Can a liveable city be a healthy city, now and into the future?

City planning and infrastructure can influence the social determinants of health, the liveability of cities and the physical and mental health of city residents. This article defines these concepts and discusses how city planning can help in mitigating COVID-19 transmission, and support health by accommodating active transport (i.e. walking and cycling) and emerging technologies (i.e. autonomous and electric vehicles).

Land use proportion and walking: Application of isometric substitution analysis.

Entropy measures of land use mix are a commonly used component of walkability. However, they present methodological challenges, and studies on their associations with walking have produced mixed findings. This study examined associations of the proportion of discrete land uses with walking, using isometric substitution models that take the complementary nature of land use proportions into account. Analysis of data collected from middle-aged adults living in Brisbane, Australia (n = 10,794) found that replacing residential or other land with commercial land was associated with higher levels of walking. The isometric substitution approach may explain the potential impact of land use changes on residents' walking.

Quality of Public Open Spaces and Recreational Walking.

OBJECTIVES: We examined associations between specific public open space (POS) attributes and recreational walking to local POS. METHODS: Between October 2004 and December 2006, 1465 adults of the RESIDential Environments Project, conducted in Perth, Australia, reported whether they walk to a POS for recreation. For each participant, we identified all open spaces larger than 0.8 hectares within 1.6 kilometers from home. On the basis of field audit data, we created 3 scores (presence, count, size-weighted presence) for 19 specific open space attributes. RESULTS: With logistic regression analyses, we found that walking to a POS was associated with the presence of gardens, grassed areas, walking paths, water features, wildlife, amenities, dog-related facilities, and off-leash areas for dogs. It was also associated with the highest number of these attributes in a single open space, but not with the total number of attributes in all POSs within 1.6 kilometers of home. CONCLUSIONS: Building 1 high-quality local park may be more effective in promoting recreational walking than is providing many average-quality parks.