Health and environmental co-benefits of city urban form: the case of Latin American cities

Abstract

Background: Urban design features are often studied in relation to health and behavioral outcomes. They can also have major implications for environmental outcomes. Yet the impact of these features on both health and environmental outcomes (co-benefits) are rarely examined. We investigated how urban landscape and street design profiles are related to jointly occurring health and environmental outcomes in Latin America cities.Methods: The SALURBAL project has compiled and harmonized data on built environment, environmental exposures, and health outcomes for 370 cities in 11 countries: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, and Peru. Eight city profiles were identified using finite mixture models. Four urban landscape profiles were defined measuring patch (contiguous area of urban development) fragmentation, shape, and isolation. Additional four street design profiles were defined using street connectivity, length, and directness. Multilevel regression models were used to assess associations between the city profiles and several health and environmental outcomes.Results (preliminar): As compared to the urban landscape profile labelled ‘scattered pixels’ (low fragmentation, compact shape, high isolation), the ‘proximate stones’ profile (moderate fragmentation, irregular shape, moderate isolation) had significantly higher levels of PM2.5 and NO2, and the ‘proximate inkblots’ profile (moderate-high fragmentation, complex shape, moderate isolation) had significantly higher violence related deaths. As compared to the street design profile labelled ‘labyrinthine’ (low connectivity, moderate length, moderate directness), the ‘semi-hyperbolic grid’ (moderate connectivity, moderate length, moderate directness) and the ‘spiderweb’ (high connectivity, low length, moderate directness) profiles had significantly higher levels of PM2.5 and NO2. While the ‘hyperbolic grid’ profile (moderate connectivity, high length, low directness) had significantly higher levels of NO2 and lower levels of obesity.Conclusion: Identifying how city profiles are related to environment and health outcomes can shed light on the urban policies that could have the greatest environment and health co-benefits.