“Sustainable, healthy and resilient cities”

Collective health is determined by the complex interaction of different factors, among which we can find the environment where we live. In the last years, we have been able to observe how the press fills their newspapers about the relationship between them.

Knowing that the quality of the air in Barcelona is a conditioning factor for our health is something that most of the population already knows. However, knowing that this environment is also a promoter of more or less healthy lifestyles is not so obvious, even though it is an essential fact to create healthy cities.

For example, the introduction of bike lanes is intended to encourage the use of this form of transport, or the presence of public parks and gardens that invite the population to take a stroll which stimulates a less sedentary life. In contrast, a public space occupied mainly by vehicles generates poorer air quality, as well as a background noise that, far from relaxing, keeps us in constant alertness. All of these are different ways that, in one way or another, lead to a more or less healthy population.

For this reason, the BiSC project seeks the confluence of all these elements that can affect health and, in the line of other research projects, seeks to know and understand how affects environmental pollution, including atmospheric pollution, noise, stress, physical activity and green spaces in health’s population.

In addition, the study focuses on how all these factors affect the development of newborns during pregnancy, as it is one of the most vulnerable and determining periods of people’s lives.

A photography of Barcelona from the sea. (source: https://www.smartcity.press/barcelona-gains-third-place-global-smart-city-ranking/)

Therefore, knowledge of all this allows us to build more sustainable, healthy and resilient cities.

In this link, you will find an article in the “The Guardian” newspaper as an example of how the environment has positive effects on human health and the existing evidence.

The text has been written by Sara Llobera, an environmental fieldworker of the BiSC project.