Transdisciplinary Collaborations for flood impact mitigation on human health for sustainable urban development

Abstract

This study assessed the impact of urbanization on human health with an emphasis on flood hazard mitigation through the lens of transdisciplinary collaborations, as a strategy for achieving sustainable urban development. In place of this, the study highlights the effects of urbanization and floods impact on health, by identifying the health consequences of flood disasters. The goal here was to put together contributions and guidance drawn from the literature on issues under study for a shared problem understanding and solutions. The methodological approach employed in this study was a desktop survey, for systematic literature search, conducted in five databases and Google Scholar from April 4th to 30th May 2018, applying inclusion and exclusion criteria, from which, 44,860 articles were returned, narrowed to 71 articles from which 26 relevant articles were selected. Findings suggest that transdisciplinary collaboration enhance shared learning for sustainable urban development governance. The study further reveals functional overlaps among the collaborating partners on a common goal due to poor coordination. The paper concludes that successful transdisciplinary collaborations for sustainable urban development require articulation and efforts that clearly define the roles of each partner in the collaboration. Succinctly, achieving sustainable urban development is not an easy task, but ideal transdisciplinary collaboration simplified it.