Great sounding PhD project…
Project 9: Health Impact Assessment for Healthy Living
(Host Institute: ISGlobal Barcelona)
Contact: carolyn.daher@isglobal.org
Urbanisation is occurring at unprecedented rates worldwide, and will present important challenges to protect and promote population health. The United Nations projects that nearly all global population growth from 2016 -2030 will be absorbed by cities, about 1.1 billion new urbanites over the next 14 years. In the face of rising non-communicable diseases, climate change impacts, potential epidemics, new tools and mechanisms to work across health and urban planning and transport sectors are urgently needed. There is currently a lack of use of quantitative Health Impact Assessment (HIA) models to assess the overall burden of mortality and morbidity related to urban and transport development and planning in cities that can be used by policy makers to mitigate harms and increase health benefits, estimate effects on health equity and economic costs. HIA is a novel approach that combines mixed-methods to systematically judge the potential health effects a proposed policy, programme or particular intervention might have on population health and the distribution of those effects within a population (healthy equity). The aim of the proposed research is to bring health into the agenda of urban and transport planning by developing participatory HIA methods, models and tools for evidence-based decision making whilst involving citizens and other stakeholders to overcome political and cultural barriers of implementation. The hypothesis is that HIA is a method that can be applied to different urban contexts to assess policy scenarios on their health consequences, and create indicators and recommendations that can optimise health and equity in cities. We will construct a framework to identify urban and transport related exposures with health relevance and consider demographic, economic or geographical factors. We will develop a comprehensive quantitative HIA model to assess scenarios of the health benefits and risks. Quantitative sources will be supplemented by qualitative interview, focus groups, and community network assessment techniques to contextualise public health implications across different urban political, socio-economic, and spatial contexts. Estimated health impacts and will be compared to health impacts implied by business as usual. The modeling will include a health equity assessment to help identify and target vulnerable population groups in order to narrow the health gap, and reduce inequities throughout the whole population. The HIA model will be developed in Barcelona, and then be refined for applicability and application in cities worldwide, making this a project with significant potential for global impact. This project is transdisciplinary by nature, and aims to bring health, transport and planning sectors together in collaboration to bridge sectorial gaps methodological approaches, as well as to maximise impact in society.
