SEI is partnering with local people in the city of Udon Thani in northeast Thailand to find creative ways to improve the urban environment.
- Feature
- Land
- 15 March 2021
- Southeast Asia
SEI’s Initiative on City Health and Wellbeing uses novel approaches to understand how growing cities can impact wellbeing.
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- Air
- Gender
- Health
- Water
- 5 November 2020
- Africa
- Eastern Africa
- Asia
- Southeast Asia
- Thailand
Accessible green space in cities supports good mental and physical health. Natural spaces in cities help mitigate climate change. Planners should take note.
- Perspective
- Air
- Governance
- Health
- Land
- 20 May 2020
- Journal articles
- Governance
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- 15 February 2021
- Read in 10
- Africa
- Eastern Africa
- Uganda
- Kenya
Related research
Comparing health, stress, wellbeing and greenspace across six cities in three continents
The Mental Health Benefits of Purposeful Activities in Public Green Spaces in Urban and Semi-Urban Neighbourhoods
Access to Green Space in Disadvantaged Urban Communities: Evidence of Salutogenic Effects Based on Biomarker and Self-report Measures of Wellbeing
Green Space and Stress: Evidence from Cortisol Measures in Deprived Urban Communities
Rapidly-growing cities represent unique challenges and opportunities. Unplanned growth often outpaces infrastructure development and occurs at the expense of a city’s ecological foundations, undermining residents’ wellbeing and the city’s sustainability.
The SEI Initiative on City Health and Well-being uses novel approaches to investigate how evolving cities are affecting the well-being of residents and how this interacts with the overall health of city systems: What makes a city healthy for its residents? Could citizens be actively engaged in monitoring the health of their city? These are some of the central questions informing our initiative case study activities in Asia and Africa.
Novel methods of data generation and collection have been employed across four interconnected activities in two case study location (Nakuru in Kenya and Udon Thani in Thailand). These activities are:
- Understanding the impact of urban forms’ impact on health and wellbeing
- Co-designing urban citizen science monitoring
- Urban metabolism and participatory modelling
- Governance for greater urban equity and inclusion
The research is contributing to a rethink of urban development practices. The knowledge generated through this action research and boundary partner engagement will inform sustainable and participatory planning for urban environments.
The new evidence we generate will be aimed at guiding policy recommendations to equitably maximize the well-being of urban populations whilst minimizing resource consumption and without undermining their resilience.
Using novel approaches to investigate how evolving cities affect residents' well-being and how this interacts with the overall health of city systems.
- SEI briefs
- Air
- Health
- Governance
- Land
- Water
- 19 December 2018
- Africa
- Asia
- Kenya
- Thailand
SEI is partnering with local people in the city of Udon Thani in northeast Thailand to find creative ways to improve the urban environment.
- Feature
- Land
- 15 March 2021
- Southeast Asia
- Media coverage
- Health
- 24 March 2020
- Southeast Asia
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.
- Perspective
- Air
- Gender
- Governance
- Health
- 11 April 2019
- Southeast Asia
- Thailand
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.
- Perspective
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- 21 June 2016
- Estonia
Uncontrolled growth, luxury construction and gentrification are driving out many residents and making life more difficult for all.
- Perspective
- Land
- Health
- Water
- 17 October 2016
- Thailand
- Feature
- 1 October 2014
- Perspective
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- 8 September 2017
- United Kingdom
- Senior Research Fellow
- SEI York
- @s_cinderby_SEI
- Senior Research Fellow
- SEI Asia
- @bangkokdi
- Senior Expert (Environmental Management Programme)
- SEI Tallinn
- @HeidiTuhkanen
- Programme Leader
- SEI Africa
- Senior Scientist
- SEI US
- Research Fellow
- SEI Africa
- @cassildemuhoza
- Researcher
- SEI York
- @RachelP_SEI
- Research Associate
- SEI Asia
- Communications specialist
- SEI York
- Communications
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.
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.
Using novel approaches to investigate how evolving cities affect residents' well-being and how this interacts with the overall health of city systems.
- SEI briefs
- Air
- Health
- Governance
- Land
- Water
- 19 December 2018
- Africa
- Asia
- Kenya
- Thailand
- Journal articles
- Governance
- Health
- Air
- 15 February 2021
- Read in 10
- Africa
- Eastern Africa
- Uganda
- Kenya
Air pollution is a key issue in Thailand, addressed in many laws and plans. Why then, does enforcement remain such a challenge and how can it be ensured?
- SEI working papers
- Air
- Health
- Governance
- 12 February 2021
- Thailand
This exploratory study applies a standardised analysis framework to health and wellbeing metrics of cities in the UK, Sweden, Estonia, Kenya and Thailand.
- Journal articles
- Air
- Health
- 18 December 2019
- Sweden
- Estonia
- United Kingdom
- Thailand
- Kenya
This pilot study shows that undertaking purposeful activity in public green space has the potential to promote health and prevent mental ill health.
- Journal articles
- Air
- Health
- 30 July 2019
- United Kingdom
- Journal articles
- Health
- 13 January 2015
- United Kingdom
This report provides a first-ever assessment of how opportunities for low-carbon development are distributed across the world’s urban areas.
- Other publications
- Air
- Climate
- 9 February 2018
- Journal articles
- Health
- Economy
- 10 September 2013
- United Kingdom
- Journal articles
- 7 January 2010
- Journal articles
- Water
- 22 October 2014
- India
- Journal articles
- Water
- 30 January 2017
- Sweden
- Philippines
- India
- South Africa
- Journal articles
- Water
- Health
- 8 April 2013
- India
- Journal articles
- 11 December 2008
Ontological frameworks applied to Smart City research and policy
As part of the City Health And Wellbeing (CHEW) initiative, Dr. Arkalgud Ramprasad was invited to present his work on ontological frameworks applied to research, policy, and practice. CHeW is particularly interested in how such a framework can be applied to sustainable cities.
Dr. Ramprasad is Professor Emeritus in Information and Decision Science at the University of Illinois, Chicago, and the Director of the Ramaiah Public Policy Centre in Bangalore, India. His talk, entitled “Systematic Policymaking Using Ontologies: How to Make the ‘Elephant’ Dance”was hosted in Davis, California by SEI’s Vishal Mehta. A shortened version of his presentation, focusing on Smart Cities, is available here.
Fluorosis, caused by excess fluoride intake, affects millions of people around the world. SEI is working with local communities and Indian doctors on managing Fluorosis risk in Nakuru, Kenya. A combination of water supply management and community sampling is helping better understand the scale of the problem, and its solution. Part 1 – describes the work undertaken by doctors from Ramaiah Medical Centre (India) transforming the health of school children in the village of Kaiwara . They explain how they identified that fluorosis was a serious health issue and how they succeeded in providing safe water to the village. Presenter: Vishal K. Mehta – SEI Interviewees: Arjunan Isaac, Nanda Kumar – Ramaiah Medical Centre, Bengalaru, India Video Production: Aditi Rajeev
Part 2 – describes the transfer of knowledge from doctors from Ramaiah Medical Centre (India) to the city of Nakuru, Kenya. Initial research carried out using citizen science to look at water quality identified high levels of Fluoride in groundwater. The doctors explain how lessons learnt from their reducing fluorosis in their village can be introduced and scaled-up in Nakuru. Presenter: Vishal K. Mehta Interviewees: Cassilde Muhoza, Romanus Opiyo – SEI; Arjunan Isaac, Nanda Kumar – Ramaiah Medical Centre, Bengalaru, India Video Production: Aditi Rajeev