City design for health and resilience in hot and dry climates
The health of people living in cities is affected by urban design elements including density, distribution of land use, building design, transport infrastructure, green spaces, opportunities for social interaction, and accessibility to work, education, healthy food, and culture.
Several of these elements pose particular challenges when designing healthy cities in hot and dry regions such as the Middle East, where weather may constrain active transport, outdoor recreational physical activity, and outdoor socializing. Studies of the impact of urban design on health in arid regions is scarce, with most research from the global north. A climate and culturally sensitive approach can, however, inform adaptation of evidence from temperate climates to hot and dry climates
Find here the key recommendations of the report:
- Climate sensitive urban design: create compact cities with shaded public spaces, using trees and artificial shading
- Connectivity and accessibility: emphasize public transport with passive cooling in stations and cooling in buses, trams, and trains; shaded and safe pedestrian and bicycle lanes, providing access to work, leisure, and services; efficiency and electrification of vehicles, charged by solar energy
- Climate sensitive buildings: design for indoor thermal comfort, fresh air, and well controlled daylight and solar heating
- Redefine open space: use innovative arid landscape architecture for water efficient and health promoting parks and public spaces
- Culture sensitive urban design: strategies should be sensitive to social and cultural norms
- Resilience and adaptation to climate change: design cities, buildings, and transportation that maintain their functions in a changing climate
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