Developing a Health-Spatial Indicator System for a Healthy City in Small and Midsized Cities

Area of Science:

• Urban Planning
• Public Health
• Environmental Science

Background:

• Growing recognition of urban environments' impact on public health.
• Healthy City initiatives are globally implemented but lack focus on small and midsized cities (SMCs).
• Existing research overlooks SMCs, contributing to health inequities.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop an indicator system for evaluating Healthy City initiatives specifically in SMCs.
• To bridge the gap between urban design principles and public health outcomes in SMCs.
• To address the lack of tailored Healthy City frameworks for smaller urban areas.

Main Methods:

• Expert opinions collected via questionnaires and interviews.
• Development of an indicator system with six dimensions and 37 variables.
• Application of a fuzzy synthetic evaluation technique to determine factor importance.

Main Results:

• The developed indicator system includes dimensions such as urban form and transportation (UFT), health-friendly service (HFS), and environmental quality and governance (EQG).
• UFT, HFS, and EQG were identified as highly important factors, with importance indexes of 0.175, 0.174, and 0.174, respectively.
• The system provides a structured approach for assessing Healthy City progress in SMCs.

Conclusions:

• The proposed indicator system is valuable for SMCs aiming to implement Healthy City strategies.
• It emphasizes the integration of urban design and governance for public health improvement.
• This framework enhances the knowledge base for Healthy City development across various urban scales.