About this book series

The Urban Health and Wellbeing: Systems Approaches series is based on a 10-year global interdisciplinary research program developed by International Council for Science (ICSU), and sponsored by the InterAcademy Partnership (IAP) and the United Nations University (UNU). It addresses up-to-date urban health issues from around the world and provides an appealing integrated urban development approach from a systems perspective. This series aims to propose a new conceptual framework for considering the multi-factorial and cross sectorial nature of both determinants and drivers of health and wellbeing in urban populations and takes a systems approach for improving the understanding of the interconnected nature of health in cities.  The systems approach includes an engagement with urban communities in the process of creating and transferring knowledge. Further, it aims at generating knowledge and providing the evidence that is relevant to people and policy-makers for improving integrated decision making and governance for the health and wellbeing of urban dwellers. The methods applied, come from various epistemological domains in order to improve understanding of how the composition and functioning of urban environments impacts physical, mental and social heath and how inequalities can be reduced to improve the overall quality of urban life.

The systems approach is applied to science and society and defined by a deep investigation into disciplinary knowledge domains relevant for urban health and wellbeing, as well as an inter- and transdisciplinary dialogue and shared understanding of the issues between scientific communities, policy makers and societal stakeholders more broadly. It involves one or more of the following elements: 1) the development of new conceptual models that incorporate dynamic relations among variables which define urban health and wellbeing; 2) the use of systems tools, stimulation models and collaborative modelling methods; 3) the integration of various sources and types of data including spatial, visual, quantitative and qualitative data.

Like the first book, the coming books will all address the topic of urban health and wellbeing, specifically by taking a systems approach. The topics range across all urban sectors and can, for example, cover  the following areas:

(1) transportation, urban planning and housing, urban water, energy and food, communication, resources and energy, urban food systems, public service provision, etc.

(2) the related health disorders in physical, social and mental health

(3) the methods and models used and the type of science applied to understand the complexity of urban health and wellbeing.

Electronic ISSN
2510-3504
Print ISSN
2510-3490
Series Editor
  • Yongguan Zhu

Book titles in this series