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Health and the Compact City

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Decarbonising the Built Environment

Abstract

In the urban age, cities are confronting an array of problems: fossil fuel depletion, climate change, ageing population and inadequate urban infrastructure, housing affordability, food and water shortages, social isolation, and a rising burden of non-communicable disease, road injury and mental ill-health. Attempts to optimise city design for the promotion of population health are not new, with recent research assessing the health implications of compact city design. Research points to health co-benefits associated with compact city designs—yet the implications of compact cities on other urban systems, including, housing, transport, energy and water, is not clear. Embracing new complex systems methods and approaches will ensure policies that support compact city designs are considered across multiple urban systems thereby ensuring city planning and related policies are environmentally sustainable as well as enhancing the health of city residents.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Schools of Design, Engineering and Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, Australia

    Mark Stevenson & Jason Thompson

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  1. Mark Stevenson
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  2. Jason Thompson
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Correspondence to Mark Stevenson .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Urban Transitions, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, VIC, Australia

    Peter Newton

  2. University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia

    Deo Prasad

  3. School of Photovoltaics and Renewable Energy Engineering, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia

    Alistair Sproul

  4. Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Adelaide, SA, Australia

    Stephen White

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Stevenson, M., Thompson, J. (2019). Health and the Compact City. In: Newton, P., Prasad, D., Sproul, A., White, S. (eds) Decarbonising the Built Environment. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-7940-6_13

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