Fountain at Pho Si Road/Udon Dutsadi Road roundabout, Udon Thani, Thailand. Photo: Stefan Fussan / Wikimedia Commons.
City planning needs to consider livability and resident well-being alongside equality of environmental and economic development.
This paper explores the links between urban public realm spaces, both natural and built, and residents' wellbeing in Low and Middle Income Countries (LMICs).
This initiative investigates how rapidly growing cities affect residents' wellbeing and how this interacts with the overall health of city systems.
City planning needs to consider livability and resident well-being alongside equality of environmental and economic development.
Diane Archer, SEI Asia in a short interview with Thomson Reuters.
SEI is partnering with local people in the city of Udon Thani in northeast Thailand to find creative ways to improve the urban environment.
Environmental monitoring with citizen science in Nakuru, Kenya
Can citizen-led monitoring help local governments manage cities better and improve services to people? This was the question CHeW investigated through environmental monitoring using citizen science techniques.
SEI supported environmental leaders from a community in Nakuru, Kenya using a data collection app called Epicollect to map out environmental challenges facing their local area. EpiCollect enables questionnaires to be created which are then accessible on mobile phones. User responses to questions are linked to their locations using the phone’s GPS.
Between April and June 2019, a group of 15 Environment Champions surveyed their neighbourhood (called Free Area) taking pictures of problem areas and documenting the status of them over the time-period. The SEI team helped co-organize information collection activities and afterwards shared findings back to the community and local government representatives including public health officers, County Government and County Assembly, Nakuru Water and Sewerage Company (NAWASCO), ward administrators, garbage collectors and the Area Chief, during a workshop held in mid-2019.
The survey brought a focus on the dominant issues which were related to waste (open dumping) and water and drainage (leaking/broken water and sewer pipes, and open or unsafe manholes). The data from the survey was also mapped so that users are able to identify where the problems were and to help the relevant authorities resolve them.
Before data collection (left) and an example completed map for one neighbourhood (right).
This is one example of how, through the CHeW initiative, SEI is striving to catalyze citizen-led activities within rapidly growing cities and to embed them into improved urban governance practices.
Tackling health issues due to fluorosis in Kenya through South-South cooperation.
This paper explores the links between urban public realm spaces, both natural and built, and residents' wellbeing in Low and Middle Income Countries (LMICs).
To ensure future sustainability, cities need to consider concepts of livability and resident wellbeing alongside environmental and economic development equity.
This paper addresses challenges faced by LMICs using citizen science to enhance official data monitoring of SDGs.
Urban sustainability is governed beyond the urban scale through trans-local networks and assemblages of actors and institutions.
Using creative engagement methods can transform city planning and widen inclusion.
This study seeks to fill in some gaps in groundwater data in India in an effort to measure how natural and man-made factors affect water supply levels.
This study uses mobile electroencephalography (EEG) to understand the different impacts of busy, quiet and green urban spaces on brain activity.
This article introduces the first issue of Cities & Health volume 4. It covers topics such as urban density, active travel and climate change adaptation.
This exploratory study applies a standardized analysis framework to health and wellbeing metrics of cities in the UK, Sweden, Estonia, Kenya and Thailand.
This initiative investigates how rapidly growing cities affect residents' wellbeing and how this interacts with the overall health of city systems.
City planning needs to consider livability and resident well-being alongside equality of environmental and economic development.
SEI Africa has embarked on a plan to deploy air quality sensors in the town of Nakuru in Kenya's Rift Valley to measure the quality of health for residents.
In cities, congestion increases automobile emissions, which ultimately degrades ambient air quality.
This perspective highlights three major solutions to address the challenges faced by low-income and vulnerable transport users in African cities.
What do practitioners need to be aware of when planning urban green infrastructure using digital tools to engage stakeholders?
SEI is partnering with local people in the city of Udon Thani in northeast Thailand to find creative ways to improve the urban environment.
SEI's Initiative on City Health and Wellbeing uses novel approaches to understand how growing cities can impact wellbeing.
Tackling health issues due to fluorosis in Kenya through South-South cooperation.
Udon Thani in Northern Thailand is a rapidly developing small city that is planning ahead to ensure its growth is green and sustainable.
Non-traditional urban planning tools – think art and poetry – underpin new ways of co-designing city infrastructure to address health and mobility issues.
For two years, an SEI-led team of researchers measured groundwater levels throughout the city in search of answers to Bangalore's water shortage.
SEI is helping develop legislation on air quality in Nairobi to improve the lives of the city’s most vulnerable people.
Bringing nature back to cities and workplaces - with Steve Cinderby, who has studied the positive connection between green spaces and well-being
This perspective highlights three major solutions to address the challenges faced by low-income and vulnerable transport users in African cities.
What do practitioners need to be aware of when planning urban green infrastructure using digital tools to engage stakeholders?
Is there a connection between air quality, gender, and work?
Accessible green space in cities supports good mental and physical health. Natural spaces in cities help mitigate climate change. Planners should take note.
What does a healthy and liveable city look like? This initiative is working with residents of the Northern Thailand city of Udon Thani to find out.
Will introducing green roofs, green walls, rain gardens and planting trees improve our cities?
After decades of car-centred urban planning in the Tallinn, the city plans to give the centre back to its people and enliven urban culture.
Uncontrolled growth, luxury construction and gentrification are driving out many residents and making life more difficult for all.
This poster by Heidi Tuhkanen, Steve Cinderby and Annemarieke de Bruin was also presented at the ClimateExp0 conference.
