Heat already kills more Americans than any other weather-related disaster, according to the National Weather Service — and climate change is making these extreme events even more dangerous. The Northwest’s record-breaking heat wave in June, which scientists say would have been “virtually impossible” without human-caused climate change, for instance, killed hundreds of people in Oregon, Washington and British Columbia….

News | March 14, 2017

How future superstorms could overwhelm today’s wastewater infrastructure

The current Seattle rainstorm, and many like it this year, are overwhelming our city’s wastewater pipes, and some sewage may be dumping into the Puget Sound as we speak. But even in a normal year, King County dumps about 800 million gallons of raw sewage into its waterways. That’s because, when it rains too much…

News | April 7, 2022

How happy are Seattle, and WA as a whole, compared to other cities and states?

By some accounts, Seattle is among the most stressed and sleep-deprived metros in the nation, but let’s forget about that for a moment. New reports find Seattle, and Washington as a whole, rate high on the happiness scale. In fact, Seattle is the seventh-happiest city in the nation, according to WalletHub’s 2022’s Happiest Cities in America report. The personal finance website…

News | July 18, 2022

How King County is preparing for extreme heat this summer

Last summer, two heat waves blanketed the usually temperate Pacific Northwest. The first one, which saw at least 30 heat-related deaths and many more injuries, would become the deadliest climate-related event in King County’s recorded history. In the wake of the heat waves, residents and government officials are acknowledging how unprepared we are for extreme…

News | August 12, 2019

How nature can improve your family’s mental health

People who study health outcomes – and any parent with common sense – have long known that having access to a green space is important for health. From decreased asthma and obesity to increased immunities and quality sleep, exposure to the outdoors is good for everyone. But a large, growing body of evidence, captured in a new meta-study, reveals that experiences in nature have especially…

News | April 10, 2018

How Texas is ‘building back better’ from Hurricane Harvey

For most Americans, the one-two punch of last fall’s hurricanes is ancient history. But hard-hit communities in Texas, Florida and the Caribbean are still rebuilding. Nicole Errett, lecturer in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, recently traveled with public health students from the University of Washington to southeast Texas, where the impacts of…

News | August 1, 2019

How to consider nature’s impact on mental health in city plans

Almost one in five adults in the U.S. lives with a mental illness. That statistic is similar worldwide, with an estimated 450 million people currently dealing with a mental or neurological disorder. Of those, only about a third seek treatment. Interacting with nature is starting to be recognized as one way to improve mental health. A number of scientific…

News | November 3, 2022

How West Coast universities, colleges grapple with ‘literal overheating’ of buildings amid recent heat wave

The historic heat wave that sweltered the West in early September, breaking records and straining California’s power grid, forced colleges and universities across the region to further assess extreme heat events. College campuses, specifically students and faculty on the West Coast, struggled with the intense heat wave. They have warned their communities of the excessive heat but…

News | September 2, 2021

How wildfires disproportionately affect people of color

Disasters in the U.S. often hit minority groups the hardest. Hurricane Katrina disproportionately impacted Black residents in New Orleans in 2005. In California, massive wildfires are a concern. Wildfires have unequal effects on minority communities. A 2018 study shows mostly Black, Hispanic, or Native American communities experience 50% greater vulnerability to wildfires compared with primarily white communities in the…

News | May 19, 2020

How will the COVID-19 pandemic reshape Seattle? Podcasting professor weighs in

What happens when seemingly unstoppable economic growth meets an irrepressible global pandemic? Seattle is finding out. The hard way. To get a uniquely informed perspective on the situation as it stands—and as it may look in the future—we turn to Jeff Shulman, the Marion B. Ingersoll Professor of Marketing at the Foster School of Business. For…

Howard Frumkin

Humans, disasters, and the built environment (hdbe).

The Humans, Disasters and the Built Environment (HDBE) program supports fundamental, multidisciplinary research on the interactions between humans and the built environment within and among communities exposed to natural, technological and other types of hazards and disasters. The program's context is provided by ongoing and emerging changes in three interwoven elements of a community: its…

News | July 5, 2022

Hundreds of homeless die in extreme heat

Hundreds of blue, green and grey tents are pitched under the sun’s searing rays in downtown Phoenix, a jumble of flimsy canvas and plastic along dusty sidewalks. Here, in the hottest big city in America, thousands of homeless people swelter as the summer’s triple digit temperatures arrive. The stifling tent city has ballooned amid pandemic-era…

News | November 15, 2018

Hydropower to become unsustainable as climate changes

Large hydropower dams will become a less sustainable source of renewable energy as the climate changes, especially in the developing world, according to a report released Nov. 5. Unpredictable weather extremes, especially severe climate-driven droughts, are likely to reduce the dams’ ability to generate electricity, concluded the Michigan State University study. To avoid unreliable power generation,…

IBM Center for the Business of Government – Connecting Research to Practice

The aim of the IBM Center for The Business of Government is to tap into the best minds in academe and the nonprofit sector who can use rigorous public management research and analytic techniques to help public sector executives and managers improve the effectiveness of government. We are looking for very practical findings and actionable…

News | June 19, 2018

If you want to get to know Seattle, walk through it

Walking is ordinary. It is so ordinary, most of us do it without thinking: You put one foot in front of the other to get to the bus, to walk from your car to the office, to pick up something from the store. It requires only shoes — and, because we live in Seattle, some…

News | April 6, 2023

IHME to Advance US County-level Health Disparities Research

The Institute for Health Metrics (IHME) has been awarded a $16.8 million contract from the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to dissect health disparities at the county level in the US. The funding will help IHME conduct comprehensive research that builds upon IHME’s…

News | November 10, 2020

In King County, pollution makes ZIP codes predictors of your health

In Seattle, a ZIP code can predict everything from income to social class to life expectancy. White, wealthy residents of northern neighborhoods such as Laurelhurst live 13 years longer than their poorer neighbors of color in the southern neighborhoods of South Park and Georgetown. Air and soil pollution has disproportionately affected Seattle’s communities of color for…

News | February 5, 2018

In orlando, america’s theme park capital, low income black residents can’t breathe the air

The struggle for environmental justice in low-income and Black communities continues. This is most certainly the case in Orlando, Florida. In the heart of one of the premier tourist destinations in the United States, the theme park capital of America, the residents of a historically Black community are having trouble breathing due to air pollution…

News | May 21, 2020

In Seattle’s polluted valley, pandemic and particulates are twin threats

From a boat on the Duwamish River, it’s easy to see giant yellow excavators plucking crushed cars off the ground and swinging them toward an open-air shredder. At Seattle Iron and Metal, mounds of shredded steel as big as apartment buildings loom above the river. “It looks like something out of Mad Max,” James Rasmussen…

News | March 31, 2020

In the coronavirus crisis, who gets to be outside?

As the first weekend of spring began, nearly 100 million Americans had just been ordered to stay home to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus. Even the most stringent stay-at-home orders in the U.S. currently allow people to go outside, which is providing multitudinous benefits in this time of great uncertainty. Taking a short walk, roll,…

News | September 9, 2021

In the early 1990s, heat waves battered Philadelphia’s most vulnerable communities. The lessons learned are helping today

The water trickled down quickly, enough to coat the sun-bleached concrete basin in a city park with a layer of wetness. A toddler danced, smiling as water from the park’s sprinklers rained down on her, keeping her cool. It was a blistering midsummer day in July, the kind that as recently as 30 years ago…

News | April 2, 2021

In the face of hate, Asian Americans call for solidarity with all people of color

Since the beginning of the year, Asian Americans have come increasingly under violent attack. Elders have been assaulted in Chinatowns across the country from Oakland to San Francisco to New York City. In late February, Inglemoor High School Japanese teacher Noriko Nasu and her boyfriend were walking through Seattle’s Chinatown-International District (C-ID) and were attacked…

News | August 4, 2023

Increasing Power Outages Don’t Hit Everyone Equally

Multiple rounds of storms tore through parts of Illinois and Missouri in the first week of July, triggering widespread power outages that left tens of thousands of people without electricity—some for days after the storms had passed. It was just one of many such events to hit people around the U.S. this year. Government data…

India Ornelas

Indigenous wellness research institute.

The Indigenous Wellness Research Institute’s vision is to support the inherent rights of Indigenous peoples to achieve full and complete health and wellness by collaborating in decolonizing research and knowledge building and sharing. Our mission is to marshal community, tribal, academic, and governmental resources toward innovative, culture-centered interdisciplinary, collaborative social and behavioral research and education

Ines Jurcevic

Informal housing, poverty, and legacies of apartheid in south africa.

“Ten percent of all South Africans — the majority white — owns more than 90 percent of national wealth… Some 80 percent of the population — overwhelmingly black — owns nothing at all.” — New York Times On April 27, 1994, Nelson Mandela and the African National Congress (ANC) won the first multiracial democratic election…

Informal Urban Communities Initiatives

The Informal Urban Communities Initiatives (IUCI) is a design activism, research and education program based in Peru and expanding to Nepal this coming year. It focuses on the design, implementation and assessment of community-driven interventions in the built environment and places particular emphasis on the integrated, interdisciplinary design of distributed infrastructure and public space. The…

Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME)

The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) launched in July 2007 with the goal of providing an impartial, evidence-based picture of global health trends to inform the work of policymakers, researchers, and funders. Five guiding principles: Scientific Excellence Policy Relevance Impartiality Collaboration Knowledge Sharing

Research Beyond UW | University of California, Berkeley

Institute of Urban and Regional Development

Through collaborative, interdisciplinary research and practice, Institute of Urban and Regional Development (IURD) supports students, faculty, and visiting scholars to critically investigate and help improve processes and outcomes that shape urban equity around the world. "The future of IURD will be to position itself as a global leader in research and policy that aims to…

Integrated Design Lab

The Integrated Design Lab (IDL) carries out research to advance knowledge and policies that support the healthiest and highest performing buildings and cities. Its performance research includes energy efficiency, daylighting, electric lighting, occupant energy use behavior, human health and productivity in buildings, and advanced building management systems. The IDL transfers findings of its research through…

Interdisciplinary Urban Design & Planning (PhD)

This program brings together faculty from disciplines ranging from Architecture to Sociology to focus on the interdisciplinary study of urban problems and interventions. Covering scales from neighborhoods to metropolitan areas, the program addresses interrelationships between the physical environment, the built environment, and the social, economic, and political institutions and processes that shape urban areas. The…

News | May 31, 2019

Investing in Bothell’s future

Over the past decade, Bothell has seen a boom in population and economic growth — and the related impacts. The city’s downtown revitalization is one of the brightest spots of that boom. However, the state has been largely absent in its support for infrastructure spending to support the growth in our community. The state passed…

News | January 8, 2020

Is Seattle really the gloomiest city in America? Psychological data debunk finding

A recent study named Seattle the No. 1 “gloomiest place in America.” The website Bestplaces.net, which ranks locations on all kinds of qualities, created a “gloom index” for the largest cities in the nation, based on weather data during the darkest months of the year. The index ranked the cities by looking at percentage of cloud cover,…

News | October 27, 2016

Jacqui Patterson: A Brief Annotated Reading List

Jacqueline Patterson is a preeminent researcher and activist in the field of environmental and climate justice. Patterson is one of UW’s 2016 Walker-Ames endowed speakers, and special guest at the upcoming symposium, Urban Environmental Justice in a Time of Climate Change. Urban@UW has compiled a brief reading list to help contextualize Patterson’s work: Gulf Oil…

Janet Baseman

Janine jones, jen davison, jennifer otten, jeremy hess, jim theofelis, joel kaufman, jonathan mayer, joseph r zunt, josephine ensign, judith a. howard.

News | February 22, 2017

Julian Agyeman: A Brief Reading List

Julian Agyeman, Professor of Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning at Tufts University, will be delivering a talk at the University of Washington on February 28 at 7:30pm. Agyeman was originally trained as an ecologist and biogeographer before turning to critical urban studies and environmental social science. Agyeman’s scholarship challenges basic notions of sustainability through…

Julian Marshall

Julian olden, june t. spector, just tech covid-19 rapid-response grants.

The Social Science Research Council (SSRC), as part of its Just Tech program, seeks proposals from across the social sciences and related fields that address the risks, opportunities, and challenges posed by public health surveillance stemming from the Covid-19 pandemic. We specifically encourage proposals that interrogate the role the public and private sectors may play…

Karina Walters

Katie wilson, kelly edwards, kessie alexandre, kevin haggerty.

News | July 28, 2022

King County hoping to close heat disparity gap in low-income areas

Earlier this year, King County announced it is developing a heat strategy plan to better handle extreme heat waves. But data shows certain neighborhoods — particularly lower income areas — tend to get much hotter. Those behind the heat strategy say they’re hoping to close that heat disparity gap. The hottest areas are in south…

King County wants to buy motels for emergency, affordable housing

On a chilly Monday afternoon, case manager Richard Gibson walked through the courtyard at Martin Court in the southwest corner of Seattle’s Georgetown neighborhood. The weather in the days before had taken a cold turn, and the colorful children’s playground he strode past sat vacant. Lining either side of the courtyard and parking lot were…

Kristie L. Ebi

Lack of sidewalks in seattle.

​This map from the Urbanist highlights the roughly 900 miles (28% of city blocks) without any sidewalks in Seattle.

Landscape Architecture (BLA, MLA, dual MArch-MLA, dual MLA-MUP)

At the University of Washington, we strive to create a program that meets the complex social, environmental, political, and aesthetic challenges of our time. Our program emphasis on urban ecological design addresses the multiple dimensions of today’s environmental challenges – infrastructure, culture, ecological literacy, and human and environmental health. With our focus on the intersection…

LaShawnDa Pittman

Latino center for health.

The Latino Center for Health provides leadership for community-engaged research through capacity building and authentic partnerships with community stakeholders to promote impactful improvements in the health and well-being of Latinx communities in Washington state, regionally, and nationally.

News | July 5, 2018

Lattes and a shot of hope: North Bend coffee house offers safe place for teens in need

Suicide is the 8th leading cause of death overall in our state. It’s a horrific reality that touches all ages – including teens, but there is a unique place where teens are finding help with not only suicide prevention, but any struggle. “I can never figure it out on my own,” said 16-year-old Aidan Sullivan….

Laxminarsimha Daram Reddy

Less traffic means 40% drop in car pollution in seattle but will it last.

Experts say our good air quality this spring is partially due to people driving less. However, they warn that unless big, long-term changes are made, these cleaner skies are not here to stay. From late March through the end of April, car pollution in Seattle dropped by roughly 40 percent compared to the same time…

News | July 6, 2023

Lessons Learned from the Pacific Northwest’s 2021 Heat Dome

Two years after the deadliest weather-related disaster in Washington state history, public officials are taking stock. High pressure locked the area in a heat dome for a week, starting June 26. It broke dozens of temperature records, killed hundreds of people and sent hundreds more to hospitals, unprepared for the unprecedented heat, especially so early…

Lillian J. Ratliff

News | June 12, 2019

Limiting climate change would prevent thousands of heat-related deaths in U.S.

Deadly summer heat will get worse as the globe warms, so putting the brakes on climate change by reducing carbon emissions will literally be a lifesaver for thousands of Americans, a new study co-authored by UW Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences professor Kristie Ebi suggests. In fact, researchers report that limiting global warming could drastically lower deaths in most…

News | October 2, 2018

Livable City Year and Tacoma finalize partnership

Throughout the 2017-2018 academic year, 349 University of Washington students and 26 UW faculty members worked with staff and community members from the City of Tacoma on projects to advance livability and sustainability in the city. The year-long partnership between Tacoma and UW Livable City Year (LCY) provided the city with university resources to tackle…

News | December 13, 2016

Livable City Year releases RFP, invites cities to partner for 2017-8 academic year

The University of Washington’s Livable City Year initiative is now accepting proposals from cities, counties, special districts and regional partnerships to partner with during the 2017-2018 academic year. UW Livable City Year (UW LCY) connects University of Washington faculty and students with a municipal partner for a full academic year to work on projects fostering…

Living Landscapes Incubator Request for Proposals

The Living Landscapes Incubator is a new grant program, developed as a collaboration among the College of Built Environments, the College of the Environment, Urban@UW, and the School of Public Health. Planning and designing for landscapes, environments, and infrastructure that support sustainable, livable, and equitable communities is a key challenge of our time. With generous funding from…

News | January 19, 2024

Longevity without vitality: Americans live longer but endure declining health

From KEPR TV By Janae Bowens WASHINGTON (TND) – Americans are living longer, but are also sick for more of their lives. Analysis from the Wall Street Journal‘s Alex Janin shows the estimated average of life spent in good health declined to 83.6% in 2021, which is down from 85.8% in 1990. This is all…

News | October 12, 2021

Lynden has spent more than a year testing poop for COVID-19. Was it a good investment?

The poop doesn’t lie — at least in Lynden, where it has helped guide the city’s pandemic response for over a year. The Whatcom city has become home to one of the most thorough COVID-19 wastewater testing programs in the U.S., said Kent Oostra, owner of Ferndale-based Exact Scientific Services. His lab has tested Lynden’s…

MacArthur Foundation

The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation supports creative people and effective institutions committed to building a more just, verdant, and peaceful world. In addition to selecting the MacArthur Fellows, the Foundation works to defend human rights, advance global conservation and security, make cities better places, and understand how technology is affecting children and…

News | March 1, 2018

Many homeless people take better care of their pets than themselves; this clinic helps them

Homeless people with pets are usually criticized and sometimes turned away from shelters. But that’s starting to change. His name is Bud the Amazing Wonder Dog, but the huge German shepherd-rottweiler mix was not feeling amazing or wonderful during his clinic visit, as he whimpered and tried to steady himself on an examination table too…

Mapping jet pollution at Sea-Tac airport

Communities underneath and downwind of jets landing at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport are exposed to a type of ultrafine particle pollution that is distinctly associated with aircraft, according to a new University of Washington study that is the first to identify the unique “signature” of aircraft emissions in Washington state. Researchers at the UW Department of Environmental &…

Mapping Seattle’s Noise Complaints

Trulia used CartoDB and its spatial-temporal visualization tool to map police data on noise complaints from Seattle going back to 2010. Not surprisingly the U-District, Downtown and Capital Hill are the noise complaint winners…or losers depending on how you look at it.

Marcia Meyers

Mari winkler, maria busch, marissa baker, mary larimer.

News | February 6, 2020

Medical Overdose Training for Nightlife Workers and School Nurses

Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan announced a plan Thursday to help combat fentanyl-related overdoses in the city. The plan is in response to the overdose deaths of three King County teens last year after they took counterfeit pills. Under Durkan’s plan, the city of Seattle in partnership with community-based organizations will purchase 700 naloxone kits that…

News | August 29, 2019

Mental health benefits of nature should influence city planning, says UW study

City planners should consider the mental health benefits of green spaces when making plans for the future of their cities. That’s according to a new study out of University of Washington that says urban green spaces can help improve mental health. The study found that accounting for the economic impacts of these benefits might help cities prioritize…

Michael Brown

Michelson 20mm foundation – spark grants.

With the COVID-19 crisis severely impacting the educational space, the Michelson 20MM Foundation is launching a new round of the Spark Grant program to fill urgent needs for education organizations that are well-aligned with the following target outcomes: increasing access to and efficiency of emergency student aid programs; decreasing the “digital divide” through ensuring students,…

News | August 1, 2016

Midsummer in Full Swing, A July Recap

While we are in the midst of a beautiful summer, things at the University of Washington and at Urban@UW are moving right along. We’ve seen some original writing, research, and even a podcast come out of community covering topics from marine noise pollution to data science and minimum wage to police reforms. The eScience Institute…

Ming-Yi Tsai

Minor in urban ecological design.

The Department of Landscape Architecture’s focus on Urban Ecological Design. This design practice integrates site, landscape, and people in a way that is functional, artful, and engaging. Urban Ecological Design is an interdisciplinary approach that addresses emerging local, regional, and global issues in five key areas: (1) design as activism, (2) design for ecological infrastructure,…

Monsanto will pay $95 million in PCB settlement with Washington state

The state of Washington will receive tens of millions of dollars in a settlement against Monsanto over its manufacture of toxic chemicals that were deposited decades ago in Washington soil and water and continue to wreak environmental damage today. State Attorney General Bob Ferguson’s office in 2016 sued the company over its production of polychlorinated…

News | March 28, 2022

More air pollution present in areas with historical redlining

Despite dramatic improvements in air quality over the past 50 years, people of color at every income level in the United States are exposed to higher-than-average levels of air pollution. While this disparity has been widely studied, the links between today’s air pollution disparities and historic patterns of racially segregated planning are still being uncovered. Now…

News | May 21, 2019

More back-to-back heat waves will come with climate change

Here’s another health danger climate change will deliver in the coming years: New research warns that back-to-back heat waves that go on for days will become more common as the planet warms. The elderly and the poor will be the least prepared to weather this threat, the investigators noted. But hospital ERs and emergency service…

Research Beyond UW | University of Portland

Moreau Center

Inspired by the vision of Blessed Basil Moreau, C.S.C., founder of the Congregation of Holy Cross, rooted in Catholic social teaching, and guided by the mission of the University, Moreau Center programs center on direct service. Service is one of the key components in a Catholic education. Direct service involves directly connecting with people and…

Mukuru on the Move

This map identifies the various community health assets that the residents of the Mukuru informal settlement in Nairobi identified in a series of workshops from 2008-2010

Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis and Air Pollution (MESA Air)

MESA Air is designed to examine the relationship between air pollution exposures and the progression of cardiovascular disease over time. The United States Environmental Protection Agency funds the ten-year study, which involves thousands of participants, representing diverse areas of the United States. The MESA Air Pollution study is headquartered at the University of Washington, but…

Map | Nairobi

Nairobi Gender Violence Resources

​Resources for victims of Gender Violence including: outreach, counseling services, clinical services, legal services, religious institutions, coordination groups, security services and shelters

Nancy Simcox

National science foundation – smart and connected health (sch): connecting data, people, and systems.

This funding is directed at developing and integrating computer and information science approaches to transform health and medicine. Applications should include multidisciplinary teams that promote breakthrough ideas from existing and new research communities.

National Science Foundation: Science and Technology Studies

The Science and Technology Studies (STS) program supports research that uses historical, philosophical, and social scientific methods to investigate the intellectual, material, and social facets of the scientific, technological, engineering and mathematical (STEM) disciplines. It encompasses a broad spectrum of topics including interdisciplinary studies of ethics, equity, governance, and policy issues that are closely related…

News | March 12, 2021

Nature & Health Speaks: Beyond Inclusive Design with The Eli’s Park Project

The Eli’s Park Project is committed to carrying on Eli’s legacy of love through a community-led renovation of the Burke-Gilman Playground Park. They are working with the community to create an accessible, inclusive, nature-based park where people of all ages and abilities can find play and peace. The reimagining and manifestation of this new, inclusive Burke-Gilman Playground…

Nature and Health

Nature and Health seeks to understand the connections between nature and human health and well-being. We work to translate that understanding into programs, practices, policies, and the design of healthcare, educational, and community settings that benefit all people and nature.

News | January 20, 2022

Nearly half a million Washingtonians live in pharmacy deserts

University of Washington researchers recently completed an analysis of pharmacy deserts. While the publication is in the review process, Rachel Wittenauer, a Ph.D. student with the university’s CHOICE Institute, said roughly 450,000 adults statewide in both urban and rural areas are living in pharmacy deserts. Pharmacy desert communities are defined as being both low-income and…

News | February 26, 2021

New ‘ShakeAlert’ earthquake warning system to launch in Washington in May; drill next week

Washingtonians will soon have a new tool to be more prepared for the “really big one” — a major earthquake event. A new “ShakeAlert” earthquake early warning system will begin rolling out in both Oregon and Washington this spring with the ability to sent an alert to wireless devices, giving residents crucial seconds to prepare for shaking….

News | October 15, 2019

New Phase, Next Steps: Doorway 2.0 Fall Updates

The Doorway Project, a cross-campus and community-engaged project under Urban@UW’s Homelessness Research Initiative, has been busy! Check out their activities and plans for the future in their latest blog post:   Welcome to the Doorway Project blog! As a part of the new phase of the project, which we are calling Doorway Project 2.0, we…

News | March 6, 2019

New study shows how exposure to air pollution early in life may lead to autism

Exposure to air pollution, particularly traffic-related air pollution, has previously been linked to autism spectrum disorder in epidemiological studies. And now a new animal study from the University of Washington School of Public Health describes a possible mechanism by which this relationship might occur. The study was published Jan. 16 in the journal Brain, Behavior and Immunity. In…

News | July 19, 2022

New tsunami warning to those in Seattle: If the earth starts shaking, get to higher ground ASAP

If a really big earthquake hits offshore from Seattle, the city’s shorelines could be struck with massive tsunami waves within a matter of three minutes. In a worst-case scenario, the waves hitting Seattle’s Magnolia Bluff neighborhood could crest at 33 feet high. That’s the grim warning from a report out Thursday from the Washington State…

News | April 20, 2023

New UW Center for Environmental Health Equity to Launch with a $12 Million Grant from the US EPA

The University of Washington will lead a new center to help address longstanding environmental and energy justice issues—from legacy pollution to energy security—in Pacific Northwest and Alaska Native communities with funding announced today by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The $12 million, five-year EPA cooperative agreement will create the new UW Center for Environmental…

News | November 5, 2020

New UW study shows COVID-19 doesn’t spread evenly through Seattle neighborhoods

A new study published by researchers from the University of Washington and UC Irvine examines how COVID-19 spreads in different neighborhoods and it found the virus doesn’t spread evenly through a community. The study, published in September in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, factors in network exposure and demographics to simulate where and how quickly…

News | August 16, 2022

New UW study shows how COVID lockdowns affected Northwest birds

While the unusual quiet of the pandemic’s first months was hard on many people, it allowed birds in the Pacific Northwest to use a wider range of habitats, according to a newly published University of Washington study. The study, published Thursday in Scientific Reports, found that in Pacific Northwest cities under lockdown, birds were just…

News | February 12, 2016

New! Urban Map Gallery

We’ve created a new urban map gallery to explore how other people and organizations are studying and visualizing data. The gallery features seven cities facing different social, economic, and geographic issues. This curation is not meant to be an exhaustive list, but rather provide insight and inspiration. Maps included track everything from sound to subway…

Nicole Errett

Map | Berlin

Noise Pollution Map of Berlin

This interactive map displays Berlin’s computed noise levels in decibels for day, evening and night times. Includes noise source information.

Northwest Center for Public Health Practice

We are the outreach arm of the University of Washington School of Public Health, bringing academia and practice communities together. We do this by offering valuable academic resources to the practice community and conveying everyday-practice perspectives to academia. We maintain strong partnerships locally, regionally, and nationally, placing a particular focus on the needs of public…

Northwest innovators chase the dream of greener concrete

From The Seattle Times By Mike Lindblom PULLMAN — From a onetime speakeasy in North Seattle to a modern lab in the Palouse, inventors are testing recipes that make concrete less lethal to Earth’s climate. Most people understand that the world’s 1.4 billion fossil-fueled cars and trucks spew carbon dioxide, trapping heat in the atmosphere….

Map | New York

NYC Visualized through Smart Shoes

Brooklyn based interaction designer Cooper Smith has created an amazing series of videos documenting pedestrian travel within Manhattan. By tracking the paths of 1000 Nike Plus (Nike’s new smart running shoe) runs, he was able to produce and distill a wide variety of data. The results are quite elegant in terms of graphics, and offer…

Research Beyond UW | Oregon State University

Oak Creek Center for Urban Horticulture

Six acres of paradise off Oregon State University's main campus, Oak Creek Center for Urban Horticulture is an excellent learning laboratory for sustainable horticultural practices in both rural and peri-urban landscapes.

News | September 17, 2021

On the 20th anniversary of its Superfund listing, the Duwamish River faces a triple threat

This opinion article was originally written by Paulina López, James Rasmussen, and BJ Cummings, manager of community engagement programs at the University of Washington. This Monday will mark 20 years since Seattle’s hometown river was declared a Superfund site by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The Duwamish River’s history is a case study of environmental injustices. The vibrant, marginalized, low-income and…

News | September 30, 2019

On the ground in disaster’s wake

From flood-damaged Houston to fire-ravaged Paradise, CA, Nicole Errett’s research takes her into the heart of communities trying to recover after catastrophe strikes. As a disaster researcher and lecturer in the UW Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences, Errett works with communities struck by hurricanes, floods and other disasters to gather data on how disasters…

Opportunities to engage UW faculty and students to address COVID-19

In recognition of the intense needs of local governments around COVID-19 response and recovery, the LCY program has compiled a list of existing UW courses whose faculty and students are seeking to assist local communities in COVID-related projects. Most projects can start in Autumn 2020 — some as early as Summer 2020. The list of…

Opportunity Mapping

These maps provided by the Puget Sound Regional Council are a study of the region’s geography of opportunity, based on 2010 census data. “Opportunity” is a situation or condition that places individuals in a position to be more likely to succeed or excel. Opportunity maps illustrate where opportunity rich communities exist, assess who has access…

P-REX a research lab focused on environmental problems caused by urbanization, including the design, remediation, and reuse of waste landscapes worldwide. P-REX works to develop non-traditional design solutions to push the boundaries of conventional practice and incorporate resilient thinking into large-scale strategic planning & design.

Pacific Northwest Seismic Network

To monitor earthquake and volcanic activity across the Pacific Northwest, the University of Washington and the University of Oregon cooperatively operate the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network (PNSN). The PNSN is sponsored by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the U.S. Department of Energy, the State of Washington, and the State of Oregon. Beginning in 1969 with…

News | March 2, 2023

PacTrans Receives USDOT $15M Renewal Award

To continue and expand its important work to improve the movement of people and goods throughout the region, the Pacific Northwest Transportation Consortium (PacTrans) has received another green light: a $15 million renewal grant over the course of five years from the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT). “We are grateful for receiving this new grant to…

News | May 14, 2020

Pandemic gardens satisfy a hunger for more than just good tomatoes

Jennifer Atkinson is a senior lecturer in environmental studies in the School of Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences at the University of Washington Bothell, and the author of Gardenland: Nature, Fantasy and Everyday Practice. She says she’d get a flurry of responses to her blog posts about pandemic gardening, but she really got interested when she started…

Pandemic lays bare the everyday stressors, inequities of marginalized communities

On March 14, two weeks after the first U.S. coronavirus death was announced here in King County and as an onslaught of social distancing policies descended on our communities, we began a research study to understand how 500 King County residents were coping with all of it. Every evening, study participants have been generously sharing with us…

Pandemic streets showed the promise of car-free Seattle

One morning in early April, at the height of the coronavirus pandemic’s first wave, Gordon Padelford watched one man with a pickup truck leaving “local access only” signs and traffic cones along 25th Avenue South in the Central District. A longtime advocate of pedestrian and cycling street access, Padelford held his breath: Would the low-budget infrastructure really work?…

News | August 2, 2021

Paratransit services for people with disabilities in the Seattle region during the COVID-19 pandemic: Lessons for recovery planning

A new journal article titled, “Paratransit services for people with disabilities in the Seattle region during the COVID-19 pandemic: Lessons for recovery planning” co-written by Urban Design & Planning PhD students Lamis Abu Ashour, Xun Fang, and Yiyuan Wang; as well as Andrew Dannenberg, Affiliate Professor of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences and Urban Design…

News | October 31, 2018

Park facilities encourage longer bouts of physical activity

Researchers from the University of Washington School of Public Health watched 225 Seattle residents during their visits to public parks – through GPS devices, activity trackers and travel diaries – and found that they were active for longer at parks that had a greater variety of recreational facilities. The study, published online Sept. 19 in the Journal…

News | November 27, 2018

Parks help cities – but only if people use them

Written by Thaisa Way, faculty director of Urban@UW and Professor in the Department of Landscape Architecture in the College of Built Environments. In cities, access to parks is strongly linked with better health for both people and neighborhoods. Children suffer higher rates of obesity when they grow up in urban areas without a park in easy reach. Because low-income neighborhoods have fewer green spaces, poorer…

Patho Map NYC

PathoMap is a research project by Weill Cornell Medical College to study the microbiome and metagenome of the built environment of NYC.

Paula Nurius

Pedestrian crashes by light condition.

We have mapped 5-years worth of pedestrian crashes in Melbourne, categorized by light condition. Other information including crash severity and speed limit are also included.

News | March 13, 2019

Pedestrian deaths are rising, but not in Seattle. Here’s why.

Across the U.S., pedestrian fatalities are increasing, according to a recent report. That’s often due to distracted drivers and pedestrians looking at their phones. Some are high or drunk, and increasingly, they’re driving heavy, taller SUVs that strike victims at chest height, where they can do more harm. But Seattle has bucked the trend, thanks…

News | February 8, 2022

Pedestrian deaths climb in Seattle, despite city’s pledge to eliminate them

Pedestrian fatalities can affect anybody, but Seattle’s Black, homeless, and senior communities are disproportionately impacted. Seattle’s pedestrian fatality rate was 150% higher in the five years after the launch of Vision Zero compared to the five years before, a KUOW analysis of SDOT data found. Yet — cars have been hitting pedestrians less often. That…

Research Beyond UW | University of Pennsylvania

Penn Institute for Urban Research

The Penn Institute for Urban Research (Penn IUR) is a university-wide, interdisciplinary institute at the University of Pennsylvania dedicated to urban research, education, and civic engagement. Affiliated with all 12 schools of the University of Pennsylvania and with the world of practice, Penn IUR fosters collaboration among scholars and policymakers across disciplines to address the…

News | September 19, 2017

People of color exposed to more pollution from cars, trucks, power plants during 10-year period

A new nationwide study finds that the U.S. has made little progress from 2000 to 2010 in reducing relative disparities between people of color and whites in exposure to harmful air pollution emitted by cars, trucks and other combustion sources. The groundbreaking study led by University of Washington Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering Julian…

Peter Rabinowitz

News | November 24, 2020

Pharmacies serving rural communities rise to meet an array of challenges with innovative solutions during COVID-19

According to Don Downing, UW School of Pharmacy clinical professor, the COVID-19 crisis has ushered in a multitude of challenges for rural pharmacies, from shouldering the financial burden of a crippled economy to taking on a more involved, hands-on role with patients. “Rural pharmacies are under tremendous financial pressure due to significant reductions in compensation for…

Phil Hurvitz

News | July 21, 2020

Pioneering study uses traffic cameras and AI to predict future, promising to save lives and money

In an effort to prevent deaths and injuries caused by crashes between vehicles, bikes and pedestrians, the city of Bellevue, Wash., set out more than five years ago to foresee the future. The idea was to use machine learning to analyze thousands of hours of video collected by 360-degree traffic cameras already installed citywide to…

News | February 1, 2023

Planting more trees in cities could slash summer heat deaths, study finds

Planting more trees in cities could cut the number of people dying from high temperatures in summer, according to a study published in the Lancet medical journal on Tuesday, a strategy that could help mitigate the effects of climate change as it continues to drive temperatures upwards. The research identifies a way for city planners…

News | October 17, 2019

Pop-up galleries and data: Visualizing the lives of homeless people and their animals

Sparked by a grant from the UW Population Health Initiative, the UW’s Center for One Health Research created a series of pop-up galleries featuring autobiographical photographs made by people experiencing homelessness with their animal companions. The first gallery was Oct. 4 in UW’s Red Square. Other pop-up gallery events took place in Occidental Square in Seattle’s Pioneer Square district; in Cal…

Population Health Initiative

The University of Washington aspires to be the world’s leading university in population health. On May 3, 2016, President Ana Mari Cauce launched a groundbreaking Population Health Initiative by inviting the University community and partners to join in developing a 25-year vision to advance the health of people around the world by leveraging capabilities and…

News | May 23, 2023

Population Health Initiative Announces 12 Climate Change Planning Grant Awards

Earlier this month, the Population Health Initiative announced the award of a dozen planning grants to University of Washington researchers to support the launch of new climate-focused collaborations. Each of the $10,000 awards will support the funded teams to complete their planning projects during summer quarter 2023, which will be followed by a special autumn…

News | August 24, 2020

Population Health Initiative announces award of 14 COVID-19 population health equity research grants

The University of Washington Population Health Initiative announced the award of approximately $265,000 in COVID-19 population health equity research grants to 14 different teams of UW faculty researchers and community leaders. Funding was partially matched by additional school, college, departmental, and external funds, bringing the total value of these awards to roughly $378,000. These population health equity…

Population Health Initiative announces award of 21 COVID-19 rapid response grants

The University of Washington Population Health Initiative announced the award of approximately $350,000 in COVID-19 rapid response grants to 21 different faculty-led teams. These teams are composed of individuals representing 10 different schools and colleges. Funding was partially matched by additional school, college and departmental funds, bringing the total value of these awards to roughly $820,000. “A…

Program on Climate Change

The Program on Climate Change amplifies the University of Washington’s exceptional range of expertise in climate related fields. Interaction among faculty through PCC activities promotes the integration of existing observational and modeling efforts within and between individual departments, providing a powerful synthesis approach for addressing the problems of climate change. Through courses, events, and planning…

News | September 9, 2019

Project aims to boost care for opioid use among homeless

On August 21, the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation and the University of Washington’s Alcohol & Drug Abuse Institute (ADAI) announced the Meds-First Initiative that expands an innovative approach to treating opioid-use disorder for high-acuity populations to four locations in Washington. The treatment sites are located across the state in North Seattle, Spokane, Tacoma and Walla Walla. “Medication…

Project for the Homeless (PFH)

Project for the Homeless (PFH) is a student organization that has staffed two small homeless shelters in Manhattan, the men’s shelter at Stephen Wise Free Synagogue and the women’s shelter at the New York Society for Ethical Culture, for over 30 years. New York State law requires that a non-homeless volunteer stay overnight at the…

News | September 17, 2020

Project Highlight: Seattle Street Sink

For many living unsheltered, access to a place to wash up is hard to come by. During the pandemic, it is more important than ever to have accessible hygiene stations. The Real Change Advocacy Department partnered with University of Washington College of Built Environments faculty to design and install environmentally friendly “street sinks”. On May…

News | May 16, 2023

Prolonged Power Outages, Often Caused by Weather Events, Hit Some Parts of the U.S. Harder than Others

A study published April 29 in the journal Nature Communications analyzed three years of power outages across the U.S., finding that Americans already bearing the brunt of climate change and health inequities are clustered in four regions — Louisiana, Arkansas, central Alabama and northern Michigan — and that they are most at risk of impact…

News | March 15, 2019

PSU takes on regional sustainability with the Emerald Corridor Collaboratory

Last year,  the Institute for Sustainable Solutions at Portland State University joined a regional pilot project called the Emerald Corridor Collaboratory that aims to do just that by joining four universities and four Pacific Northwest cities in a quest for better, more effective partnerships. Funded by a $100,000 grant from the Seattle-based Bullitt Foundation, the Emerald Corridor Collaboratory…

News | September 21, 2022

Q&A: Exploring How the Design of the Built Environment Affects Our Health and Well-Being

How does the design of the built environment – such as houses, schools, workplaces, streets, parks, transportation systems, and urban form – affect our health and well-being? To explore these issues, editors Nisha D. Botchwey, Andrew Dannenberg, and Howard Frumkin, recently published the second edition of “Making Healthy Places: Designing and Building for Well-being, Equity,…

News | May 29, 2016

Quick Recap: Here’s What Happened in May!

May saw a lot of wonderful events, visitors, and research coming out of the University of Washington community. Here’s a quick recap: The CBE PhD Program looked at the future of cities Patricia Romero Lankao visited to talk about the human dimension of climate change Seattle’s “diverse neighborhoods” are actually surprisingly segregated New lighting research…

News | November 27, 2023

RAC projects learning together, building momentum

Co-creation sessions with Duwamish Valley community members and stakeholders that focused on identifying priorities, values, and aspirations for community open space in their neighborhoods. (Credit: Maron Bernardino) After their launch in spring of this year, the two inaugural projects of the Research to Action Collaboratory have been making progress in key ways. Supported by Urban@UW,…

Rachel Berney

Rachel r. chapman, rachel vaughn.

News | August 10, 2023

Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities Are Pervasive in the US, Across Most Causes of Death and in Most Counties, New Study Shows

It’s been more than two years since the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention declared racism a public health threat, and a new study gives a stark look at just how pervasive racial and ethnic disparities are in the United States. Researchers tracked US mortality data across nearly two decades, breaking rates down by…

News | February 24, 2021

Racial disparities prompt calls to repeal King County’s bicycle helmet law

In the fall of 2019, a white man spat on Edwin Lindo while he was riding his bicycle with a friend around Mercer Island. “It gets on my jersey and I’m like, ‘I can’t believe this is happening right now,’” he recalled. Lindo, who identifies as Central American Indigenous from Nicaragua and El Salvador, and his friend,…

News | July 9, 2020

Racial justice is an urban issue: A curated list of resources from UW BIPOC scholars

Racial injustice is not a new issue. Segregation and discrimination on the basis of race has long been tied to the built environments across the country, from redlining and restrictive covenants in the mid-1900s, to white flight and suburbanization after World War II, to the current trends of gentrification and displacement in cities throughout the…

Rat Sightings in NYC

This map, designed by Meredith Myers, shows where some of those hotspots are. It draws on 311 data, displaying the last 10,000 rat sightings that have been called in to the social services hotline. As you can see, some areas are bright red, with hundreds more reports than nearby neighborhoods.

News | October 19, 2022

Recently completed Spark Grants foster research on mobile home wastewater management, and estimating unhoused populations

Over the past year, two teams of researchers from the University of Washington tackled a host of urban challenges in our region with the support of Urban@UW’s Spark Grants. In September 2021 grants of up to $20,000 were awarded to amplify collaborative research-to-practice with a focus on today’s urban issues. The two UW teams of…

News | December 20, 2016

Reflections on Urban Environmental Justice in a Time of Climate Change

On November 7th and 8th Urban@UW, in collaboration with the University of Washington’s Climate Impacts Group (CIG), hosted a symposium to begin transdisciplinary conversation on the multifaceted dynamics and consequences of Urban Environmental Justice in a Time of Climate Change (UEJ). Below are some reflections from this event, and a sample of the resources we’ll…

News | June 5, 2021

Regional survey reveals work, leisure habits during the pandemic

No commute, fewer interruptions from co-workers, and the ability to work longer hours — all were factors that boosted feelings of productivity among people who worked from home during the first several months of the pandemic. At the same time, according to new data from the University of Washington, those who felt less productive while…

News | January 16, 2020

Regularly immersing yourself in nature can help health and wellbeing

How long does it take to get a dose of nature high enough to make people say they feel healthy and have a strong sense of well-being? Precisely 120 minutes. In a study of 20,000 people, a team led by Mathew White of the European Centre for Environment & Human Health at University of Exeter,…

Reimagining how we house the homeless beyond the shelter model

Originally written by Daniel Malone for The Seattle Times.   Forty-one years ago, the Downtown Emergency Service Center (DESC) opened a large disaster-style homeless shelter in the former ballrooms of the Morrison Hotel in downtown Seattle. Every single night since, the Morrison shelter provided refuge to approximately 250 of Seattle’s most vulnerable people. That is…

News | October 1, 2020

Renée Cheng: Change Agency, Value Change

Collisions are violent. The greater the mass or velocity of objects, the greater the energy released. The crises of the pandemic, economic crash, and social justice outcries are massive and still accelerating. In the wake of their collision, they will reveal new questions for our profession—and newfound energy to address them. Previously, architects pondering whether…

News | April 17, 2016

Rethinking Data Science for the Social Sciences: Urban Sociology

On Wednesday, May 4th, an interdisciplinary panel will explore the intersections of data and cities. Rethinking Data Science for the Social Sciences: Urban Sociology will look at how the availability of new forms of data has transformed the way researchers may approach their work across disciplines. This panel will bring together experts from data science…

Rethinking the needs of a post-pandemic city

What will the future city look like after the pandemic? As political leaders around the country debate when to safely reopen the economy, city planners and designers have been pondering the implications of the pandemic for the future design of cities. Some suggest reducing urban density, while others predict a second wave of “white flight”…

Richard Gleason

Robert wood johnson foundation – evidence for action: investigator-initiated research to build a culture of health.

Evidence for Action: Investigator-Initiated Research to Build a Culture of Health is a national program of RWJF that supports the Foundation’s commitment to building a Culture of Health in the United States. The program aims to provide individuals, organizations, communities, policymakers, and researchers with the empirical evidence needed to address the key determinants of health…

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Pioneering Ideas and a Culture of Health

The goal of the Pioneering Ideas Brief Proposal funding opportunity is to explore; to look into the future and put health first as we design for changes in how we live, learn, work and play; to wade into uncharted territory in order to better understand what new trends, opportunities and breakthrough ideas can enable everyone…

Rose Foundation – Puget Sound Stewardship and Mitigation Fund

The Foundation is accepting applications to its Puget Sound Stewardship and Mitigation Fund, which supports community-based efforts to mitigate past pollution runoff and protect or improve the water quality of Puget Sound. The foundation is particularly interested in proposals that benefit water quality in the following areas: the waters of central Puget Sound, especially Elliott…

News | December 17, 2020

Round 2 of Washington study underway to determine food, economic insecurity during pandemic

Understanding Washington residents’ access to food and their economic well-being – or lack of it – during the COVID-19 pandemic is vital for state and community partners to identify those needs and allocate resources effectively. To help accomplish this goal, the University of Washington, Washington State University and Tacoma Community College, along with input from…

Map | Mumbai

Safecity Mumbai

​This crowdsourced map helps women feel safer navigating through Mumbai and other cities in India. Safecity users can report and view incidents of talking, catcalls, indecent exposure, touching, assault, poor lighting and more.

News | August 7, 2018

Sammamish Utility first to install earthquake early warning technology

The Northeast Sammamish Water District is trying out earthquake early warning technology at a pumping station that sits on top of a half-million gallons of water. Check the Earthquake Tracker A simulation shows us what would happen if an earthquake were detected by the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network. “The earthquake has hit, it’s a 7.5…

Santosh Devasia

Sarah collier.

News | October 9, 2018

Save the Date for the next Doorway Project Pop-Up

Doorway Project Pop-Up cafe is coming to the HUB South Ballroom at the UW Seattle Campus, 12-4pm, Thursday, October 18th. Learn more about addressing youth homelessness. Stop by and get connected to resources for housing, education, food, and more. Everyone is invited to this event! Food, drinks, and art are provided through the pay-it-forward cafe…

News | August 5, 2021

Scientist tests soil for hidden contaminants in community gardens

This year saw many people rediscovering an interest in gardening, digging in the dirt and maybe even harvesting vegetables from a garden plot. But around the Puget Sound, not all garden soils are created equal. Soil, particularly in urban areas, can hold contaminants that are unhealthy for people who handle it or eat things grown…

Scott Meschke

Searching for climate and inequity hot spots, by car.

Fifteen cars with blue snorkels jutting up from their passenger windows drove around King County on Monday, the hottest day the Seattle area has seen in 2020. Volunteer drivers crisscrossed roads from Shoreline to Enumclaw. Their odd window attachments were used to record temperature and humidity measurements every second. Shortly after sunrise, when the city’s…

News | August 26, 2022

Seattle Approaches to Homelessness Highlighted in NYT Guest Essay

Urban@UW occasionally shares opinion pieces that touch on research related to urban topics. Here, we share a guest essay in the New York Times, titled, “Something Better Than a Tent for the Homeless”: The needs of homeowners and businesses and those of people who are unsheltered often conflict. Community leaders, faced with increasing crime and…

Seattle arose from a tortuously transformed Duwamish River

When we think of waters that define Seattle, which ones come to mind? Puget Sound and Elliott Bay, with Lake Washington and Lake Union close behind. Perhaps Green Lake. Don’t forget the Lake Washington Ship Canal. But what about the seemingly invisible Duwamish River, harnessed (some say ravaged) beyond original recognition and poisoned beyond palatability? Shouldn’t…

News | November 19, 2020

Seattle could become the next 15-minute city

A growing number of politicians, urban planners and climate experts believes that 15 minutes is roughly the maximum amount of time city dwellers should spend getting to basic needs — without having to resort to a car. In the so-called “15-minute city,” nutritious food, libraries, health care, parks, cafés and other amenities should be within a short walk, bike ride or roll…

Seattle Foundation

Few regions in the world can match Seattle’s current growth and prosperity. But accompanying our good fortune are great challenges, including the widening disparities between rich and poor. Such inequities weaken the vibrancy of our community. Philanthropy can—and must—step in. Using our philanthropic expertise, deep roots in the community and network of partners, Seattle Foundation…

Seattle groups present proposal to defund police department, invest in community

On July 8, Seattle and King County groups proposed several ways to allocate money from defunding the Seattle Police Department, all of which involve reinvesting in community-based programs. The plan comes as thousands of people have been protesting for weeks, marching in the streets in Seattle and across the country fighting against police brutality and systemic…

News | September 4, 2018

Seattle Growth Podcast 5.3: Homeless in Seattle

The fifth season of the Seattle Growth Podcast continues the wide-ranging conversation about the city’s growing homelessness crisis. “Each episode of this season brings voices from a variety of perspectives,” says podcast host Jeff Shulman Associate Professor of Marketing in the Foster school of Business. “Together, the episodes will help listeners understand homelessness from multiple angles, become better informed…

News | August 28, 2018

Seattle Growth Podcast 5.4: Homelessness and City Hall

The fifth season of the Seattle Growth Podcast continues the wide-ranging conversation about the city’s growing homelessness crisis. Episode 4 takes you behind the scenes at Seattle City Hall as the City Council weighed a controversial “head tax” on companies to raise more money to address the crisis. City Council member Teresa Mosqueda shares her opinion on the failed campaign and…

News | November 4, 2020

Seattle Growth Podcast 7.1: the pandemic’s effect on real estate and restaurants

Jeff Shulman created the Seattle Growth Podcast in 2016, a time when Seattle was in a state of profound transition while experiencing unprecedented economic and population growth. Shulman, the Marion B. Ingersoll Professor of Marketing at the University of Washington Foster School of Business, wanted to bring diverse voices together for a constructive dialogue about where Seattle has…

News | February 5, 2021

Seattle lab tracking spread of COVID-19 variant across Puget Sound

There are four confirmed cases of the B117 variant, which originated in the U.K, in the Puget Sound Region. “The B117 variant is definitely here and circulating in the U.S,” said Dr. Pavitra Roychoudhury, Acting Instructor for the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology at UW Medicine. “Right now, in Washington state, it appears to…

News | January 9, 2024

Seattle now has highest minimum wage of any major city in the United States

As of Jan. 1, Seattle hiked its minimum wage to $19.97 an hour for workers at larger companies like Starbucks. That’s the highest minimum wage of any major city in the U.S. Former labor leader David Rolf, who drove the original push for a higher minimum wage law in Seattle and SeaTac around a decade…

News | June 24, 2019

Seattle upgrades A/C at some community centers ahead of predicted wildfires

It wasn’t a picture postcard August last year in Seattle. Seattle icons, the Space Needle, ferries crossing the water, the Great Wheel spinning colorfully on the waterfront were barely visible because of smoke from Canadian wildfires. The Emerald City saw 24 days of moderately unhealthy levels of particulates in the air during the summer because…

News | March 1, 2021

Seattle will use a UW-developed mapping tool to guide equitable vaccine distribution

As it strives to improve equitable vaccine distribution, the city of Seattle will use a new mapping tool to help it site future mobile and pop-up clinics and, eventually, mass vaccination sites. The map, developed by the University of Washington, lets the city compare, by ZIP code and census tract, communities’ COVID-19 positivity rates and…

News | September 23, 2020

Seattle-area families of color are talking about improving remote education. Here are some of their ideas.

Regina Elmi is the executive director of the Somali Parent Education Board. Ann Ishimaru is associate professor of education at the University of Washington. The authors wrote this piece along with 10 other African American, Somali, Latina and Vietnamese parent leaders from the Renton, Federal Way, Kent, Highline and Seattle school districts. Thousands of families…

News | October 22, 2020

Seattle’s charming new waterfront park on Portage Bay officially opens

While the weather might be a bit gusty and chilly, Seattleites have a quaint new waterfront park to explore this weekend for fall colors and launch their kayaks next spring. Fritz Hedges Waterway Park officially opened Wednesday and includes a kayak launch point, pier, small beach and picnic area. The 3.5-acre park sits adjacent to the Sakuma Viewpoint and…

Seattle’s Department of Planning and Development GIS

​This interactive GIS map published by Seattle’s Department of Planning and Development makes essential GIS layers easily accessible. A few of the base layers include: building outlines, contours, parcels, pavement edges, and tree canopy cover. Zoning and environmentally critical areas are also highlighted, including layers for areas that are: flood prone, susceptible liquefaction, wetlands, steep…

News | July 22, 2022

Seattle’s soda tax benefits low-income communities, study finds

A new study concludes that Seattle’s soda tax isn’t disproportionately harming lower-income families — and is actually benefiting lower-income households as a group. University of Washington researchers analyzed sugary drink purchases across more than 1,100 households in Philadelphia, San Francisco and Seattle in the first year the cities enacted soda taxes. In all three cities,…

News | January 17, 2023

Seattle’s cost of living is more complicated than you think

How much money does a family of four need to live in Seattle without financial assistance? The cheeky answer: about $2,000 more than they have at the moment. The real answer: crucially dependent, especially for those who make the least, on who you ask. Statistical sticklers might point to the Department of Health and Human…

Seema Clifasefi

Shannon harper, share lab (safety and health advancement through research and education).

SHARE Lab (Safety and Health Advancement through Research and Education Laboratory) embarks on innovative research that promotes the wellbeing of construction taskforce and/or reduces occupational injuries and illnesses for the construction industry. Example research projects completed at the lab include: sensor based physiological status monitoring on construction workers, video gaming development for the training and…

Shireesha Dhanireddy

News | August 23, 2023

Should Governments Be Blamed for Climate Change? How One Lawsuit Could Change US Policies

A landmark ruling saying Montana has a constitutional duty to guard residents from the harmful effects of climate change could have wider implications, environmental experts said. In a decision Monday lauded by activists as a potential turning point for the environmental movement, District Court Judge Kathy Seeley sided with young plaintiffs who claimed state policies…

Should social media pay for addicting kids? Seattle schools lawsuit gains steam

Reported by KUOW Written by Sami West A year into Seattle Public Schools’ lawsuit against social media companies, the case is gaining traction. More than 50 school districts in Washington state — and dozens more across the country — have joined Seattle’s lawsuit. Seattle became the first district to sue social media platforms last January,…

News | July 27, 2023

Signature Biden Program Won’t Fix Racial Gap in Air Quality, Study Suggests

A new analysis has found that the White House’s signature environmental justice program may not shrink racial disparities in who breathes the most polluted air, in part because of efforts to ensure that it could withstand legal challenges. The program, called Justice40, aims to address inequalities by directing 40 percent of the benefits from certain…

News | December 15, 2017

Skid Road: The intersection of health and homelessness

After years of caring for the homeless in the streets and dilapidated motels of Richmond, Virginia, nurse Josephine Ensign became homeless herself. Many of her patients were prostitutes—some as young as 15—and her conscience no longer allowed her to adhere to her clinic’s policies. Though she was Christian, she was fired for referring many of…

Smoke from Alaska fires has reached the Northwest

Seattle is experiencing smoke from an estimated 120 wildfires burning in interior and south-central Alaska, as the 49th State goes through a late spring-early summer heat wave, according to University of Washington atmospheric sciences professor Cliff Mass. “Although there are no wildfires in the Pacific Northwest right now, there are many large fires burning over Alaska producing lots…

Social Development Research Group (SDRG)

For over 30 years the Social Development Research Group (SDRG) has sought to investigate and promote healthy behaviors and positive social development in youth and adults. SDRG is a recognized leader in the field of prevention research. Our efforts to understand how risk and protective factors influence development have resulted in hundreds of articles in…

Social Welfare (BA, PhD) / Social Work (MSW)

We offer nationally recognized academic programs, leading edge research, and a wide range of supervised field education opportunities to help you build professional expertise, hone investigative skills, and foster the ability to lead and serve in a multicultural world. These rich learning opportunities allow you to connect and collaborate with social work students, committed faculty…

News | November 25, 2019

Some communities feel the effects of air pollution more than others

Power plants are prolific particulate producers. To generate energy, power plants burn fossil fuels, and the combustion spews gases and fine specks of pollution into the air. Air pollution affects everyone, but experts are now warning that exposure levels can weigh heavier on certain racial and ethnic communities, independent of their income levels. And even…

News | October 16, 2018

Something’s killing coho salmon in Seattle, and car tires are a prime suspect

When autumn rains return to western Washington, so do coho salmon. But in many of the creeks they swim up, something in the water leaves fishes gasping for air. They die quickly, before they manage to spawn. A new study points at chemicals from tiny bits of car tires as a prime suspect in the…

News | July 19, 2018

Sound Transit rail stations could help solve our housing crisis

All of Sound Transit’s LINK light-rail stations offer opportunities to create vibrant, walkable mixed-use communities with significant amounts of new housing and reduced dependence on automobiles. We need a bold, regional approach to housing affordability, says Rick Mohler, Associate Professor at the Department of Architecture, and  Al Levine, Associate Faculty at the Department of Urban Design…

News | May 11, 2023

Spain’s April Heat Nearly Impossible Without Climate Change

Record-breaking April temperatures in Spain, Portugal and northern Africa were made 100 times more likely by human-caused climate change, a new flash study found, and would have been almost impossible in the past. The study also said the extreme heat in Europe is rising faster than computer models had projected. The same thing happened in…

News | October 25, 2022

Sparking Climate Connections – UW Lightning Talks on Climate Change

Addressing our climate crisis can’t be done alone; this all-hands-on-deck moment requires as many voices, disciplines and perspectives as possible to forge connections that will inspire collective action. Urban@UW and the EarthLab Advisory Board of Deans invite you to participate in an exciting two-part event bringing together the rich variety of climate change related research…

News | December 9, 2015

SPH Faculty Tap into New UW Effort to Create More Livable Cities

A new University of Washington initiative is thinking “upstream” when it comes to creating safer, healthier and more livable cities. Urban@UW aims to bring together UW faculty, staff and students from different disciplines with city decision-makers and citizens to wrestle with urban issues such as housing and poverty, growth and transportation, and food and economic…

News | May 26, 2020

SPH partners with state health department to reach vulnerable communities about COVID-19

What do communities most vulnerable to COVID-19 need to know about the disease, and what are the most effective methods for reaching them? These are questions a partnership between the University of Washington School of Public Health and the Washington State Department of Health seeks to answer. To better understand the information needs of communities…

Stephanie Farquhar

Stephen page, steve j. mooney, strong communities successful kids by kevin haggerty.

News | February 16, 2024

Student Housing Has a New Mantra: Bigger Is Better

Written by Kevin Williams for The New York Times Off-campus complexes are getting larger, with some being home to more than 1,500 students, and being built on prime parcels of land as close to campus as possible. When the Standard, an off-campus student housing complex, opened in the fall in Bloomington, Ind., welcoming its first…

News | August 20, 2018

Student volunteers help expand UW’s outreach to homeless youth

It started with a Sunday afternoon café outside a community center last December — the University of Washington’s new initiative to reach homeless youth around the U District. In the eight months since, the UW’s effort, known as The Doorway Project, has offered a café in the neighborhood each quarter, while students have helped add services — from…

News | August 3, 2018

Students push public transit policy

Public transit systems are lifelines that connect people to jobs, education and opportunity. And students at the University of Washington School of Public Health are working to give Seattle residents a bit more slack. Students met with the Seattle City Council’s Sustainability & Transportation Committee last month to discuss ways to expand access to public…

News | April 17, 2018

Students research historic South, East Tacoma for Livable City project

The City of Tacoma’s Historic Preservation Office is partnering with the University of Washington on a Livable City Year project to identify historic resources in South and East Tacoma. For this project, graduate and undergraduate students are researching the histories of two neighborhoods: McKinley Hill in East Tacoma, and the Edison Neighborhood along South Tacoma…

News | June 30, 2020

Study asks Washington state residents to describe food security and access during pandemic, economic downturn

The Washington State Food Security Survey, which went live June 18 and runs through July 31, is open to all Washington state residents aged 18 or over. It was created by researchers at the University of Washington, Washington State University and Tacoma Community College, along with input from partners in local, county and state governments —…

News | March 20, 2019

Study Finds Racial Gap Between Who Causes Air Pollution And Who Breathes It

Pollution, much like wealth, is not distributed equally in the United States. Scientists and policymakers have long known that black and Hispanic Americans tend to live in neighborhoods with more pollution of all kinds, than white Americans. And because pollution exposure can cause a range of health problems, this inequity could be a driver of unequal health outcomes across…

News | March 21, 2019

Study points to grocery store gap, inequity in access to healthy foods in the Seattle area

Seattle neighborhoods that are lower income or that have more Black or Hispanic residents have fewer options for healthy foods, more fast food and longer travel times to stores that sell produce, according to a new study by the University of Washington School of Public Health and Public Health – Seattle & King County, in Washington. The…

News | September 8, 2020

Study provides way to more accurately measure impact of COVID-19 response on air pollution

Stay-at-home orders issued in Seattle in response to COVID-19 led to a significant drop in some of the most harmful air pollutants to human health, according to a novel method used by the University of Washington School of Public Health. The researchers developed a new method to account for any differences in weather conditions –…

Study synthesizes what climate change means for Northwest wildfires

Recent years have brought unusually large and damaging wildfires to the Pacific Northwest – from the Carlton Complex Fire in 2014 that was the largest in Washington’s history, to the 2017 fire season in Oregon, to the 2018 Maple Fire, when normally sodden rainforests on the Olympic Peninsula were ablaze. Many people have wondered what this means for our…

News | September 12, 2018

Summer Design/Build Studio 2018

Food and the ability to prepare it are fundamental components of life. Places of food preparation–whether a home kitchen or a fire pit–serve not only their most explicit functions but also act as cultural gathering spaces for families and communities. Food preparation poses particularly unique challenges in Seattle’s homeless communities for individuals, families and larger…

Susan E. Collins

Susan p. kemp, sustainable transportation: planning and livable communities (cert).

Examine the important issues involved in sustainable transportation planning. Review policies and programs that encourage mixed use development and higher density levels in order to promote modes of transportation other than the single occupancy vehicle. Study the impact different transportation options have on the environment and sustainability. Explore the movement of goods as well as…

Swimming in Berlin

This map of Berlin charts: lakes, bathing sites, nature, BVG bus stops, outdoor swimming pools, indoor swimming pools, and dog bathing sites

News | August 17, 2020

Systemic racism has consequences for all life in cities

Social inequalities, specifically racism and classism, are impacting the biodiversity, evolutionary shifts, and ecological health of plants and animals in our cities. That’s the main finding of a review paper led by the University of Washington, with co-authors at the University of California, Berkeley, and University of Michigan, which examined more than 170 published studies and analyzed…

News | July 15, 2019

Tacoma’s wastewater has the answers in a new cannabis study

Scientists from the University of Washington and the University of Puget Sound took samples from Tacoma’s wastewater plants from 2013 to 2016 and then analyzed those samples for THC levels. THC is the most common psychoactive chemical found in cannabis, so measuring the quantity of THC in Tacoma’s excrement would provide data on how much…

Tania M. Busch Isaksen

Tao sheng kwan-gett.

News | December 21, 2020

Tent City 3 moves to UW campus during coronavirus pandemic

On December 19, up to 70 residents of Tent City 3 moved their belongings from its current location at Trinity United Methodist Church in Seattle’s Crown Hill neighborhood to a parking lot on the UW campus. In 2017, one of Seattle’s oldest self-governed homeless camps moved to a parking lot in the southwest corner of…

News | April 10, 2021

Tents in Seattle increased by more than 50% after COVID pandemic began, survey says

Oleg Shpungin usually avoids sleeping in tents. They’re creepy, he says, when he can hear someone approaching but can’t see if they’re about to rob him — and he’s been robbed enough. “A tent is a very dangerous life,” Shpungin said. But on Monday night, he was cold and weak, and his friend had an open tent…

News | October 21, 2020

That sink in the alley is supposed to be there

A sink is nestled in the University District alley between 15th Avenue Northeast and The Ave. It’s bolted to a trough of plants. It appeared in May. Another sink just like it is up The Ave on 47th Avenue Northeast. One was also placed at the University Heights community center along 50th Avenue Northeast. The…

News | September 26, 2016

The Annie E. Casey Foundation to Support MetroLab Network’s Big Data + Human Services Lab

The Annie E. Casey Foundation, which aims to improve delivery of human services to children and families by focusing on big data solutions with cities, countries, and universities, will support MetroLab Network’s Big Data + Human Services Lab. MetroLab Network is pleased to announce that the Annie E. Casey Foundation will be supporting the formation…

Research Beyond UW | Queen Mary University of London

The City Centre

In 2006, the School of Geography at Queen Mary University of London, launched a new centre for collaborative research and related activities that are focused on the city. The City Centre is designed to provide a space in which academic research can be developed and communicated with those within and beyond the academy. Particular interests…

The coronavirus is hitting Pierce County’s communities of color hard, health data shows

People of color are being hit hard by the coronavirus in Pierce County. New data from the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department show native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders, Hispanics and blacks are suffering from COVID-19 at rates far above their percentages of the county population. “We are very concerned about the significant disparities we are…

News | May 22, 2021

The Doorway Project & U-District Community Partners Community Resource Fair

The Doorway Project is a University of Washington and YouthCare-led initiative focusing on addressing youth homelessness in the University District through continuous community-engaged collaboration with U-District service providers and community members. They are currently in Phase 1 of a four-year plan, developed through the lens of the project’s legislative intent. The primary aim of the…

News | January 20, 2021

The environmental psychology of COVID-19 with Professor Lynne Manzo

We are living through a new reality, adjusting to life during a global pandemic. We are all changing our routines, our travel plans, our holiday traditions. For those of us who have been able to keep our jobs through this economic crash, we have had to adapt to a new working environment, working from our…

News | May 20, 2022

The extraordinary heat wave in India and Pakistan, explained

Nearly one in eight people on Earth are enduring a relentless, lethal heat wave that is stretching into its third week. Triple-digit temperatures are continuing to bake swaths of India and Pakistan, a region home to 1.5 billion people. Extreme heat has also scorched Bangladesh and Sri Lanka in recent weeks. For India, this past April was…

News | July 3, 2019

The health effects of wildfire smoke may last a lifetime

When smoke from California’s deadliest wildfire blew into downtown Sacramento last November, daylight blurred into dusk and the city’s air became among the world’s most polluted. The Camp Fire has long since been extinguished, but the health effects from the tiny particulate matter in the smoke, which penetrates into the lungs and ultimately into the bloodstream, could linger for years….

News | July 26, 2021

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on low-income tenants’ housing security in Washington state

Originally written by Matthew Fowle, Ph.D Candidate and Rachel Fyall, Associate Professor at the Evans School of Public Policy & Governance. The COVID-19 pandemic and related economic recession have had a substantial negative impact on low-income tenants’ housing security. A record number of households have been unable to pay their rent on-time. To stem the threat of…

News | November 18, 2019

The law that’s helping fuel Delhi’s deadly air pollution

Another cloud of choking smoke and dust is set to descend upon the 20 million residents of Delhi this week, with forecasters warning that air pollution is likely to reach “severe” or “emergency” levels on Wednesday. The dangerous, dirty air is arising from a mix of weather conditions, urban emissions, and rural smoke converging over India’s capital…

News | November 18, 2020

The pandemic changed our daily routines. Here’s how that’s impacting mental health, productivity and the environment

Few people think about the impact their daily routine has on themselves, or even the planet. But the small actions — from what you eat for breakfast to how you commute to work — are having an effect. Urban Design and Planning doctoral student Xiao Shi has long been interested in the small and large impacts of people’s…

News | September 15, 2020

The pandemic is transforming how Americans use public libraries, parks, and streets — and it’s depriving vulnerable people of space when they need it most

On a Friday in early March, Jennifer Pearson looked around her library in Lewisburg, Tennessee. “The library was full of older people,” Pearson, the library’s director, said. “I thought, if I don’t close this space, they will never stop coming to it, so I have to close it, for their good and for my staff.”…

News | October 24, 2019

The potential of green urban planning for mental health

Neighborhood architects, engineers, and policymakers look at all kinds of factors and needs when building a city, including transportation links, housing, aesthetics, amenities, and so forth. Natural spaces are also considered, for their aesthetic, recreational, and ecological benefits. A study published in July in Science Advances outlines a model that will let policymakers see nature’s impacts on…

News | September 16, 2022

The Power of Pedaling

A class project quickly became a passion project for civil and environmental engineering Ph.D. student Dan McCabe. A cycling enthusiast, McCabe is working to optimize the delivery of groceries from food banks to people experiencing food insecurity — by bicycle. To help streamline delivery operations for the Pedaling Relief Project (PRP), McCabe is developing technology…

Research Beyond UW | Univeristy of California - Berkeley

The Suitcase Clinic

The Suitcase Clinic is a humanitarian student organization and volunteer community offering free health and social services to underserved populations since 1989. Structured around the principles of public health, social welfare, community activism and empathy, the Suitcase Clinic currently operates three weekly multi-service drop-in centers in the city Berkeley: the General Clinic, the Women’s Clinic…

News | February 17, 2022

These scientists are fighting the pandemic with sewage

Sewage stinks, and it’s often laden with disease. But it can also be of tremendous value to public health. Cutting-edge biomedical research sometimes begins with prying a heavy steel lid off a sewer hole, to gain access to the data gushing below. Studies of wastewater have helped scientists pinpoint where Covid-19 variants have popped up,…

News | October 12, 2020

This South King County church created a drive-thru food bank in response to the pandemic

The Tukwila Food Pantry has been a lifeline for many South King County residents who have lost their jobs during the pandemic. Like many local food banks, it saw a surge in demand. It went from serving 50 households a day, pre-Covid, to 500. The pantry is at Riverton Park Methodist Church. It started out…

News | May 12, 2021

Tiny air pollutants may come from different sources, but they all show a similar biased trend

Air pollution from fine particulate matter—extremely small bits of material like soot that can enter the nose and throat while breathing—can have deadly health consequences. One 2019 study of 4.5 million U.S. veterans estimated that nearly 200,000 people, of whom a disproportionate number were Black, died of causes associated with fine particulate matter (also known as…

To address health inequities, Black folks need the right to move without harm

On a crisp afternoon last fall, Douglas Pullen, a 69-year-old Black man, was nearly hit by a white driver during his daily walk through his Seattle neighborhood. Having witnessed this, Kate Hoerster, assistant professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at UW School of Medicine, checked on Mr. Pullen after he was safely on the other side…

Toilets in Mumbai

Students and faculty from the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and Graduate School of Design (GSD) came together to address a common issue in slum dwelling—the scarcity and poor conditions of public toilets in urban slums in Mumbai—and to discuss sustainable solutions from design and public health.

News | December 15, 2020

Tracking the seasons of pandemic response in Seattle

Just before 7:00 on a cool, misty Seattle morning, Jacqueline Peltier stands alone on the University of Washington campus. Nearby, squirrels and rabbits frolic in the morning dew. Peltier, part of a National Science Foundation-funded research team, will spend the next hour securing a 360-degree camera to the roof of a rental Toyota Prius Prime,…

News | May 18, 2020

Traffic in Seattle area slowly returning

If you’ve left home, you’ve probably noticed. A few more people are on the roads. “We are seeing traffic slowly start to come back,” said Bob Pishue, transportation analyst for the traffic data company INRIX. Pishue said as the COVID-19 shutdown began, traffic in the Seattle area dropped 54%. It’s now rebounded a bit to…

Transit workers fight drugs on buses and trains

Written by Joseph Gallivan for Axios Oregon Transit companies are pushing to make it a Class A misdemeanor to use drugs on buses and trains in Oregon. TriMet, the Oregon Transit Association, and Amalgamated Transit Union Local 757 testified yesterday to support amending Senate Bill 1553. The amendment would add the use of illicit drugs…

Trees an oasis of mental well-being

City dwellers who live on tree-lined streets might be happier and healthier for it, a large new study suggests. The study, of nearly 47,000 urban residents, found that those who lived in areas shaded by tree canopy reported less psychological distress and better general health over six years. Green grass, on the other hand, didn’t…

News | September 14, 2021

Trees: Our mental, physical, climate change antidote

There are many sugar maples along the banks of the Mill River in western Massachusetts. But this one is special, at least to Danielle Ignace. Its wide, green canopy keeps Ignace cool as she works or entertains friends, even on this hot summer day in Williamsburg. Its tens of thousands of leaves, rustling in a…

Tri-campus survey aims to identify student struggles with housing, food costs

In a region as expensive as the Puget Sound, making ends meet affects college students, too. Rent, utilities and food can run into the hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars a month – and for students without the means, it’s a daunting and sometimes compromising challenge. Urban@UW is trying to learn more about the situations…

Trouble paying medical bills can lead to longer episodes of homelessness, new study shows

Even before the pandemic left COVID-19 patients with staggering hospital bills, many people, especially those who are uninsured, were often overwhelmed with medical bills. And medical debt and housing instability often go hand in hand. In a new University of Washington study of people experiencing homelessness in King County, unpaid medical bills were their primary…

News | October 7, 2020

Turning hotels into emergency shelter as part of COVID-19 response limited spread of coronavirus, improved health and stability

A King County initiative that moved people out of homeless shelters and into hotel rooms earlier this year helped slow the transmission of coronavirus, according to early findings from a study of the intervention. The study, part of Urban@UW’s Homelessness Research Initiative, is co-authored by Rachel Fyall and Gregg Colburn, HRI faculty co-leads. Their research is…

News | February 13, 2019

Two new studies published about the Seattle minimum wage ordinance

University of Washington researchers continue to study the impact of the 2014 Seattle minimum wage ordinance. An interdisciplinary team of faculty and graduate students who have tracked various industries since the ordinance’s implementation just published two new studies: These papers take a closer look at the effects on child care businesses and on food prices…

UChicago Urban Labs

The University of Chicago's Urban Labs comprises 5 units: Crime Lab, Education Lab, Energy & Environment Lab, Health Lab, and Poverty Lab. Working in partnership with policy makers and practitioners worldwide, Urban Labs help evaluate and implement the most effective urban policies and solutions around the world, bringing improvements to people's lives in real time.…

News | June 30, 2022

Understanding the role of historical residential segregation on pediatric injury and violence

Approximately 265 pediatric deaths occurred as a result of injury or violence in Washington state in 2020. A team of researchers from the University of Washington and hospitals around the state are collaborating on a new Population Health Initiative-funded pilot project, “Residential Segregation and Pediatric Injury and Violence in Seattle, Spokane and Tacoma,” to better…

News | January 16, 2021

University of Washington tests wastewater to track COVID-19 outbreaks in Seattle neighborhoods

The University of Washington is studying a new way to track COVID-19 outbreaks in Seattle neighborhoods, and let’s just say they are not letting anything go to waste. The College of Engineering is investigating a new large-scale testing method to detect COVID-19 in wastewater by pulling sewage samples from Seattle pump stations. The goal is to quantify how many…

News | June 29, 2021

Urban areas of King County feel heat waves the most, study finds

Areas of King County with more paved landscapes and less tree canopy are feeling the heat more intensely than less urbanized areas, according to a new study from King County and the city of Seattle. More urbanized areas were as much as 20 degrees hotter due to an abundance of hard surfaces like parking lots, rooftops and…

Map | São Paulo

Urban data visualization lab

We design interactive experiences, data analysis, visualization, maps, and cartography, focusing on Brazil and the Amazon.

Urban Design Lab

The Urban Design Lab (UDL) of the Earth Institute and GSAPP works to find innovative solutions to the sustainable development issues confronting cities. The UDL conducts multidisciplinary applied design research in collaboration with community-based organizations and other public and private interests. The UDL's team works closely with outside experts in architecture, ecology, economics, environmental science,…

News | December 12, 2018

Urban Ecologist/Superhero

UW Tacoma Assistant Professor Christopher Schell is a fan of the Marvel Cinematic Universe as evidenced by the Black Panther coffee cup and Black Panther bobble head on his desk. Schell is a scientist, not a superhero; but if he were to assume a secret identity he might be dubbed, “Coyote.” Schell is an urban…

Urban Form Lab

The Urban Form Lab (UFL) aims to affect policy and to support approaches to the design and planning of more livable environments, with a specialty in geospatial analyses of the built environment using multiple micro-scale data in Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Current research includes the development of novel GIS routines for performing spatial inventories and…

News | August 18, 2020

Urban heatwaves are worse for low-income neighborhoods

Temperatures this summer have hit record levels across major cities, such as New York, Houston, Phoenix, Miami, London, Athens, Baghdad, and Qatar. Yesterday, an excessive heat warning was issued for South Central and Southwest Arizona and Southeast California. Climate change is leading to increased severity and frequency of heat waves, sea-level rise, and flooding due to heavy rainfall. These events tend to hurt some groups…

Urban Infrastructure Lab

The Urban Infrastructure Lab (UIL) brings together students and faculty across numerous disciplines with a shared interest in the planning, governance, finance, design, development, economics, and environmental effects of infrastructure. The interests of the UIL span the systems critical to economic and social well-being, such as energy, water, health, transportation, education, and communications. Across these…

News | March 28, 2018

Urban Scholar Highlight: Josephine Ensign

Josephine Ensign is a Professor in University of Washington’s School of Nursing and Adjunct Professor in the Department of Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies, Affiliate Faculty in UW’s Certificate Program in Public Scholarship, and coordinator of Urban@UW’s Homelessness Research Initiative’s Doorway Project—which is hosting a popup cafe in honor of Earth Day on April 22!…

News | February 18, 2023

Urban Scholar Highlight: Melanie Malone

This is the second in a series of interviews from Urban@UW highlighting the research of urban scholars at the University of Washington. Urban@UW spoke to Melanie Malone, Assistant Professor in the School of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences at the University of Washington Bothell. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.   What do…

News | August 28, 2017

Urban Scholar Highlight: Scott Allard

Scott W. Allard is a Professor of Public Affairs at the Evans School of Public Policy and Governance. Allard is also on the executive committee of the West Coast Poverty Center and Urban@UW, and an affiliate of the Center for Studies in Demography and Ecology. We sat down with him to discuss his work at…

Research Beyond UW | Imperial College London

Urban Systems Lab

Cities are central to economic growth and social activity with a growing share of the global population. Increasingly, the need of cities to improve performance in services and infrastructure is creating not only technical, social, and business challenges, but also opportunities as new niches are opened on the basis of new technology and a better…

News | December 7, 2023

Urban@UW announces 2nd Request for Applications for RAC

Urban@UW is excited to announce the second round of Request for Applications (RFA) for the Research to Action Collaboratory (RAC). The RFA invites teams of community members, researchers and students across the University of Washington who are excited to co-produce actionable, community-centered research and knowledge for persistent urban-focused problems. The deadline for submitting an application…

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Urban@UW is excited to be able to provide another cycle of funding for small-scale, new or emergent projects in urban systems. Our Urban@UW Research Spark Grants RFP is intended to catalyze new ideas, connections, and next steps for UW faculty and research staff undertaking cross-disciplinary and community-engaged urban scholarship. The application window opens June 14,…

News | February 19, 2020

Urban@UW announces Research Spark Grants

UPDATE: In light of the COVID-19 pandemic and its impacts on academic and research activities, Urban@UW has made the difficult decision to postpone our Spark Grants program. In addition to recognizing the varied strains and hardship our community is experiencing, we want to ensure that new collaborations launch in a context that promotes meeting and…

News | April 17, 2023

Urban@UW Announces the 2023 Research to Action Collaboratory Inaugural Cohort

Urban@UW is excited to announce the project teams selected for the inaugural cohort of the Research to Action Collaboratory (RAC). Throughout the next 18 months, Urban@UW will work with these teams and provide seed funds, dedicated time to build team cohesion and collaboration skills, and foster opportunities for peer support and shared resources and learning….

News | October 20, 2017

Urban@UW compiles Faculty Highlights Report for research, teaching and engagement on homelessness

As part of its recently launched Homelessess Research Initiative, Urban@UW has collaborated with faculty and staff across all three UW campuses to compile a broad-ranging selection of powerful and robust projects addressing homelessness from a research lens. Check out the Faculty Highlights Report to learn more about these efforts and the people behind them.

News | January 11, 2023

Urban@UW launches the Research to Action Collaboratory

Urban@UW launches the Research to Action Collaboratory, with initial funding from the Bullitt Foundation, to help collaborations achieve greater impact The new accelerator program for research teams aims to build collective capacity to increase sustainability and resilience across urban areas and the Pacific Northwest. The Research to Action Collaboratory (RAC), seeded by a catalytic $500,000…

Urban@UW Research Spark Grants awardees announced

Urban@UW is excited to announce the awardees for our Research Spark Grants program. The two proposals selected address urgent urban challenges in our region, with a strong focus on community engagement and vulnerable populations.   Co-creating an Adaptive Community-Science Network: Supporting Tribal and Grassroots Action through the Puget Creek Watershed Assessment Urban communities in the…

Urban@UW shares annual letter to kick off 2021-2 school year

As we begin the third academic year to be affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, Urban@UW wishes to acknowledge the ongoing effects of this crisis, which are compounded by systemic forces of inequality and injustice. We feel the grief, the uncertainty, the weariness. And we are buoyed by the perseverance, commitment, and solidarity of moving forward…

News | August 25, 2020

US cities could face nearly 30 times more exposure to extreme heat by 2100 compared to the early 2000s, study finds

As triple-digit heat tests the limits of California’s electrical grid to keep millions of people cool, it is clear the effects of human-caused global warming are already here. But the extreme heat baking the Western US is a mere preview of what could be coming: A new study finds that in the future, the heat risk facing the country’s biggest…

News | December 17, 2019

UW Aging with Pride study helps inform plans for Seattle’s first LGBTQ-affirming, affordable senior housing

The City of Seattle Office of Housing on Dec. 9 announced funds to develop Seattle’s first affordable senior housing development designed to be an affirming environment for LGBTQ seniors and the greater LGBTQ community. The project is led by Capitol Hill Housing, a nonprofit developer, along with GenPRIDE, the first LGBTQ-affirming senior center in Seattle/King…

News | March 6, 2020

UW and Premera Working to Create Rural Nursing Placement Program

Premera Blue Cross, a leading health plan in the Pacific Northwest, today announced a $4.7 million grant to the University of Washington to establish the Rural Nursing Health Initiative to place current students in rural practices in Washington state. Premera Blue Cross announces a multimillion dollar grant for rural nursing to the UW School of…

News | October 27, 2015

UW initiative aims to tackle city, region’s most pressing urban issues

When Thaisa Way put a call out last spring to see if University of Washington faculty members working on urban issues wanted to join forces, she wasn’t sure what the response would be. “There were a lot of people who said, ‘You’re not going to get anyone to show up,‘” said Way, a UW associate…

News | December 6, 2022

UW Livable City Year program and Pacific County EDC launch new partnership

Every year, students at the University of Washington work with one or more local governments to help create solutions to challenging problems. This year, they’ll study Pacific County. Launching an exciting new partnership, the Livable City Year program and the Pacific County Economic Development Council (PCEDC) will connect UW courses with projects identified by PCEDC…

News | November 13, 2018

UW opens permanent food pantry on campus

Studies suggest that as many as 25 percent of college students nationwide do not get enough food. That’s one of the reasons why the University of Washington on Thursday opened a new, permanent food pantry. Located on the west side of campus in Poplar Hall, the 700-square-foot space provides free, nonperishable groceries and select fresh produce. Anyone…

UW professor: Seattle exposed to most ‘chronically high noise levels’ of any city in US

How Seattle’s development is impacting your health and, more specifically, your ears is not something being taken into account by city leaders, according to a University of Washington professor. And changing an ordinance that mutes construction’s noise pollution to match other cities from around the country might be a potent elixir, he says. Eliot Brenowitz,…

News | March 23, 2023

UW Receives $1.2M Climate Change Research Grant from EPA

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently announced nearly $4 million in grant funding for universities—including University of Washington—to research impacts of climate change on vulnerable communities. UW will receive $1,267,559 for a community-based project researching ways to preserve water, soil and sediment along the Duwamish River, famously polluted by decades of industrial contamination. Flanking…

UW research team seeks campus input with survey on coronavirus mobility impacts

Three professors are teaming up for a study of the mobility impacts of the coronavirus — and they are inviting UW faculty, staff and students to complete a short online survey to assist the research. The research is being conducted by Anne Vernez Moudon, professor emerita of urban design and planning in the College of Built Environments, with Jeff…

News | October 20, 2020

UW researchers drive around Seattle to document pandemic impact

So much has changed since the start of the pandemic, and University of Washington researchers are hoping to keep track of all of those changes by driving around and capturing snapshots of Seattle. “It’s a really unique dataset that doesn’t exist anywhere else in the world,” said Joe Wartman, co-researcher and UW professor of civil…

News | October 6, 2020

UW researchers driving around Seattle to track COVID-19 response over time

As the city of Seattle shut down in March 2020 to try to slow the spread of COVID-19, a group of University of Washington researchers got to work. The team developed a project that scans the streets every few weeks to document what’s happening around the city — answering questions such as: Are people outside?…

News | September 1, 2020

UW researchers explore how urbanization changes Earth’s ecosystems in new paper

UW researchers Marina Alberti, Urban Design & Planning; Simone Des Roches, Aquatic and Fisheries Sciences; and Christopher Schell, Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences at UW Tacoma have published a new report titled “The Complexity of Urban Eco-evolutionary Dynamics”, examining how urbanization affects ecological and evolutionary processes over time, and how these changes affect nature’s contribution to people….

News | March 3, 2022

UW School of Public Health announces ARCH: Center for Anti-Racism and Community Health

Coinciding with this year’s Black History Month theme of “Black Health and Wellness,” today the University of Washington (UW) School of Public Health announces the launch of the Center for Anti-Racism and Community Health (ARCH). Led by inaugural Director Dr. Wendy E. Barrington, the ARCH Center will serve as a community-driven academic hub focused on…

News | October 1, 2015

UW School of Social Work taps technology to help curb suicide and improve child welfare

Edwina “Eddie” Uehara, a University of Washington professor and Ballmer Endowed Dean in Social Work, is eager to facilitate cultural exchanges. Not exchanges of people from different countries or ethnicities, but from disciplines that can be worlds apart: computer technology and social work. “It really is this moment,” said Uehara, “when all of us are…

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UW students face food, housing insecurity, survey shows

Preliminary data from a survey of food and housing insecurity at the University of Washington’s three campuses shows that an estimated 190 students may lack a stable place to live, and about one-quarter of students have worried recently about having enough to eat. Results of the online survey, conducted by UW faculty in 2018, are…

News | October 13, 2021

UW study provides rare window into work life of app-based drivers during pandemic

When you get into the car of the app-based driver you just tapped up on your phone, you expect and hope the driver and the car are safe and capable of getting you where you need to go. Apps rate drivers, which you can see. But what if the driver is sick? What if the…

News | August 24, 2021

UW Tri-Campus Forest Bathing Map

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News | December 16, 2022

UW welcomes Tent City 3 for winter quarter

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UW-led study pinpoints how air pollution harms your heart

Dr. Joel Kaufman of the University of Washington led a 10-year study of 6,000 people in six cities that found air pollution accelerates deposits of calcium in heart arteries, a known cause of heart attack and stroke. Scientists have known for years that long-term exposure to air pollution raises the risk of heart disease, but…

News | February 15, 2018

UW, Seattle & King county join forces for new academic health department

The University of Washington Schools of Public Health and of Nursing have formalized an alliance with Public Health – Seattle & King County that seeks to encourage collaboration and resource sharing through a new academic health department. The three-year partnership will provide a foundation for increased training and other opportunities for students, faculty, researchers and…

News | May 2, 2019

UW, WSU community partnership: Improving the health of homeless youth and their pets

Rivals in the sports arena, the state’s two largest public universities have teamed up off the field to improve the health of young adults experiencing homelessness – and their pets. The University of Washington and Washington State University are working with New Horizons Ministries and Neighborcare Health to provide health care and veterinary care to…

News | May 11, 2022

UW’s Native Garden fostering community, sustainability among students

The UW Native Garden is a place for indigenous students to share their culture and community to learn about combining tradition with modern techniques. A garden in the corner of the UW Farm at the Center for Urban Horticulture is offering a space for growth and learning, with volunteers invited to be part of the…

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News | September 6, 2022

Vancouver Considers 2 New ‘Safe Stay’ Sites for Homeless People After Initial Successes

Less than a year after its launch, Vancouver officials are expressing optimism about the city’s newest approach to helping unhoused people, and hope to see more of it in the future. A report card released Monday shows Vancouver’s first “Safe Stay Community,” which provides shed-like housing units and around-the-clock case managers, housed 14 of its…

Vanessa Galaviz

News | April 18, 2023

Washington and Seattle Launch Campaign to Plant Thousands of Urban Trees

Officials with the state and city of Seattle on Thursday launched a renewed effort to plant trees in urban areas most affected by pollution, flooding and other extreme weather events, like the unprecedented 2021 heat wave that smashed record highs and killed more than 150 people in Washington. Redlining, or racially discriminatory mortgage and land-use…

News | April 11, 2023

Washington State’s 2021 Heat Wave Led to Previously Uncounted Deaths from Injury

Heat is a quiet killer. Unlike most natural disasters, which can leave visible damage across an entire region, a heat wave’s effects on human health can be difficult to track. So after record high temperatures struck the Pacific Northwest in the summer of 2021, official estimates included only people killed directly by heat exposure. A…

News | April 9, 2020

Watch videos of UW students’ ideas for public toilets, road safety and job matches in India

A UW study abroad program empowers students from all disciplines to apply their skills to real-life problems — such as food insecurity, water scarcity, and a lack of adequate housing and education. At the end of the program the students create videos to share their projects. Participants in the Grand Challenges Impact Lab, directed by UW…

Wellcome Trust

We provide more than £700 million a year to support bright minds in science, the humanities and the social sciences, as well as education, public engagement and the application of research to medicine. We offer a wide variety of funding schemes to support individual researchers, teams, resources, seed ideas and places. We also fund major…

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Our Planet, Our Health: call for ambitious, transdisciplinary programmes that research the ways complex changes in our environment affect our health and develop potential solutions to enhance resilience.

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The West Philadelphia Landscape Project has worked in the Mill Creek Watershed since 1987, with a focus on the Mill Creek neighborhood. Throughout our more than 25-year history, we have worked with the people of Mill Creek to address the opportunities and challenges posed by the urban landscape. For more than twenty-five years, the West…

What happens when black Americans leave their segregated hometowns

Where someone grows up is profoundly important for their life chances. It influences things like the schools they attend, the jobs, parks and community resources they have access to and the peers they interact with. Because of this comprehensive influence, one might conclude that where you grow up affects your ability to move up the…

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What if Alaska’s earthquake happened here?

Last Friday, a 7.0 earthquake rattled Anchorage, Alaska. Amazingly, no one died — and revamped building codes enacted in the wake of the state’s deadly 1964 Good Friday quake meant the city was more prepared than most. Outside of a few structure fires, damage was kept to a minimum. But striking images of tectonic apocalypse…

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What motivates people to walk and bike? It varies by income

Lower- and middle-income King County residents who live in denser neighborhoods — with stores, libraries and other destinations within easy reach — are more likely to walk or bike, according to new University of Washington research. But neighborhood density didn’t motivate higher-income residents to leave their cars at home, the transportation engineers found. Of the…

What will happen to Seattle’s empty office towers when COVID-19 ends?

As many white-collar employers extend into next year the work-from-home policies they instituted in response to the coronavirus pandemic, a vast amount of vertical space in downtown Seattle is leased but empty. The vacant space amounts to more than 700 football fields, by one estimate — acres of desks, with knickknacks and mementos that few…

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What would a truly disabled-accessible city look like?

To David Meere, a visually impaired man from Melbourne, among the various obstacles to life in cities is another that is less frequently discussed: fear. “The fear of not being able to navigate busy, cluttered and visually oriented environments is a major barrier to participation in normal life,” says Meere, 52, “be that going to…

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What you need to know before getting on an electric scooter

The possibility of electric powered scooters in Seattle will also come with the possibility of numerous personal injuries. Those unfortunate victims often end up at Harborview Medical Center and doctors at that level one trauma center said they want residents to take better care of themselves as they explore these new alternative ways to travel….

News | September 16, 2019

Where there’s wildfire, there’s smoke. Protecting ‘clean-air refugees.’

Summer in Seattle offers a luminous respite from the rest of the year. The clouds depart and carry away the rains as the sky shades cobalt blue and the sun casts golden light from Puget Sound to Mount Rainier. The city feels liberated. Or so residents recall of an earlier time. In the past decade,…

News | October 8, 2020

Where you live could influence your COVID-19 risk

King County neighborhoods that are poorer and have higher levels of air pollution also tend to have higher rates of COVID-19 cases, according to new research by the UW Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences (DEOHS) and collaborators. These neighborhoods—mainly clustered in South King County—also have lower COVID-19 testing rates than the county average,…

News | May 10, 2021

Why a backyard that’s ‘for the birds’ is great for kids, too

Here’s something worth tweeting about: Being around more birds can boost your family’s happiness. A recent German study of more than 26,000 Europeans found that the cheeriest folks lived near natural areas with a wider diversity of bird species. And no need to know the difference between wood thrush and white-throated sparrow whistles—turns out simply seeing and hearing a variety of…

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Lakewood is one of many water systems going to extraordinary lengths to address the threat [of PFAS] that health officials are still trying to understand. The synthetic compound Polyfluoroalkyl, commonly referred to as PFAS, or “forever chemicals,” has been used in common products for decades. Scientists are now linking the chemicals to a growing list…

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Why Architects should care about public health

Andrew Dannenberg, an Affiliate Professor at the School of Public Health and the College of Built Environments, writes about the importance of architects recognizing human health: while architects have long recognized the importance of human health —including physical, mental, and social well-being — as part of their mission, implementation sometimes reflects a spirit of compliance…

News | September 22, 2020

Wildfire smoke disproportionally harms poorer communities, remedies necessary to address health inequity

With most of the Northwest blanketed by wildfire smoke, public officials and health experts suggest staying inside as much as possible to reduce exposure to the significant health risks of wildfire smoke. However, inequity in our communities means not every home provides great protection and many workers in disadvantaged populations can’t afford to stay home, says Anjum Hajat,…

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The electric scooter is, depending on your point of view, a dangerous blight of the sidewalk or a marvelous new species of transit that is perfect for the zero-emissions future city. So it’s a cause for celebration — or mourning — that the novel coronavirus is dealing the world’s networks of shared scooters a heavy…

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The scientific paper published in the June 2021 issue of the journal Nature Climate Change was alarming. Between 1991 and 2018, the peer-reviewed study reported, more than one-third of deaths from heat exposure were linked to global warming. Hundreds of news outlets covered the findings. The message was clear: climate change is here, and it’s…

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Despite coronavirus, hundreds of thousands of people living in King County continue to rely on buses, light rail, ferries and other modes of public transportation to get around. “There’s still a whole lot of people who are counting on transit as a lifeline,” said Alex Hudson, executive director of the Transportation Choices Coalition. “People know transit…

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Will the Spokane housing market weather the storm? Homebuying during the pandemic remains competitive and continues to favor the seller

Beth and Larry Belcher found the perfect home in Spokane, but it wasn’t easy. The couple was aware of Spokane’s housing market dynamics: low inventory, rising prices and high demand. But they didn’t expect to overcome an additional hurdle of searching for a home during a pandemic. “Looking for homes during COVID-19 was a little…

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With climate change, what will your city’s weather feel like in 60 years?

Within your child or grandchild’s lifetime, the weather may be dramatically different because of climate change. The past five years have already been the hottest on record for our planet, but based on new projections published Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications, it’s going to get a lot hotter for the 250 million people living in…

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With more people staying home, Washington skies are cleaner

Since the coronavirus pandemic sent Washingtonians indoors to help flatten the curve of infection, Seattleites who open a window or venture outside for socially distanced nature therapy swear something’s different in the air. “It’s for sure much cleaner,” says lifelong Seattle resident Cathryn Stenson, who has been walking through nearby parks more than normal to take…

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In the world’s most polluted city, Kanpur in northern India, the biggest hospital is so overcrowded with patients with respiratory ailments that they are often bedded in the ophthalmology ward. Kanpur, home to 3 million people, is followed by 13 other Indian cities in a list of the places with the worst air in the…

Working with Vulnerable Populations for Greater Community Resilience

News | April 28, 2023

Urban@UW is excited to invite you to attend Working with Vulnerable Populations for Greater Community Resilience, a workshop organized by Urban@UW, the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, and the National Science Foundation (NSF). Put on as part of the NSF-funded MOHERE: Mobility, Health, and Resilience: Building Capacities and Expanding Impact, this workshop will focus…

WWII-era ‘victory gardens’ make a comeback amid coronavirus

For Washington’s hobby gardeners, late winter and early spring are often times to dream of summer blooms and yards. But with a pandemic poised to kill more Americans than have died in world wars, some are repurposing their personal plots into a new generation of victory gardens — symbols of self-reliance, food production and community resilience not seen since wartime. While…

Research Beyond UW | Humboldt State University

Y.E.S. – Youth Educational Services

Homelessness Network is a program designed to offer assistance to homeless families in Humboldt County. The focus of attention is centered on the children to offer additional stimulus and educational exposure that may serve to peak their interests and nurture creativity and a love of learning.

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You asked about the crisis of homelessness in Seattle. Here are some answers

There’s a lot of money in Seattle these days. Companies like Amazon and Starbucks are based here, and construction has been booming. But our city has one of the biggest homelessness problems in the country. Our listeners are wondering about that disconnect. And they’ve been asking us questions about the issue. To try to answer…

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Young children living in neighborhoods with high rates of poverty are more likely to be exposed to many different air pollutants, and that can harm their development during early childhood, according to a study published Wednesday. The children’s increased exposure to air toxins during infancy can reduce reading and math abilities and cause them to…

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Your neighborhood may be driving you to drink: study

A new study shows that living in poor, “disorganized” neighborhoods matters more when looking at how much alcohol a person drinks than their proximity to bars or stores that sell booze. The link between poverty and alcoholism is established. But the new research out of the University of Washington throws quality of life into the…

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  • Published: 21 February 2024

Making cities mental health friendly for adolescents and young adults

  • Pamela Y. Collins   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-3956-448X 1 ,
  • Moitreyee Sinha 2 ,
  • Tessa Concepcion 3 ,
  • George Patton   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-5039-8326 4 ,
  • Thaisa Way 5 ,
  • Layla McCay 6 ,
  • Augustina Mensa-Kwao   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-8136-6108 1 ,
  • Helen Herrman 7 , 8 ,
  • Evelyne de Leeuw 9 ,
  • Nalini Anand 10 ,
  • Lukoye Atwoli 11 ,
  • Nicole Bardikoff 12 ,
  • Chantelle Booysen   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-7218-8039 13 ,
  • Inés Bustamante 14 ,
  • Yajun Chen 15 ,
  • Kelly Davis 16 ,
  • Tarun Dua 17 ,
  • Nathaniel Foote 18 ,
  • Matthew Hughsam 2 ,
  • Damian Juma 19 ,
  • Shisir Khanal 20 ,
  • Manasi Kumar   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-9773-8014 21 , 22 ,
  • Bina Lefkowitz 23 , 24 ,
  • Peter McDermott 25 ,
  • Modhurima Moitra 3 ,
  • Yvonne Ochieng   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-9741-9814 26 ,
  • Olayinka Omigbodun 27 ,
  • Emily Queen 1 ,
  • Jürgen Unützer 3 ,
  • José Miguel Uribe-Restrepo 28 ,
  • Miranda Wolpert 29 &
  • Lian Zeitz 30  

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Urban life shapes the mental health of city dwellers, and although cities provide access to health, education and economic gain, urban environments are often detrimental to mental health 1 , 2 . Increasing urbanization over the next three decades will be accompanied by a growing population of children and adolescents living in cities 3 . Shaping the aspects of urban life that influence youth mental health could have an enormous impact on adolescent well-being and adult trajectories 4 . We invited a multidisciplinary, global group of researchers, practitioners, advocates and young people to complete sequential surveys to identify and prioritize the characteristics of a mental health-friendly city for young people. Here we show a set of ranked characteristic statements, grouped by personal, interpersonal, community, organizational, policy and environmental domains of intervention. Life skills for personal development, valuing and accepting young people’s ideas and choices, providing safe public space for social connection, employment and job security, centring youth input in urban planning and design, and addressing adverse social determinants were priorities by domain. We report the adversities that COVID-19 generated and link relevant actions to these data. Our findings highlight the need for intersectoral, multilevel intervention and for inclusive, equitable, participatory design of cities that support youth mental health.

More than a decade ago, Galea posed the question “Can we improve mental health if we improve cities?” 4 . In the past two centuries, urbanization has shaped landscapes and lives, making it the “sentinel demographic shift” of our times 4 . The relationships between mental health status and the social, cultural and physical environment have been explored for at least as long; nineteenth-century researchers proposed environmental exposures as possible explanations of ‘insanity’ 5 . Faris and Dunham’s classic 1930s study 6 linked social disorganization and unstable communities to mental disorders. Two decades later, Leonard Duhl sought to create healthy societies through liveable cities, informing the World Health Organization’s Healthy Cities initiative 7 , 8 . The question remains pertinent today even as we recognize the multiple and complex forces that shape mental health 9 . Today we understand that urban environments influence a broad range of health outcomes for their populations, positively and negatively, and this impact is manifested unequally 10 . Opportunities for education and connection exist for some, whereas rising levels of urban inequality, violence, stressful racial or ethnic dynamics in urban neighbourhoods, exposure to environmental toxins, lack of green space, inadequate infrastructure and fear of displacement increase risk for poor mental health and disproportionately affect marginalized groups 11 . Disparate outcomes also pertain to distinct developmental stages, and the mental health of adolescents and young adults is particularly vulnerable to urban exposures.

Adolescents, youth and urban mental health

Young people under the age of 25 are the demographic group most likely to move to cities for educational and employment opportunities, and by 2050 cities will be home to 70% of the world’s children 3 . Cities concentrate innovation 3 and have long been considered the consummate source of skills, resources and talent 12 . They offer greater opportunities for health and economic development, education, employment, entertainment and social freedoms (that is, the ‘urban advantage’), but rapid urbanization also deepens disparities and exposes individuals to considerable adversity, placing their mental health at risk 13 . In fact, most evidence points to urban living as a risk factor for poorer mental health, yielding increased risk for psychosis, anxiety disorders and depression 1 , 2 . Adolescence and young adulthood, specifically, encompass a critical period of risk for the incidence of mental disorders: an estimated half of mental disorders evident before age 65 begin in adolescence and 75% begin by age 24 (ref.  14 ). Mental disorders are the leading causes of disease burden among 10–24-year-olds worldwide 15 , responsible for an estimated 28.2 million disability-adjusted life years globally, with 1 disability-adjusted life year being equivalent to a healthy year of life lost to the disability caused by mental disorders. Public awareness of these issues rose as the incidence of mental disorders and suicide increased in some countries among adolescents and young adults during the coronavirus pandemic 16 , 17 . Urban environments probably have a role in these processes.

Fundamental to adolescents’ growth and development are their interactions with the complex urban environment: physical, political, economic, social and cultural 18 . Adolescents have a heightened sensitivity to context and social evaluation, and a stronger neural response to social exclusion, as well as to threat and reward stimuli 19 , and it is plausible that they may be particularly sensitive to social and environmental cues in the urban context, such as discrimination or violence. Discriminatory policies and norms are entrenched in many of the institutions with which young people interact (for example, schools, housing, justice and policing), and minoritized youth may experience the emotional and mental health consequences 20 . In fact, in settings of structural inequality (for example, high neighbourhood poverty and unemployment), young people are at greater risk for low self-efficacy and feelings of powerlessness and depression 21 . Social cohesion and collective efficacy can reduce the effects of concentrated disadvantage and nurture social and emotional assets among young people, families and their networks 21 .

At present, the world’s largest population of adolescents and young adults so far is growing up amid the sequelae of a tenacious pandemic, rapid population growth in urban centres and increasing urbanization, demanding an urgent response to support youth mental health 22 . Investing in adolescent well-being is said to yield a triple dividend through actions that reduce mortality and disability in adolescence, prolong healthy life in adulthood, and protect the health of the next generation by educating and strengthening the health of young parents 23 . Interventions in urban settings that align with developmental needs of adolescents and young adults could remediate insults from early life and establish healthy behaviours and trajectories for adult life 19 , 24 , potentially averting chronic conditions such as human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and the associated mental health, social and physical sequelae 25 . In fact, investment in a package of adolescent mental health interventions can yield a 24-fold return in health and economic benefits 26 . At the societal level, shaping the aspects of urban life that influence youth mental health—through services, social policies and intentional design—could have an enormous impact 4 . Proposals for ‘restorative urbanism’ that centre mental health, wellness and quality of life in urban design may move cities in the direction of moulding urban environments for better adolescent health 27 , 28 . Young people, who contribute to the creativity of urban environments and drive movements for social change 29 , have a central part to play in this transformation.

Mental Health Friendly Cities, a global multi-stakeholder initiative led by citiesRISE, mobilizes youth-driven action and systems reform to promote and sustain the mental health and well-being of young people in cities around the world 30 , 31 ( Supplementary Information ). To guide transformative actions that will enable cities to promote and sustain adolescent and youth mental health, we studied global priorities for urban adolescent mental health. One aim of this study is to contribute data-driven insights that can be used to unite several sectors in cities to act within and across their domains in favour of mental health promotion and care that is responsive to the needs of young people. To that end, we administered a series of linked surveys that permitted the influence of ideas from young people and multidisciplinary domain experts through an anonymous sequential process, following established methods for research priority setting 32 .

Framework and top-ranked recommendations

To determine the elements of an urban landscape that would support mental health for adolescents and youth and would amplify their voices, we recruited a panel of 518 individuals from 53 countries to participate in a series of three digitally administered surveys that began in April 2020 (Table 1 ). Figure 1 shows the panel participation at each round. In survey 1, panellists responded to the open-ended question: “What are the characteristics of a mental health-friendly city for young people?”. Analysis of survey 1 data produced 134 statements about mental health-friendly cities for young people ( Methods ). In survey 2, participants selected their preferred 40 of the 134 statements. They were also presented with a second question related to the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on their ideas about youth well-being in cities. In survey 3, we categorized survey 2 statements by socioecological domains (Fig. 2 ) and asked panellists to rank-list their preferred statements in each domain. Before ranking, panellists were required to choose one of three framings that informed their selected ranking: immediacy of impact on youth mental health; ability to help youth thrive in cities; and ease or feasibility of implementation.

figure 1

The composition of the project leadership structures, sample recruitment and participation by each survey round are shown below. We invited 801 individuals to participate in the survey panel through recommendations and direct invitations from advisory board members. Participants recruited through snowball sampling received the Research Electronic Data Capture (REDCap) link ( n  = 24). Individuals who gave informed consent in REDCap were deemed to have accepted the survey panel invitation. S1, survey 1; S2, survey 2; S3, survey 3.

figure 2

The socioecological model with six levels (personal, interpersonal, community, organization, policy and environment) that are used to categorize the characteristics of a mental health friendly city.

We present the findings of the third survey within a socioecological model (Figs. 3 – 5 ) because of this model’s relevance to the combination of social and environmental exposures in an urban setting and their interaction with the developing adolescent 33 . Bronfenbrenner’s model begins by recognizing that young people’s personal experiences and development are shaped by their interactions with the people around them 34 ; that is, they react to and act on their immediate environment of familial and peer relationships (microlevel). These interpersonal relationships are also influenced by neighbourhood and community dynamics and exposure to institutions and policies (mesolevel). These, in turn, are nested within the organizational, political, historical, cultural (for example, values, norms and beliefs) and physical environments (macrolevel) whose interplay directly or indirectly affects the adolescent’s mental health and well-being. A high court ruling (policy environment) could have direct or indirect effects on the community, household and personal well-being of a young person seeking asylum. The socioecological framework encompasses the dynamic relationships of an individual with the social environment.

figure 3

Mean ranks and standard deviations (s.d.) values for each mental health-friendly city (MHFC) characteristic are reported grouped by socioecological level and three framings described in the Analysis: immediacy of impact; ability to help youth thrive in cities; and ease or feasibility of implementation. Overall ranks (along with mean and s.d. values) for the total sample are reported. n values in bold represent the number of participants responding for each domain; the percentages in bold represent the percentage of respondents per domain. The number and percentage of the sample that assigned the highest rank for each characteristic are also reported (column 2). The colour continuum from light blue to dark blue shows the highest ranked means in the lightest shades and the lower ranks in darker blue.

figure 4

See the caption of Fig. 3 for details.

figure 5

See the caption of Fig. 3 for details. LGBT+, people from sexual and gender minorities.

The characteristics

We grouped 37 city characteristics across 6 socioecological domains: personal, interpersonal, community, organizational, policy and environmental. Figures 3 – 5 show the mean ranking for each framing and the total mean ranking averaged across frames. We show, for each characteristic statement, the number and percentage of panellists who ranked it highest. The five characteristics in the personal domain centre on factors that enable healthy emotional maturation for young people, future orientation and self-reflexivity. Most panellists (53%) ranked these characteristics according to immediacy of impact on youth mental health in cities, and mean rankings were identical to those linked to ability to help youth thrive in cities. The characteristic that describes prioritizing teaching life skills, providing opportunities for personal development and providing resources that allow young people to flourish rose to the top mean rank for each frame and was also ranked first in this domain by the largest number of panellists ( n  = 93). Notably, the characteristic that describes preparing youth to handle their emotions and overcome challenges was ranked first by 62 panellists, although its mean rank was much lower.

Characteristics in the interpersonal domain refer to young people’s interactions with others in the environment. Prioritized characteristics in this domain centred on relationships marked by acceptance and respect for young people and noted the value of intergenerational relationships. The top-ranked characteristic emphasized age friendliness and interactions that value the feelings and opinions of young people as well as safe and healthy relationships. In this domain, ranked means for characteristics framed according to immediacy of impact on youth mental health and ability to help youth thrive were the same for the top two characteristics. Notably, the two highest-ranked means for ease of implementation focused on opportunities for safe and healthy relationships and strengthening intergenerational relationships.

Young people’s intrapersonal experiences and interpersonal relationships are nested within a system of community and organizational relationships. Study participants prioritized access to safe spaces for youth to gather and connect among the three characteristics in the domain of community, and rankings were identical for each framing. At the organizational domain, two characteristics shared high mean rankings: employment opportunities that allow job security and satisfaction and a responsive and supportive educational system. Health-care services and educational services were the organizations most frequently referenced in relation to youth mental health. Whereas employment opportunities ranked first in terms of feasibility of implementation, provision of youth-friendly health services ranked first for immediacy of impact on youth mental health. With the exception of the community and organizational domains, more panellists chose to frame their responses in terms of immediacy of impact on youth mental health.

Of the four statements in the policy domain, the design and planning of cities with youth input and gender sensitivity ranked highest overall and was most frequently ranked first by panellists (30.68%). Promoting democratic cooperation and equal opportunity and anti-discrimination in all institutions received the highest mean rank for feasibility of implementation.

The sixth socioecological domain lists 13 characteristics related to the social, cultural and physical environments. Addressing adverse social determinants of health for young people had the highest overall ranked mean; however, normalizing youth seeking mental health care and addressing service gaps ranked first when framed by feasibility of implementation and immediacy of impact. Having access to affordable basic amenities was most frequently ranked first in this domain by panellists, but panellist preferences were distributed across the list.

COVID-19 and urban youth well-being

Our data collection began in April 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, and by survey 2 (August 2020), most countries were experiencing the pandemic’s public health, social and economic effects. In light of this, we added an open-ended survey question to which 255 participants responded “How has the COVID-19 pandemic changed your ideas about the wellbeing of young people in cities?” ( Methods ). Most respondents reported changes in perspective or new emphases on inequities as determinants of youth well-being and mental health, whereas nine reported that COVID-19 did not change their ideas. For one such respondent (in the >35 years age category), the pandemic merely confirmed the powerful effect of social vulnerabilities on risk and outcomes during an emergency: “COVID-19 has not changed my ideas about the wellbeing of young people in cities. I found that the young people in cities who did well during the lockdown period and the difficult period of the pandemic were those who were already doing well in terms of a rich social network, good interpersonal relations with family and friends, enjoyable work life, a close religious network, membership [in] a young people’s club so that they were able to stay connected via social media. Those who had access to food and essential commodities and those who knew they would return to school or work after the pandemic. Those who had access to good living conditions and some space for recreation also did well. ... The impact of COVID19 was felt much more by those with existing mental health conditions, living in crowded slums, poverty, unemployment, who were uncertain about the next step”.

Respondents highlighted losses young people experienced as a result of the pandemic. These included loss of the city as a place of opportunity; loss of jobs, familial and individual income, and economic stability; loss of a planned future and loss of certainty; loss of rites of passage of youth; loss of access to friends, social networks and social support; loss of access to quality education and to health care, especially mental health care and sexual and reproductive health services; loss of opportunities for psychological and social development; and loss of loved ones who died from COVID-19. We summarize the qualitative findings according to the socioecological framework. We present sample quotes in Table 2 , along with the age category of the respondents (18–24, 25–35 and >35) and actions for cities to take.

Policy and environment

Governance and equity.

Freedom from discrimination and the value of equity were listed among the mental health-friendly city characteristics; however, respondents pointed out the dearth of equity that COVID-19 unveiled (see the first quote in Table 2 ).

Respondents observed that policy responses to COVID-19, including mandated curfews and quarantines, shifted the social and economic environment of cities. Young people and their families lost economic opportunities, and cities also became less affordable during the pandemic. Participants explained that poverty and job loss worsened young people’s mental health and well-being and exposed youth to more risk factors because they needed to “hustle or work to place food on the table”. The loss of jobs also deprived youth of hope and underlined the economic inequities that some felt marked their generation more than previous ones. One participant (18–24) reported “Before, I used to think youths need someone who can understand them, empathize with them, but looking at the current scenario, I feel youths need security and a hopeful future too”. In some settings, these economic shifts resulted in an exodus from cities. A respondent (18–24) observed “Cities have always attracted young people but since the pandemic started the cost of living has gone from being a barrier to being another factor in encouraging young people to leave”.

Urban built environment

For those who remained in the city, the urban built environment could also offer respite from pandemic-related restrictions in mobility when green spaces and other open spaces were accessible. Participants alluded to cramped urban housing, crowded slums and poor housing infrastructure as stressors that the availability of safe public spaces alleviated. Green space in particular provided solace for young people. A participant (18–24) responded “It’s difficult when you’re confined to the limited space especially when you’re not closer to nature. Negative thoughts get you one way or another even if you try your best. Pandemic has caused more depression I reckon among the youths”. Accessible green space was highlighted as a need and an area for investing effort and policy change (Table 2 ). A desire for clean, youth-friendly green space for safe gathering and recreation was contrasted with unplanned land use and confined spaces, the latter of which some participants linked to greater risks for young people.

Community and organizations

Respondents reported diminished access to education and health care, and a disregard of young people’s needs by decision-makers (Table 2 ). Some responses criticized the lack of forethought before the pandemic to budget for and provide supportive learning environments for youth of all socioeconomic strata. The closure of schools generated stress for young people with the disruption of routines and opportunities to socialize. The pandemic generated greater uncertainty about job opportunities and future trajectories. At the same time, the pandemic brought opportunities to position youth as either contributors and leaders or detractors from community life. Young people reflected on how they experienced inclusion, empathy and exclusion, as well as opportunity for leadership. One respondent (25–35) commented “Our worlds are changing and with it many of our expectations about our education, work, personal interactions and relationships. Instead of being met with understanding, we are collectively positioned as transgressors of social distancing in a way that fails to understand that we are often incredibly vulnerable in this new world and left exposed by lack of infrastructure, service provision and support”.

A respondent (18–24) noticed possibilities for involving young people in responses that could mitigate their numerous losses: “Given the opportunities and resources, young people can be a carrier of change and wellbeing if adults trust them enough to be”.

Interpersonal domain

Getting through difficult times required interpersonal supports: connectedness through in-person encounters in safe spaces, complemented by digital interactions. Multiple respondents emphasized the relationship between social isolation and poor mental health among city youth during the pandemic, noting the difficulty of making meaningful connection during a time of physical isolation. Two young respondents (18–24) said the well-being of young people was linked to being “in a group of people”, which provides “safety and unity”, and to “inclusion, activity, and interpersonal relationships”. Space repeatedly emerged as a theme, as a conduit to facilitate social connection for young people without risk of COVID-19 transmission, violence, sexual abuse or exposure to drug use. Some participants called for greater investment in creating strong, safe virtual communities for young people; however, although participants identified virtual spaces as a resource for mental health support, a young panellist (18–24) remarked of social media and technology that “It isolated people, even though we have … ways of staying connected 24/7, we still feel lonely.”

Consistent with the lead mental health-friendly city characteristic in the personal domain (Figs. 3 – 5 ), the pandemic prompted realization of the need for personal skills development to support youth mental well-being. Some respondents expressed concern about the loss of social skills among young people as a result of confinement and an 18–24-year-old commented “… Youths are in that stage where they need to be equipped with skills to promote positive mental wellbeing”. Another young person (18–24) remarked “Most of us do not really have the capacity and necessary skills to support each other when it comes to mental health”. Participants described the importance of being prepared for unpredictable circumstances and enabling youth to “manage themselves, their emotions, and wellbeing”.

Pandemic-related gains

In some cases, the pandemic brought positive experiences for young people, including more time for self-reflection and discovery, engaging in healing practices, more opportunities to connect with friends, and overall, a greater societal and individual focus on strengthening mental health. A participant (25–35) referred to young people: “They are more conscious about health and their wellbeing by reducing workload and connecting with nature”. Others believed the pandemic revealed young people’s capacity to adapt and to consider the needs of their elders. Some viewed the social justice uprisings that occurred in many countries as a positive vehicle for change and cooperation with others. Changing these conditions would require longer-term solutions: strengthening urban infrastructure and addressing the underlying drivers of inequity. Another participant (>35) lauded the power of youth activism: “… the pandemic has shown us that the resilience of youth is great, as well as the commitment and solidarity with their communities through volunteering, advocacy and youth mobilization”.

Our study convened a multinational and multidisciplinary panel of researchers, practitioners, advocates and young people to identify the characteristics of a mental health-friendly city for youths. The characteristics are distributed among six socioecological domains (Figs. 3 – 5 ) that encompass the personal development of young people, supportive educational systems, people-centred health care, a built environment responsive to the needs of young people, and equity-focused policy-making and governance. Within each of these domains, the characteristics we identified are associated with an evolving evidence base linked to youth mental health outcomes and to potential policy intervention.

Intrapersonal characteristics in our list underline the centrality of enabling young people to cultivate skills to manage their interior lives. The targets of such skills-building activities align with proposed ‘active ingredients’ of mental health interventions, such as intervention components related to mechanisms of action or clinical effects on depressive or anxiety symptoms 35 . Examples include affective awareness skills that enable young people to differentiate and describe emotions 36 and emotion regulation skills to increase and maintain positive emotions 37 . Youth-friendly mental health and educational services, a priority theme at the community level of the framework, could support the intrapersonal realm by deploying a variety of interventions for self-control that benefit adolescent and young adult academic, behavioural and social functioning 38 . Such interventions can also be implemented in earlier childhood educational settings through integration into the curriculum or through other community-based medical or social service organizations 39 . Interventions implemented in selected high-income settings include Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies 40 , the Incredible Years 41 and Family Check-up 42 . For young adults, interventions that convey skills to alleviate common psychological problems such as procrastination, perfectionism, low self-esteem, test anxiety and stress could potentially reduce the prevalence of specific mental health conditions while possibly providing acceptable and non-stigmatizing options for care 43 , 44 .

Our data suggest that a defining theme of any mental health-friendly city for youth is the quality of young people’s social fabric and the city’s ability to provide young people with the skills, opportunities and places required to build and maintain healthy social relationships with their peers, across generations, and as members of a community. The relationships of concern in the interpersonal realm have intrinsic value for healthy adolescent and youth development, promoting well-being 45 and prevention of depression 46 , 47 . Panellists also linked opportunities to socialize and build social networks to the availability of safe spaces, the top-ranked priority in the community domain. Achieving safety necessitates equitable and violence-free institutions and cities 48 , a priority that panellists ranked first for ease of implementation in the policy domain. Thus, policies and legislation are required that reduce neglect, bullying, harassment, abuse, censorship, exposure to violence and a wide range of threats towards young people, from homelessness to crime to intimidation by officials 48 , 49 .

Exposure to community violence and household violence consistently worsens mental health outcomes for youth 50 , 51 , 52 , 53 ; successful reduction of urban violence should be prioritized. Equity-focused responses to safety needs should include reducing discriminatory physical and structural violence against young people based on race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality or mental health status, which place youth at risk of harmful exposures: rape or trafficking of adolescent girls or police killings of North American Black youth. To create urban spaces in which young people can experience safety, freedom and belongingness requires approaches that actively prevent discrimination 54 and that consider young people’s multiple identities in the design of institutional as well as outdoor spaces. Women-only parks create greater security for girls and young women and potentially more positive social interaction in some settings 55 .

The benefits of green space, measured as self-satisfaction for adolescents, are linked to greater social contact (for example, more close friends), underscoring space as a conduit for social connection 55 . The advantages of healthy urban spaces for adolescents have emerged not only in health sciences research but also in allied fields such as urban design and sociology 27 , 56 , 57 . Urban spaces with opportunities for active commute options to and from school are associated with increased physical activity and environmental supportiveness 58 . Similarly, the presence of community spaces, such as town centres, is associated with improved social connectedness and sense of belonging 59 .

The critical importance of social connectedness was reinforced in the COVID-19 responses. Yet, in many cities the pandemic eliminated spaces that foster urban conviviality, often with lasting effects 60 . Restricted movement and COVID-19 transmission risk associated with public transport may have contributed to greater stress for urban dwellers and ongoing reluctance to use these services 61 . Such factors contribute to social isolation, which may persist in the near term. Consistent with our COVID-19 data, responses from a sample of Australian youth identified social isolation, interrupted education and work, and uncertainty about the future among the primary negative effects of COVID-19 pandemic 62 . In several studies, loneliness increased the risk of mental health conditions among young people during prior epidemics; of relevance to the COVID-19 pandemic, the duration of loneliness predicted future mental health problems 63 .

Analysis of our survey 2 data revealed differences in the priorities of young participants (18–24 and 25–35) compared with panellists over age 35. This discrepancy could have implications for urban decision-makers whose plans to implement positive actions on behalf of young people may not align with what is most salient for youth. Thus, youth involvement in policy development is even more crucial. Soliciting youth perspectives about what supports their mental health based on their personal experiences could simplify and improve interventions intended for them 64 . Several actions could facilitate meaningful youth engagement in governance: encourage collaboration between governments and youth organizations to co-create and co-lead national action plans; implement mechanisms within global governance organizations for youth consultation at local, national and international levels; require inclusion of young people on relevant conference agendas; and improve access to funding for youth-led organizations 65 , 66 .

Notably, the themes of equity and elimination of discrimination due to race, gender, sexual orientation and neurodiversity arose frequently in the responses to the survey and the COVID-19 question, as did the adversities to which minoritized groups are vulnerable (for example, community violence, police violence and bullying; Figs. 4 and 5 ). A city that is free of discrimination and racism ranked first among policy responses with immediacy of impact on the mental health of youth—even though no statements proposed dismantling systems of oppression that underlie racism and discrimination, as one respondent noted (Fig. 4 ). Globally, racism, xenophobia and other forms of discrimination increase mortality and harm the mental health of affected groups through stress-related physiological responses, harmful environmental exposures and limited access to opportunities and health services 20 , 67 , 68 , 69 . Embedded racist and xenophobic norms, policies and practices of institutions—including those that govern educational, labour and health care systems—yield racialized outcomes for young people around the world (for example, high incidence of HIV infection among adolescent girls in southern sub-Saharan Africa) 20 . To disrupt these forces requires multiple approaches, including recognition and remedy of historical injustices, the activism of social movements committed to change, and implementation of legal frameworks based in human rights norms 70 .

When participants ranked characteristics for ease of implementation (Figs. 3 – 5 ), they coalesced around a broad set of factors demonstrating the need for collaboration across urban sectors (for example, normalizing seeking mental health care, promoting democratic cooperation and equal opportunity, and creating employment opportunities and progressive educational systems). This need for cooperation is perhaps most apparent for actions that increase equity. Successful cooperation requires a clear, shared vision and mission, allocation of funding in each sector, diversity of funding sources, distributed decision-making and authority across sectors, and policies that facilitate collaboration 71 . However, well-intentioned cross-sectoral responses to urban needs may inadvertently increase inequities by designing programmes influenced by market forces that magnify environmental privilege (that is, unequal exposure to environmental problems according to social privilege) 54 . Examples include gentrification and development that use land to create green spaces but further dislocate and marginalize communities in need of affordable housing 54 . Implementing community- and youth-partnered processes for urban health equity policy co-creation could yield unified agendas and help to circumvent inequitable outcomes 54 , 72 . A mental health-friendly city must be positioned to support, integrate and enable the thriving of marginalized and vulnerable young people of the society, who should be involved in its governance.

Strengths and limitations

Our study has several strengths. First, this priority-setting study yielded a rich dataset of recommended characteristics of a mental health-friendly city for young people from a globally diverse panel of more than 480 individuals from 53 countries. Second, we welcomed expertise from participants with roles relevant to urban sectors: researchers, policymakers and practice-based participants, and we engaged young people in the study advisory board and as study participants, capitalizing on their lived experience. Third, we captured information about how the COVID-19 pandemic influenced participants’ ideas about urban adolescent mental health. Fourth, to our knowledge, this is the first study that brings together a large and multidisciplinary set of stakeholders concerned for cities (for example, urban designers) and for youth mental health (for example, teachers and health professionals) to identify priorities for intersectoral action.

Our study also has several limitations. First, the participants recruited do not reflect the full social and economic diversity of urban populations whom city governments and decision-makers must serve. Our decision to use a web-based format following standard health research priority-setting methods required tradeoffs. We sought disciplinary, age and geographic diversity; however, our sample does not represent the most marginalized groups of adolescents or adults. Rather, the recruitment of academics, educators, leaders and well-networked young people through an online study probably minimizes the number of participants living in adversity. Although we also recruited young people who were not necessarily established experts, many were students or members of advocacy or international leadership networks and were not likely to exemplify the most disadvantaged groups. We risk masking the specific viewpoints or needs of marginalized and at-risk young people. However, we are reassured by the prominence of equity as a theme and the call to address social determinants of health. Second, it is possible that participants recruited through the authors’ professional networks may be more likely to reflect the viewpoints of the advisory committee members who selected them, given collaborative or other professional relationships. This may have shaped the range of responses and their prioritization. Third, the aspirational calls for an end to discrimination and inequalities highlighted in our results require confronting long-standing structural inequities both within and between countries. Structural violence frequently maintains these power imbalances. Although we do not view their aspirational nature as a limitation, we note that our study data do not outline the complexity of responses required to address these determinants of mental health or to dismantle discriminatory structures. Fourth, our data present several aggregated characteristics that may require disaggregation as cities contextualize the findings for their settings. Fifth, our network recruitment strategy led to skewed recruitment from some geographic regions (for example, North America and Nepal), which may have biased responses (Extended Data Figs. 1 – 3 ). Extended Data Table 1 shows the similarities and differences in the rankings for Nepal, USA and the remaining countries in survey 3. Additionally, we recruited few 14–17-year-olds. We experienced attrition over the three rounds of surveying, ending with complete responses from 261 individuals from 48 countries, with the greatest loss in participants between surveys 1 and 2 (Table 1 ), among the 14–17-, 18–24- and 25–35-year-old age groups, and among participants from Nepal (Extended Data Fig. 2 ).

Conclusions

We identified a set of priorities for cities that require intervention at multiple levels and across urban sectors. A clear next step could involve convenings to build national or regional consensus around local priorities and plans to engage stakeholders to co-design implementation of the most salient characteristics of a mental health-friendly city for youth in specific cities (Box 1 ). It is likely that many variables (for example, geography, politics, culture, race, ethnicity and sexual identity) will shape priorities in each city. Therefore, essential to equitable action is ensuring that an inclusive community of actors is at the table formulating and making decisions, and that pathways for generating knowledge of mental health-friendly city characteristics remain open. This includes representation of sectors beyond mental health that operate at the intersection of areas prioritized by young people. Preparing for implementation will require avenues for youth participation and influence through collective action, social entrepreneurship and representation in national, regional and community decision-making. Enlisting the participation of youth networks that bring young people marginalized owing to sex, gender, sexual orientation, race, economic status, ethnicity or caste; young people with disabilities; and youth and adults with lived experience of mental health conditions in the design of mental health-friendly cities will help to level power imbalances and increase the likelihood that cities meet their needs.

Action for adolescent mental health aligns well with actions nations should take to achieve development targets, and collective action to draw attention to these areas of synergy could benefit youth and cities. Specifically, supporting the mental health of young people aligns with Sustainable Development Goal 11 (sustainable cities and communities) and the New Urban Agenda that aims to “ensure sustainable and inclusive urban economies, to end poverty and to ensure equal rights and opportunities … and integration into the urban space” 73 , 74 , 75 .

Additionally, the list of mental health-friendly city characteristics presents a starting point for strengthening the evidence base on intervening at multiple levels (for example, individual, family, community, organizations and environment) to better understand what works for which youth in which settings. Cities function as complex systems, and systems-centred research can best enable us to understand how individuals’ interactions with one another and with their environments influence good or poor mental health 76 . Similarly, interdisciplinary inquiry is needed that investigates urban precarity and sheds light on social interventions for youth mental health 77 . New research that tests implementation strategies and measures mental health outcomes of coordinated cross-sectoral interventions in cities could be integrated with planned actions. Innovative uses of data that measure the ‘racial opportunity gap’ can help cities to understand how race and place interact to reduce economic well-being for minoritized young people on their trajectory to adulthood 78 . Even heavily studied relationships, such as mental health and green space, can benefit from new methodologies for measuring exposures, including application of mixed methods, and refined characterization of outcomes by gender and age with a focus on adolescents and youth 79 . Globally, mental health-supporting actions for young people in urban areas have an incomplete evidence base, with more peer-reviewed publications skewed towards North American research 73 .

Designing mental health-friendly cities for young people is possible. It requires policy approaches that facilitate systemic, sustained intersectoral commitments at the global as well as local levels 80 . It also requires creative collaboration across multiple sectors because the characteristics identified range from transport to housing to employment to health, with a central focus on social and economic equity. Acting on these characteristics demands coordinated investment, joint planning and decision-making among urban sectoral leaders, and strategic deployment of human and financial resources across local government departments that shape city life and resources 75 , 81 . This process will be more successful when cities intentionally and accountably implement plans to dismantle structural racism and other forms of discrimination to provide equitable access to economic and educational opportunities for young people, with the goal of eliminating disparate health and social outcomes. The process is made easier when diverse stakeholders identify converging interests and interventions that allow them each to achieve their goals.

Box 1 Considerations for implementing a mental health-friendly city for youth

Considerations for implementing a mental health-friendly city for youth using a structure adapted from UNICEF’s strategic framework for the second decade of life 82 and integrating selected characteristics identified in the study with examples distilled from scientific literature and from project advisory group members. Objectives for implementation along with corresponding examples and selected initiatives are shown.

Youth are equipped with resources and skills for personal and emotional development, compassion, self-acceptance, and flourishing.

Youth develop and sustain safe, healthy relationships and strong intergenerational bonds in age-friendly settings that respect, value and validate them.

Communities promote youth integration and participation in all areas of community life.

Communities establish and maintain safe, free public spaces for youth socializing, learning and connection.

Institutions facilitate satisfying, secure employment; progressive, inclusive, violence-free education; skills for mental health advocacy and peer support.

Policies support antiracist, gender equitable, non-discriminatory cities that promote democratic cooperation and non-violence.

Urban environments provide safe, reliable infrastructure for basic amenities and transportation; affordable housing; access to green and blues space; and access to recreation and art.

Cities minimize adverse social determinants of health; design for safety and security for vulnerable groups; and orient social and built environments to mental health promotion, belonging and purpose.

Use rights-based approaches

Prioritize equity for racially, ethnically, gender, sexually and neurologically diverse young people

Ensure sustained and authentic participation of youth

Schools and other educational settings

Health and social services

Families and communities

Religious and spiritual institutions

Child protection and justice systems

Peer groups

Civil society

Digital and non-digital media

Implementation objectives

Build consensus and contextualize the mental health-friendly city approach at local, regional, national levels

Engage diverse youth in co-design of mental health-friendly city plans

Expand opportunities for youth governance

Enable collaboration among sectors for policy alignment

Engage communities, schools, health services, media for intervention delivery

Legislate social protection policies

Scale interventions to improve economic and behavioral outcomes

Link implementation to achievement of national or international objectives

Selected implementation strategies

Youth co-design and participation: Growing Up Boulder is an initiative to create more equitable and sustainable communities in which young people participate and influence issues that affect them. It is a partnership between local schools, universities, local government, businesses and local non-profit organizations in the USA that has enabled young people to formally participate in visioning processes such as community assessments, mapping, photo documentation and presentations to city representatives 83 .

Engaging schools for interventions: universal school-based interventions for mental health promotion 84 ; linkage to mental health care for school-based programs 85 ; “Whole-school approaches” that engage students and families, communities, and other agencies to support mental health and improve academic outcomes 84 , 86 .

Digital platforms for youth mental health: Chile’s HealthyMind Initiative digital platform launched during the COVID-19 pandemic and provided a one-stop resource for information and digital mental health services. The platform included targeted evidence-based resources for children and adolescents 87 .

Interventions to test at scale: Stepping Stones and Creating Futures is a community-based intervention for intimate partner violence reduction and strengthening livelihoods in urban informal settlements in South Africa that reduced young men’s perpetration of intimate partner violence and increased women’s earning power 88 .

Shared international objectives: support Sustainable Development Goal 11 and New Urban Agenda targets and Sustainable Development Goals 1–6, 8, 10 and 16.

Project structure and launch

This study aimed to identify priorities for creating cities that promote and sustain adolescent and youth mental health. Central to achieving this aim was our goal of engaging a multidisciplinary, global, age-diverse group of stakeholders. As we began and throughout the study, we were cognizant of the risk of attrition, the importance of maintaining multidisciplinary participation throughout the study and the value of preserving the voices of young people. We used a priority-setting methodology explicitly aimed to be inclusive while simultaneously limiting study attrition. To ensure that we were inclusive of the voices of young people and our large and diverse sample, we limited our study to three surveys, which we determined a priori. Our approach was informed by standard methodologies for health research priority setting 32 .

The project was led by a collaborative team from the University of Washington Consortium for Global Mental Health, Urban@UW, the University of Melbourne and citiesRISE. We assembled three committees representing geographic, national, disciplinary, gender and age diversity to guide the work. First, a core team of P.Y.C., T.W., G.P., M.S. and T.C., generated an initial list of recommended members of the scientific advisory board on the basis of their research and practice activities related to adolescent mental health or the urban setting. We sought a multidisciplinary group representing relevant disciplines. The 18-member scientific advisory board, comprising global leaders in urban design and architecture, social entrepreneurship, education, mental health and adolescent development, provided scientific guidance. We invited members of an executive committee, who represented funding agencies as well as academic and non-governmental organizational leadership, to provide a second level of feedback. A youth advisory board, recruited through citiesRISE youth leaders and other global mental health youth networks, comprised global youth leaders in mental health advocacy. A research team from the University of Washington (Urban@UW, the University of Washington Population Health Initiative and the University of Washington Consortium for Global Mental Health) provided study coordination. The study received institutional review board approval at the University of Washington (STUDY00008502). Invitations to advisory groups were sent in December 2019, along with a concept note describing the aims of the project, and committee memberships were confirmed in January 2020. In February 2020, the committees formulated the question for survey 1: “What are the characteristics of a mental health friendly city for young people?”.

Study recruitment

The members of the scientific advisory board, youth advisory board and executive committee were invited to nominate individuals with expertise across domains relevant to urban life and adolescent well-being. The group recommended 763 individuals to join the priority-setting panel; individuals invited to serve on the scientific advisory board, youth advisory board and executive committee were included in panel invitations ( n  = 38). Our goal was to establish a geographically diverse panel of participants with scientific, policy and practice-based expertise corresponding to major urban sectors and related challenges (for example, health, education, urban planning and design, youth and criminal justice, housing and homelessness, and violence). Many of the nominees were experts with whom the core group and scientific advisory board members had collaborated, as well as individuals recruited on the basis of their participation in professional and scientific associations and committees (for example, Lancet Commissions and Series) or global practice networks (for example, Teach for All). Nominees’ names, the advisory member who nominated them, gender, country and discipline were tracked by T.C. We used snowball sampling to recruit participants from geographic regions that were under-represented: an additional 24 people were recruited through referrals. The scientific advisory board and youth advisory board sought to maximize the number of young people participating in the study, and invitations were extended to adolescents and young adults through educational, professional, advocacy and advisory networks. Nominees received an invitation letter by e-mail, accompanied by a concept note that introduced the study, defined key constructs, described the roles of the study advisory groups and provided an estimated study timeline. Youth participants (14–24) received a more abbreviated introductory letter. A link to a REDCap survey with an informed consent form and round 1 question was embedded in the invitation e-mail, which was offered in English and Spanish. Of the 824 individuals invited, 518 individuals from 53 countries provided informed consent and agreed to participate, resulting in a nomination acceptance rate of 62.8%.

Data collection

We administered a series of three sequential surveys using REDCap version 9.8.2. Panellists were asked to respond to the survey 1 question “What are the characteristics of a mental health friendly city for young people?” by providing up to five characteristics and were invited to use as much space as needed. In survey 2, panellists received 134 characteristic statements derived from survey 1 data and were asked to select their 40 most important statements. From these data, we selected 40 most frequently ranked statements. These were presented in the round 3 survey with three redundant statements removed. The remaining 37 characteristic statements were categorized across 6 socioecological domains and panellists were asked to select 1 of 3 framings by which to rank the statements in each domain: immediacy of impact on youth mental health in cities, ability to help youth thrive in cities, and ease or feasibility of implementation. Of individuals who consented to participate, 93.4% completed round 1, 58.5% completed round 2 and 56.2% completed round 3 (Table 1 ).

We added a new open-ended question to survey 2: “How has the COVID-19 pandemic changed your ideas about the wellbeing of young people in cities?”. Panellists were invited to respond using as many characters (that is, as much space) as needed.

Data analysis

Three-survey series.

We managed the survey 1 data using ATLAS.ti 8 software for qualitative data analysis and conducted a conventional content analysis of survey 1 data 89 . Given the multidisciplinarity of the topic and our multidisciplinary group of respondents, we selected an inductive method of analysis to reflect, as simply as possible, the priorities reported by the study sample without imposing disciplinary frameworks. In brief, responses were read multiple times, and characteristics were highlighted in the text. A list of characteristics (words and phrases) was constructed, and we coded the data according to emerging categories (for example, accessibility, basic amenities, career, built environment, mental health services and so on). The analysis yielded 19 broad categories with 423 characteristics. Within each category, characteristics were grouped into statements that preserved meaning while streamlining the list, which yielded 134 characteristic statements. The University of Washington research team convened a 1-week series of data discussions with youth advisers to review the wording of the characteristics and ensure their comprehensibility among readers from different countries. The survey 1 categorized data were reviewed by members of the scientific advisory board, who recommended that using relevant domains to group characteristics would provide meaningful context to the final list. We used IBM SPSS 28.0 for quantitative analyses of data from surveys 2 and 3. In survey 2, we analysed the frequency of endorsement of the 40 characteristics selected by panellists and generated a ranked list of all responses, with the most frequently endorsed at the top. The decision to select 40 characteristics aligned with methods applied in a previous priority-setting exercise 90 and permitted a list of preferred characteristics that could subsequently be categorized according to a known framework, allowing city stakeholders a broad list from which to select actions. We also analysed frequency of endorsement by age categories (18–24, 25–35 and >35). To amplify the viewpoints of younger participants (under age 35), we combined the top 25 characteristic statements of panellists over 35 with the top 26 characteristic statements of participants under 35 to generate a list of 40 statements, including 11 shared ranked characteristics. As noted, we removed three of these statements because of their redundancy. In survey 3, we analysed data consisting of 37 characteristic statements divided across 6 socioecological domains. Characteristics in each domain were ranked according to one of three framings. We calculated mean ranking and standard deviation for characteristics in each framing category per socioecological domain. Mean rankings (with standard deviation) were calculated across framing categories to arrive at the total mean rank per characteristic and they reflect the proportional contribution of each domain. We also calculated the frequency with which panellists ranked each characteristic statement number 1.

Our study methods align with good practices for health research priority setting as follows 32 .

Context: we defined a clear focus of the study.

Use of a comprehensive approach: we outlined methods, time frame and intentions for the results before beginning the study; however, we modified (that is, simplified) the methods for survey 3 to minimize study attrition.

Inclusiveness: we prioritized recruiting for broad representation and maintaining engagement of an inclusive participant group, and methodological decisions were made in service of this priority.

Information gathering: our reviews of the literature showed that a study bringing together these key stakeholders had not been conducted, despite the need.

Planning for implementation: we recognized from the outset that additional convening at regional levels would be required to implement action, and our network members are able to move the agenda forwards.

Criteria: we determined criteria for the priorities (framing: feasibility of implementation, immediacy of impact and ability to help youth thrive) that study participants used and which we believe will be useful for practical implementation.

Methods for deciding on priorities: we determined that rank order would be used to determine priorities.

Evaluation: not applicable; we have not planned an evaluation of the impact of priority setting in this phase of work.

Transparency: the manuscript preparation, review and revisions enable us to present findings with transparency.

COVID-19 qualitative data

We managed the COVID-19 qualitative data using Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Word. We carried out a rapid qualitative analysis 91 . First, the text responses were read and re-read multiple times. We coded the data for content related to expressions of change, no change or areas of emphasis in participants’ perceptions of youth mental health in cities during the pandemic. We focused our attention on data that highlighted changes. We further segmented the data by participant age categories, domains of change and suggested actions, and we assigned socioecological level of changes. We created a matrix using excerpted or highlighted text categorized according to these categories. Three data analysts (P.Y.C., T.C. and A.M.-K.) reviewed the domains of change and identified emerging themes, which were added to the matrix and linked to quotes. The team discussed the themes and came to consensus on assignment to a socioecological level. We prioritized reporting recurring concepts (for example, themes of loss, inequity, green space, isolation and mental illnesses) and contrasting concepts (for example, gains associated with COVID-19) and associated actions 92 .

Reporting summary

Further information on research design is available in the  Nature Portfolio Reporting Summary linked to this article.

Data availability

Survey data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, P.Y.C., on reasonable request. The sharing of data must comply with institutional policies that require a formal agreement (between the corresponding author and the requester) for sharing and release of data under limits permissible by the institutional review board.

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Acknowledgements

We thank M. Antia, S. Talam and J. Vollendroft for contributions to this project; H. Jack for contributions to the manuscript revision; and the survey panellists without whom this work would not have been possible. M.K. was supported in part by funding from the Fogarty International Center (K43 TW010716) and the National Institute of Mental Health (R21 MH124149) of the National Institutes of Health. This study was supported in part by funding to citiesRISE (M.M. and M.H.) from the Rural India Supporting Trust and from Pivotal Ventures. This study was conducted while P.Y.C. was on the faculty at the University of Washington, Seattle. The University of Washington (P.Y.C. and T.C.) received funding from citiesRISE by subcontract. T.D. is a staff member of the World Health Organization (WHO). The content and views expressed in this manuscript are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views, decisions or policies of the institutions with which they are affiliated, including WHO, the US Department of Health and Human Services and the National Institutes of Health.

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Pamela Y. Collins, Augustina Mensa-Kwao & Emily Queen

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This study was led by a core group, P.Y.C., G.P., M.S. and T.W., who were members of the project’s scientific advisory board and executive committee and part of the group of 32 co-authors (P.Y.C., M.S., T.C., G.P., T.W., L.M., A.M.-K., L.A., N.B., I.B., Y.C., T.D., E.d.L., N.F., H.H., S.K., M.K., B.L., O.O., J.M.U.-R., C.B., K.D., M.H., D.J., M.M., E.Q., Y.O., L.Z., N.A., P.M., J.U. and M.W.). P.Y.C. and T.C. regularly updated the core group members by e-mail, and P.Y.C. led online meetings with updates on study progress and data collection and study outcomes with members of the scientific advisory board (N.B., I.B., Y.C., T.D., E.d.L., N.F., H.H., S.K., M.K., B.L., O.O., J.M.U.-R. and K.D.), youth advisory board (K.D., C.B., D.J., Y.O., E.Q. and L.Z.) and executive committee (N.A., J.U. and M.W.). P.Y.C. (the core group lead) and members of the scientific advisory board and executive committee were involved with conceptualization, study design and methodology. Youth advisers assisted with qualitative data analysis. P.Y.C., T.C. and A.M.-K. were also responsible for data curation and formal analysis; P.Y.C. and T.C. wrote the original draft, with contribution from G.P., M.S., T.W., H.H. and L.M. P.Y.C., T.C., A.M.-K., M.M., H.H. and E.d.L. reviewed and organized responses to reviewers. All co-authors reviewed responses to the reviewers. P.Y.C. led the manuscript revision with A.M.-K., M.M. and T.C. All co-authors had the opportunity to discuss the results, review full drafts of the manuscript and provide comments on the manuscript at all stages.

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Extended data figures and tables

Extended data fig. 1 distribution of participants by nationality (n = 518) a,b,c ..

a Countries Participating: Argentina, Australia, Bangladesh, Cameroon, Canada, China, Colombia, Croatia, Czech Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Ethiopia, France, Germany, Ghana, Haiti, Hong Kong, India, Iran, Italy, Kenya, Malawi, Mauritius, Mexico, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Rwanda, Samoa, Sierra Leone, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Tanzania, The Gambia, Tunisia, Turkey, Uganda, UK, USA, Venezuela, Zambia, Zimbabwe (53 total); b Two responses (“Asian” and “Indigenous and European”) do not list a nation but capture verbatim open-text responses; c Countries with one participant removed from graph and include: Argentina, Bangladesh, Cameroon, Croatia, Czech Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Ethiopia, France, Haiti, Hong Kong, Indigenous and European, Mauritius, New Zealand, Norway, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Switzerland, Taiwan, Tanzania, The Gambia, Tunisia, Turkey, Uganda, Venezuela.

Extended Data Fig. 2 Participant Nationality by Survey Round.

a SEA = South-East Asia, NA = North America*, AF = Africa, LSA = Latin & South America*, EU = Europe, WP = Western Pacific, EM = Eastern Mediterranean.

Extended Data Fig. 3 Distribution of Participants by WHO Region * and Survey Round.

a SEA = South-East Asia, NA = North America*, AF = Africa, LSA = Latin & South America*, EU = Europe, WP = Western Pacific, EM = Eastern Mediterranean; *We separated North America from Latin & South America for more transparent display of participant distribution.

Supplementary information

Supplementary information.

Supplementary Note which describes citiesRISE and lists the project team members of Making cities mental health-friendly for adolescents and young adults.

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urban health research topics

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Study on the evolution of hot topics in the urban development

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  • Ping Zhou   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-1651-0895 1 &
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Urbanization is crucially important for people to improve the quality of life. Thus, it is of importance to study the evolution of hot topics to explore the functions of cities for meeting the increasing demands of people. In this paper, we explored the semantic analysis of hot topics and trends in urban studies from the literature, which provides a research direction for future studies. Based on articles collected from the Science Citation Index Expanded and Conference Proceedings Citation Index-Science databases from 2000 to 2016, we found that the number of urban studies increased in stability during that time. Followed by England and China, USA was the largest contributor for studies in this field. Based on the keywords and abstracts of these articles, we extracted the topics of the study using a clustering method and topic model, and calculated the hot values of the topics. Finally, we obtained 15 hot topics in the field of urban studies, among which “city”, “school”, “regional economic”, and “estate” were the hottest topics that indicated the focus of the research study. An anomaly detection method was used to analyze the change trend of topics’ hot values, and we found that the hot value of these topics overall were on the rise, especially “urban education” and “urban planning” increased significantly, which indicated that they attracted an increasing amount of scholars’ attention, but the hot value of “health” and “Gis” decreased significantly recently, which suggested that research interest in these two topics is decreasing.

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Zhou, P., Jiang, D. Study on the evolution of hot topics in the urban development. Evol. Intel. 17 , 45–53 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12065-020-00391-y

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  • v.100(12); 2022 Dec 1

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Global research priorities for urban health

Nathalie roebbel.

a Department of Social Determinants of Health, World Health Organization, Avenue Appia 20, 1211 Geneva 27, Switzerland.

Thiago Herick de Sa

Maria neira.

b Department for Environment, Climate Change and Health, World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland.

Etienne Krug

By 2050, more than two thirds of the world’s population will live in urban areas, 1 presenting governments and city authorities with the daunting challenge of ensuring that urban dwellers have equitable access to safe and sustainable transport systems, and healthy, sustainable living and working environments. To meet this challenge, Member States and nongovernmental organizations have called on the World Health Organization (WHO) to support implementation of multisectoral interventions to improve the health of urban residents. In response, WHO has renewed and enhanced its organizational focus on this area 2 and developed the Urban Health Research Agenda, a set of global research priorities for 2022–2032. 3 The agenda includes many of WHO’s focus areas, including environmental health, tobacco, housing, healthy diets, physical activity, healthy ageing, and emergency preparedness and response, with the overarching goal of supporting governments, actors and communities in achieving their health, equity and sustainability targets. This agenda is expected to have a medium- to long-term impact at global and subnational levels by identifying gaps in urban health research; developing global research priorities that address these gaps and strengthening research methods; and providing evidence for the development of multisectoral interventions that promote urban health. 4

The Urban Health Research Agenda has four priorities. The first priority is to strengthen links between the research findings and actions to promote urban health. Doing so involves mapping the evidence base on existing urban health interventions and their enabling factors and health impacts, and appraising other factors. These factors include existing urban health resource mobilization strategies; evidence on norms and regulations; evidence for safeguarding health through its economic and commercial determinants; and effective models for citizen participation in urban health decision-making. This priority also involves exploring the application of innovative technologies for measuring urban health risks and improving outcomes, methods for more effective research and knowledge translation and approaches for health integration into broader urban agendas.

The second priority is to build city-level evidence on the relationship between policy, environmental, economic and social factors in urban environments and health outcomes. This priority involves investigating local governance approaches to healthy urban development and policy-making, identifying enabling factors and impacts on health, and considering the relationships between neighbourhood factors and social determinants of health. This priority also involves appraising evidence on access to health services and methods for engaging local health systems, and research on the impact of geographical disparities within cities on residents in vulnerable conditions. This priority calls for exploring how population and stakeholder groups subjectively perceive urban health risks in specific city contexts and for gaining a clearer picture of the association between urban exposures and health across the life course.

The third priority is to generate evidence on under-researched thematic areas. This priority aims to strengthen evidence on the relations between climate change and urban health; on effective strategies for preparing, responding and adapting to emergencies in cities; on strategies to combat health disinformation and misinformation; and on the drivers of and interventions to address urban mental health outcomes and interventions to prevent accidents and injuries in cities. This priority also calls for stronger connections between existing global research frameworks, such as Planetary Health 5 and One Health, that address biodiversity and the links between natural environments and health.

The fourth priority is to generate evidence on under-researched population subgroups. This priority involves exploring how urban inequities compound neighbourhood risks and outcomes, and how addressing them can improve health equity and outcomes. This priority calls for data indicators for monitoring and evaluating urban health interventions directed at specific population groups and on equity outcomes. In addition, it calls for investigating the relationship between physical and social urban environmental changes, exposures, policies and outcomes for populations in vulnerable conditions such as migrants and internally displaced groups, women and girls, older persons and people living with disabilities. This priority also provides for investigating the relationship between land use and zoning regulations and local health inequities.

As the research agenda is implemented, WHO and its partners will propose additional processes for the revision and possible expansion of the research questions. The WHO Urban Health Research Agenda implementation will engage actors outside the health sector such as those dealing with urban planning, transport and housing, and explore synergies with existing commitments, particularly the sustainable development goals. Future activities will emphasize the engagement and capacity-building of key stakeholders from governments, funding bodies, civil society and academia, to ensure that health research topics and questions are framed with a greater emphasis on the needs of urban dwellers.

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Study suggests people in urban areas with more green space have better mental health

by Ann Kellett, Texas A&M University

urban green space

A new study from the Texas A&M University School of Public Health suggests that city dwellers who have more exposure to urban green spaces require fewer mental health services.

The study, published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health , was conducted by Jay Maddock, Ph.D., Regents Professor of environmental and occupational health at Texas A&M, and colleagues from the Center for Health and Nature, a collaboration between Texas A&M Health, Houston Methodist and Texan by Nature. Maddock also directs the center.

The researchers measured urban greenness with NatureScore , which uses numerous data sets related to factors such as air, noise and light pollution , parks and tree canopies to calculate the amount and quality of natural elements for any known address in the United States and several other countries. Scores range from 0–19 points for Nature Deficient to 80–100 for Nature Utopia.

For addresses, they used data on mental health visits aggregated at the ZIP code level from Texas Hospital Outpatient Public Use Data Files from 2014 to mid-2019. The data contained information about patient encounters, including a patient's age, gender, race/ethnicity, educational attainment , employment status, poverty level , principal diagnosis and ZIP code, although no patients were identified.

"The association between exposure to nature and better mental health is well established in the United States and elsewhere, but most studies use just one or two measurements of this exposure," Maddock said.

"Our study was the first to use NatureScore, which provides more complex data, to study the correlation between urban nature exposure and mental health ."

A total of 61,391,400 adult outpatient encounters in Texas cities for depression, bipolar disorders, stress and anxiety were selected. The sample included data from 1,169 ZIP codes in urban Texas, with a median NatureScore of 85.8. About half of the sample had high NatureScores (80+), and about 22% had NatureScores below 40.

Of these encounters, 63% were women, 30% were 65 years old or older, 54% were non-Hispanic white, and 15% were Hispanic. At the ZIP code level, 27% of the total population had a bachelor's degree, 58% were employed, 14% lived under poverty, and 17% lacked health insurance coverage.

The percentage of those 65 years old and older, white, Hispanic and employed were higher in areas with a higher NatureScore. In addition, the ZIP codes with a higher NatureScore had lower percentages of people who were Black, living in poverty or without insurance.

The trend for various mental health encounters decreased as the NatureScore of a neighborhood increased, and the rates of mental health encounters were about 50% lower in neighborhoods with NatureScores over 60. Those who lived in neighborhoods with the two highest NatureScore categories—Nature Rich and Utopia—had significantly lower rates of mental health encounters compared to neighborhoods with the lowest NatureScore category.

"We found that a NatureScore above 40—considered Nature Adequate—seems to be the threshold for good mental health," Maddock said. "People in these neighborhoods have a 51% lower likelihood of developing depression and a 63% lower likelihood for developing bipolar disorders."

The study's lead author, Omar M. Makram, noted that these findings could have important implications for urban planning.

"Increasing green space in cities could promote well-being and mental health, which is critically important given that more than 22% of the adult population in the United States has a mental health disorder," he said.

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The Ingredients of Unequal Aging: Housing, Income, and Health

Photo: Two stacks of coins, one large and one small. Depicts wealth inequality

Photo via iStock/hyejin kang

How a lifetime of poverty and discrimination lead to unequal aging, and what will help us take care of the most vulnerable

Jessica colarossi.

“More generations are alive together than ever before,” says Judith Gonyea , a Boston University School of Social Work professor of social research. This is a gift, she says, as generations can support and learn from each other. But for more people to fully experience a stable and healthy retirement, a number of societal changes need to happen.  

Gonyea studies aging inequality—the idea that not everyone has equal access to the resources needed to reach a secure, healthy old age, and that barriers disproportionately impact marginalized people. And, as the global population gets older, creating a world more supportive for all is more important than ever: by 2030, one in six people worldwide will be aged 60 years or over, and the number of people over 80 years old is expected to triple between now and 2050, according to the World Health Organization.  

Photo: A woman with long curly hair wearing a dark suit jacket crosses her arms in this formal portrait

Unequal aging is often reinforced, and even amplified, by how social programs and policies are structured, Gonyea says, and by embedded systemic racism, sexism, ageism, and other forms of discrimination. 

“Solving unequal aging requires directly addressing the unequal social contexts individuals experience across the life course,” she says. For most older Americans, achieving a secure old age depends on addressing three pillars: income, housing, and health. 

“They are interconnected, yet for many older Americans, much remains beyond their reach,” says Gonyea, who’s also SSW’s associate dean of faculty affairs. Huge gaps in access to quality healthcare, affordable and accessible housing, and livable wages accumulate over a person’s whole life—so there’s no easy starting point. The Brink spoke with Gonyea about how addressing each of these pillars is key to helping solve unequal aging, and how she envisions a world designed for people of all ages to thrive. 

urban health research topics

PILLAR 1: INCOME

“it’s hard to talk about unequal aging without talking about income.”.

Research shows that it becomes more difficult for a person to escape poverty in their later years, Gonyea says, causing economic inequality among older adults to remain inescapable without outside assistance, like income from the US Social Security program.

“The importance of Social Security cannot be overstated—it provides a foundation of retirement protection for nearly all persons in the US,” she says. Without Social Security benefits, about 40 percent of people 65 years and older would have incomes below the federal poverty line, Gonyea says, as opposed to today’s 10.3 percent of older Americans officially counted as living in poverty. “However, it does not lift all older persons out of poverty, and many remain in the federal government’s category of the near poor.” 

As helpful as it is, the program doesn’t alleviate structural inequalities that put people in poverty to begin with. US government benefits are lower than those in many other developed countries, Gonyea says, and Social Security was built around the traditional nuclear family of a working husband, a stay-at-home wife, and children. Although this is not the reality for many households, Social Security has yet to evolve to better support different family structures, often penalizing women financially. 

“Women are out of the labor force on average longer than men, primarily because of caregiving responsibilities for older parents and children, and each year of unpaid labor translates to zero earnings in Social Security benefits,” Gonyea says. Women also make on average 82 cents for every dollar men earn —a gap that is even wider for women of color, and continues to widen with age. “It’s pennies of a difference by the hour, but over a lifetime, significantly impacts one’s retirement income,” she says. “We need to pay attention to how future policy changes and reforms impact different groups, since women and persons of color often have accrued fewer financial resources.”

To Gonyea, ending unequal aging and income inequality is both a race and a gender justice issue. “Historical and ongoing structural racism and sexism in the labor market have placed persons of color and women at greater risk of poverty,” she says. Over the last decade, Gonyea has worked closely with older women living in extreme poverty and experiencing homelessness. By partnering with local organizations like Boston’s Hearth Inc. and Women’s Lunch Place, she has set out to learn the needs of this population, what supports are deeply lacking, and how to improve the systems they navigate every day—from offering free access to public transportation to pet-friendly shelters.  

urban health research topics

PILLAR 2: HOUSING

“housing affordability is an issue that transcends age. i think it’s one of the great challenges we face in our nation right now.”.

Poverty and homelessness are inextricably linked. The last US Census found that 19 million renter households —40 percent of all renters—are cost burdened by their housing, spending more than 30 percent of their monthly income on keeping a roof over their heads. According to the US Interagency Council on Homelessness, Black and Latinx groups are both overrepresented in poverty and in the homeless population . 

And as the US population ages, the homeless population is aging , too. Many unhoused women Gonyea has spoken to in Boston who are over the age of 50 reported lengthy waiting lists for affordable public housing and limited space in shelters. 

“When we look at what the housing market is, and the long waiting lists for public housing, it’s a big issue,” she says. For older adults, it’s particularly tough to find affordable housing that’s also accessible. But well-suited and well-located housing can have a positive impact on quality of life—like being near a bus stop, being within walking or driving distance to a grocery store and doctor’s office, having an elevator to high floors, and having sidewalks.

“Low-income urban elders, those persons in public housing, are amongst some of the most vulnerable older adults in the nation,” Gonyea says. Nonprofit research organization ​​the Urban Institute reports that more than half of the 1.13 million households in public housing are headed by someone who is 62 or older and/or disabled; poor housing stock, it says, is putting older adults’ well-being at serious risk.

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PILLAR 3: HEALTH

“medicare is a wonderful system, but like social security, it has limitations and flaws.”.

For all the necessities that Medicare provides—before its creation, one in every two older Americans had no health insurance—there’s a lot it doesn’t cover : vision and hearing exams, glasses and hearing aids, dental care and dentures. While Medicaid currently provides health coverage to about two million older people living in extreme poverty, many lower- and middle-income older Americans cannot afford to purchase private supplemental health plans. Those enrolled in Medicare, adds Gonyea, “still face out-of-pocket expenses, which can amount to thousands of dollars.” 

More than 17 million older Americans are economically insecure and struggle to meet healthcare costs, according to the National Council on Aging, and wide gaps exist by race and education level. 

“Poverty is a core social determinant of health. One’s work history, including the type of occupation and employment stability, affects retirement income and health in old age,” Gonyea says.

One theme through her research has been the impossibility of separating health from other aspects of people’s lives—economic stability, where they live, the food they eat, the people they spend time with. In a series of studies that focused on low-income urban elders, Gonyea investigated whether experiencing loneliness in old age increases health risks, and if social connectedness acts as a protective function from food insecurity.

She found that loneliness increased depression significantly and placed people at elevated risk of being food insecure. But she also discovered that having a family member involved in someone’s life provided a protective factor against food insecurity. Even if food stores were close by, traveling in cold weather, cracks in sidewalks, and physical limitations impacted access to food. 

“We need to be better aware of how loneliness and health are linked and have profound impacts on people’s lives,” Gonyea says.  

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SOLUTIONS: A SHARED SENSE OF RESPONSIBILITY 

So, how do we ensure people have equal opportunities and access to support as they age.

“The solution involves adopting a shared sense of responsibility between government, businesses, and communities to support older people’s well-being,” Gonyea says, and helping people stay in their homes and communities—aging in place—instead of relocating. “Federal and state policies are important, but it also involves local efforts to transform communities so that persons can age in place safely and comfortably, regardless of income or ability level.” 

She points to a global initiative for age-friendly cities , established by the World Health Organization in 2010, which encourages municipal leaders to work collaboratively with their aging populations and transform physical and social environments to enhance older folks’ quality of life.

“It’s really about making cities healthier for all,” says Gonyea. “When we talk about the need for more and better sidewalks for older adults, there are parents of young children with baby carriages that also benefit. Age-friendly is the integration of older adults into the community so that they can fully participate and maximize their lives to the fullest.

“It’s important that we see older adults not just as vulnerable, but also as contributors to communities and society. This starts with throwing away ageist stereotypes, ideas, and assumptions about what people are capable of, and communicating across generations.”

Gonyea hopes that transforming communities will help end social segregation of people by age, and allow everyone to benefit from the gift of so many generations sharing the planet at one time.

“If you ask most young people what older persons they’ve been involved with in the past three months, it’s either their parents or their grandparents,” Gonyea says. “Families generally feel a strong sense of responsibility to care for members, but changing demographics, combined with shifting social forces, may increasingly place physical, emotional, and financial strain on families to perform these roles.”

It’s important that we see older adults not just as vulnerable, but also as contributors to communities and society. Judith Gonyea

Some families are becoming multigenerational as demographics shift, with family members caring for multiple people who are older—children who are in their 60s and 70s caring for parents in their 80s or 90s, even their 100s. Add in divorce, remarriage, and cohabitation, changing family dynamics, and the need for two household incomes (versus a single breadwinner), and expectations for caretaking can easily get complicated—socially, financially, and emotionally. 

“We have to think about, what is our social contract to building community?” says Gonyea. “Is it all about individual and self-responsibility, or is there a collective sense of taking care of more vulnerable groups, both children and older adults? How do we have shared responsibility?”

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Emerging issues that could trouble teens

Stanford Medicine’s Vicki Harrison explains the forces impacting youth mental health today, and why it’s so important to involve teens in solutions.

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One of the most alarming developments across the United States in recent years has been the growing mental health crisis among children and adolescents.

The already dire situation is evolving 2024 already presenting a new set of challenges that Vicki Harrison, the program director at the Stanford Center for Youth Mental Health & Wellbeing , is closely monitoring and responding to.

Stanford Report sat down with Harrison to find out what concerns her the most about the upcoming year. Harrison also talked about some of the promising ways she and her colleagues are responding to the national crisis and the importance of bringing the youth perspective into that response.

Challenging current events

From the 2024 general election to evolving, international conflicts, today’s dialed-in youth have a lot to process. As teens turn to digital and social media sources to learn about current events and figure out where they stand on particular issues, the sheer volume of news online can feel overwhelming, stressful, and confusing.

One way Harrison is helping teens navigate the information they consume online is through Good for Media , a youth-led initiative that grew out of the Stanford Center for Youth Mental Health & Wellbeing to bring teens and young adults together to discuss using social media in a safe and healthy way. In addition to numerous youth-developed tools and videos, the team has a guide with tips to deal with the volume of news online and how to process the emotions that come with it.

Harrison points out that the tone of political discourse today – particularly discussions about reining in the rights a person has based on aspects of their identity, such as their religion, race, national origin, or gender – affects adolescents at a crucial time in their development, a period when they are exploring who they are and what they believe in.

“If their identity is being othered, criticized, or punished in some way, what messages is that sending to young people and how do they feel good about themselves?” Harrison said. “We can’t divorce these political and cultural debates from the mental health of young people.”

Harrison believes that any calls for solving the mental health crisis must acknowledge the critical importance of inclusion, dignity, and respect in supporting the mental health of young people.

Talking about mental health

Adolescence is a crucial time to develop coping skills to respond to stressful situations that arise – a skill not all teens and youth learn.

“It hasn’t always been normalized to talk about mental health and how to address feeling sad or worried about things,” Harrison said. “It’s not something that all of us have been taught to really understand and how to cope with. A lot of young people aren’t comfortable seeking professional services.”

The Stanford Center for Youth Mental Health & Wellbeing is helping young people get that extra bit of support to deal with problems before they get worse.

This year, they are rolling out stand-alone “one-stop-shop” health centers that offer youth 12-25 years old access to a range of clinical and counseling services with both trained professionals and peers. Called allcove , there are three locations open so far – Palo Alto, Redondo Beach, and San Mateo. More are set to open across the state in 2024.

“If we can normalize young people having an access point – and feeling comfortable accessing it – we can put them on a healthier track and get them any help they may need,” Harrison said.

Another emerging issue Harrison is monitoring is the growing role of social media influencers who talk openly about their struggles with mental health and well-being.

While this is helping bring awareness to mental health – which Harrison wants to see more of – she is also concerned about how it could lead some teens to mistake a normal, stressful life experience for a mental disorder and incorrectly self-diagnose themselves or to overgeneralize or misunderstand symptoms of mental health conditions. Says Harrison, “We want to see mental health destigmatized, but not oversimplified or minimized.”

“We can’t divorce these political and cultural debates from the mental health of young people.” —Vicki Harrison Program Director at the Stanford Center for Youth Mental Health & Wellbeing

Eyes on new technologies

Advances in technology – particularly generative AI – offer new approaches to improving teen well-being, such as therapeutic chatbots or detecting symptoms through keywords or patterns in speech.

“Digital solutions are a promising part of the continuum of care, but there’s the risk of rolling out things without the research backing them,” Harrison said.

Social media companies have come under scrutiny in recent years for inadequately safeguarding young adult mental health. Harrison hopes those mishaps serve as a cautionary tale for those applying AI tools more broadly.

There’s an opportunity, she says, to involve adolescents directly in making AI applications safe and effective. She and her team hope to engage young people with policy and industry and involve them in the design process, rather than as an afterthought.

“Can we listen to their ideas for how to make it better and how to make it work for them?” Harrison asks. “Giving them that agency is going to give us great ideas and make a better experience for them and for everyone using it.”

Harrison said she and her team are hoping to engage young people with policy and industry to elevate their ideas into the design process, rather than have it be an afterthought.

“There’s a lot of really motivated young people who see potential to do things differently and want to improve the world they inhabit,” Harrison said. “That’s why I always want to find opportunities to pass them the microphone and listen.”

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Urban Ecology and Human Health

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Urban ecology provides a comprehensive analysis and application of understanding of the main human habitat: the urban areas in which some 60 percent of the world’s people live. The urban ecosystem comprises the buildings, streets, blue and greenspaces, soils and substrates and the air within, between and ...

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2023 Global Mental Health Conference: Research Without Borders

The 12th Global Mental Health Research Without Borders Conference brought together researchers, innovators, and other scholars from around the globe to highlight findings from cutting-edge science and explore new opportunities for groundbreaking research. The 2023 conference was held in person. However, selected events were live-streamed or recorded  .

Conference Objectives

  • To provide a premier interdisciplinary space for researchers, practitioners, policymakers, funders, and those with lived experience to meet and share innovative developments in the field of global mental health
  • To discuss innovations in the study of social determinants and outcomes of global mental health
  • To identify engagement approaches to increase the value, quality, and impact of global mental health research for people with lived experience of mental health challenges, researchers, and end-users
  • To raise awareness and educate key audiences on the importance of global mental health research, which might allow for greater reach, empowerment, accountability, and mobilization toward sustainable development goals
  • To cultivate the next generation of global mental health researchers with a particular emphasis on diversity, equity, and inclusion (country-led)
  • To foster networking and sustainable partnerships among participants and conveners
  • Writing a Successful Global Mental Health Research Training Grant for the National Institutes of Health on November 1, 2023 (Organized by NIMH)
  • Advancing the Cultural Transferability of Common Measures in Mental Health Sciences on October 31, 2023 (Organized by the International Alliance of Mental Health Research Funders). This workshop was recorded.
  • Connecting Climate Minds: Catalyzing a Global Research Community for Climate Change and Mental Health on November 1, 2023 (Organized by Wellcome)
  • Crafting Effective Resumes and Using Professional Social Media for Networking to Unlock Your Career Potential on November 1, 2023 (Organized by NIMH and STEM Career Services)

Research Tracks

  • Precision psychiatry/stratification in mental health research
  • Climate change and mental health
  • Youth mental health and wellbeing
  • Data science, data sharing, common data elements
  • Health communications
  • Decolonization of global mental health
  • Suicide prevention
  • Innovations in implementation science

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  • National Institute of Mental Health
  • Grand Challenges Canada  
  • International Alliance of Mental Health Research Funders  

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  1. Selected Research Issues of Urban Public Health

    1. Introduction Urban Public Health gains in importance due to increasing health challenges of the ever-growing urban population. Many authors agree that we have entered the 'urban age' [ 1, 2, 3, 4] despite the lack of consensus over the definition of urban areas [ 2 ].

  2. Developing an urban health research agenda

    WHO aims to:identify existing gaps in urban health research;assess the alignment between existing research and successful strategies;develop rigorous, harmonized research priorities with applications to improve health in cities; andprovide evidence for the development of context-specific, multisectoral interventions promoting urban health.

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    Journal of Urban Health Publishing model Hybrid Submit your manuscript Editorial board Aims and scope Journal updates Overview The Journal of Urban Health is the premier and authoritative source of rigorous analyses to advance the health and well-being of people in cities.

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    Urban health Urban health 29 October 2021 العربية 中文 Français Русский Español Key facts Over 55% of the world's population live in urban areas and this is set to rise to 68% by 2050. Almost 40% of urban dwellers have no access to safely managed sanitation services and many lack access to adequate drinking water.

  5. Developing an urban health research agenda

    There is increasing research on urban health, from descriptive analyses to effective interventions.

  6. Urban Health Education: Global Challenges and Opportunities

    First, urban health research is the domain of multiple disciplines, including but not limited to epidemiology, biology, sociology, planning, geography, political science, architecture, and engineering. Thus, urban health is a field that is concerned "with the determinants of health and diseases in urban areas and with the urban context itself ...

  7. Full article: Challenges and opportunities for urban health research in

    Urban health research has greatly improved in quality, quantity, and depth over the past 20 years. Just in the last decade, we have seen a large increase in publications, scientific journals, conferences, books, and courses.

  8. Trends, Issues and Future Directions of Urban Health Impact Assessment

    The main hotspots include health risk assessment, source appointment, contamination, exposure, particulate matter, heavy metals and urban soils in 2012-2021; road dust, source apposition, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, air pollution, urban topsoil and the north China plain were always hot research topics in 2012-2021, drinking water and ...

  9. Frontiers

    In this Research Topic, we explore health policy and systems research at the nexus between urbanization and health. The global trend of urbanization will not abate in the near future and the related challenges are many.

  10. Five urban health research traditions: A meta-narrative review

    Five urban health research traditions were identified: (1) of the urban health issue that is addressed. These dimensions have even deeper implications for transdisciplinary collaboration as they are underpinned by paradigmatic differences, rather than disciplinary differences.

  11. Scoping review of environmental urban health research in America and

    BACKGROUND AND AIM: Recent reports from United Nations estimate that the world population will reach 9.3 billion in 2050, 75% in urban areas. Until a couple of decades ago a growing interest in the field of urban health research could be observed. Among its topics environmental health has a leading role. The aim of this study was to explore bibliometric and methodological characteristics of ...

  12. What is Urban Health?

    Urban health is an evolving area of research, education, practice, and policy making. Students are in a strong position to be part of these developing activities to advance the evidence base on research, implementation and evaluation in urban health.

  13. Urban health News, Research and Analysis

    Articles on Urban health Displaying all articles January 26, 2024 How cars and road infrastructure became part of the UK's culture wars Dominic Davies, City, University of London Conspiracy...

  14. Urban Environment and Health

    The "Urban Environment and Health" Research Topic may be realized by investigating the following critical issues: • Built environment impacts on human health including indoor and outdoor urban spaces and settings; • Health impacts, inequities and/or disparities related to the built environment in urban areas;

  15. Urban Health

    Urban health is the study of urban characteristics - including features of the social and physical environment and features of the urban resource infrastructure - that can influence health and disease in the urban context.

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    The primary goal of this Research Topic is to encourage eco-friendly behavior by making use of the social, physical, and psychological aspects of the built environment. We aim to highlight the multidisciplinary interconnections between the environment and public health, with a particular emphasis on innovative ideas and policies for advancing ...

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    It is now widely recognised that urbanisation per se is not necessarily bad for health, but it becomes so if urban governments fail to establish and support necessary infrastructure and services to protect citizens from environmental hazards and from social, economic and political insecurity.

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  22. Global research priorities for urban health

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  26. Emerging issues that could trouble teens

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  27. Study aims to better understand reasons behind common ...

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  29. 2023 Global Mental Health Conference: Research Without Borders

    Advancing the Cultural Transferability of Common Measures in Mental Health Sciences on October 31, 2023 (Organized by the International Alliance of Mental Health Research Funders). This workshop was recorded. Connecting Climate Minds: Catalyzing a Global Research Community for Climate Change and Mental Health on November 1, 2023 (Organized by ...