The city of proximity as an Urban Health strategy for the post pandemic neighborhood’s needs

Abstract

Abstract The lockdown due to the pandemic has prevented travels, forcing many people to work at home and reducing the possibility of accessing services in the territory. This condition has further highlighted the importance of urban living areas capable of satisfying basic needs within a reasonably easy range of accessibility. The concept of the “15 minutes city” is a useful vision to represent the city of proximity, where it is possible to meet the needs for sustainable, fair, quality, and healthy living. However, even if the objectives represented are fundamental, the model it proposes - accessibility within 15 minutes - is not always applicable in all urban contexts, mostly peripheral, peri-urban, or low-density ones. This dimension of proximity - to be defined from time to time according to urban contexts - can be central to formulating strategies to improve the quality of urban life. Still, it can also play a role in constructing forms of intervention to improve public health and in ordinary conditions, both in extraordinary and emergency conditions. From this point of view, a proximity area can be an area to be defined with a variety of tools typical of urban analysis but fed by overlapping layers that also refer to the health dimension. A place of proximity, therefore not only defined based on the physical characteristics and people's uses, but also based on the data collected from a public health perspective in which it is also possible to try to test different types of information and build the conditions to suggest suitable policies and projects. Aim of the authors is to illustrate a survey about several case studies considered virtuous at the international level, analyzed in detail to highlight the main urban and architectural features of those healthy experiences and the related health outcomes, such as sedentary lifestyle reduction, increase of the attractiveness of places, reduction of air and noise pollution.