Criteria for healthy urban environments.

Area of Science:

• Urban health
• Environmental science
• Public health

Background:

• Assessing urban health requires evaluating environmental hazards.
• Existing approaches often lack a holistic perspective.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose a matrix of indicators for assessing city and citizen health.
• To facilitate monitoring and comparison of urban environmental and human health.

Main Methods:

• Developing a taxonomy of environmental hazards to health.
• Creating a matrix of indicators for "sickness" and health.
• Establishing a database for monitoring changes.

Main Results:

• A proposed matrix of indicators can monitor urban health changes.
• This framework allows comparison between built, human, and natural environments.
• Identified indicators can help prevent health hazards and promote city health.

Conclusions:

• A holistic approach to urban health assessment is superior to fragmented methods.
• Data-driven insights enhance intuitive decision-making for urban policies.
• Further research can explore human health aspects beyond direct environmental links.