A Comparative Analysis of Global Datasets and Initiatives for Urban Health and Sustainability
Globally, urban populations are growing rapidly, and in most cases their demands for resources are beyond current limits of sustainability. Cities are therefore critical for achieving national and international sustainability objectives, such as greenhouse gas reduction. Improving sustainability may...
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doaj-e72378b1704a4ff6b8c41474f378c8a02020-11-25T00:17:03ZengMDPI AGSustainability2071-10502018-10-011010363610.3390/su10103636su10103636A Comparative Analysis of Global Datasets and Initiatives for Urban Health and SustainabilityJonathon Taylor0Andy Haines1James Milner2Mike Davies3Paul Wilkinson4Institute for Environmental Design and Engineering, University College London, Central House, 14 Upper Woburn Place, London WC1H 0NN, UKDepartment of Social and Environmental Health Research, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, 15-17 Tavistock Place, London WC1H 9SH, UKDepartment of Social and Environmental Health Research, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, 15-17 Tavistock Place, London WC1H 9SH, UKInstitute for Environmental Design and Engineering, University College London, Central House, 14 Upper Woburn Place, London WC1H 0NN, UKDepartment of Social and Environmental Health Research, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, 15-17 Tavistock Place, London WC1H 9SH, UKGlobally, urban populations are growing rapidly, and in most cases their demands for resources are beyond current limits of sustainability. Cities are therefore critical for achieving national and international sustainability objectives, such as greenhouse gas reduction. Improving sustainability may also provide opportunities for urban population health co-benefits by reducing unhealthy exposures and behaviours. However, there is currently sparse empirical evidence on the degree to which city characteristics are associated with variations in health-related exposures, behaviours and sustainability. This paper examines the feasibility of aggregating empirical data relating to sustainability and health for global cities. An initial scoping review of existing English-language datasets and networks is performed. Resulting datasets are analysed for data types, collection method, and the distribution of contributing cities across climates, population sizes, and wealth. The review indicates datasets are populated using inconsistent methodologies and metrics and have poor overlap of cities between them. Data and organisations tend to be biased towards larger and wealthier cities, and concentrated in Europe and North America. Therefore, despite vast amounts of available data, limitations of reliability, representativeness, and disparate sources mean researchers are faced with significant obstacles when aggregating data to analyse the sustainability and health of globally representative samples of cities.http://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/10/3636urbanhealthsustainabilitydataorganizations |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Jonathon Taylor Andy Haines James Milner Mike Davies Paul Wilkinson |
spellingShingle |
Jonathon Taylor Andy Haines James Milner Mike Davies Paul Wilkinson A Comparative Analysis of Global Datasets and Initiatives for Urban Health and Sustainability Sustainability urban health sustainability data organizations |
author_facet |
Jonathon Taylor Andy Haines James Milner Mike Davies Paul Wilkinson |
author_sort |
Jonathon Taylor |
title |
A Comparative Analysis of Global Datasets and Initiatives for Urban Health and Sustainability |
title_short |
A Comparative Analysis of Global Datasets and Initiatives for Urban Health and Sustainability |
title_full |
A Comparative Analysis of Global Datasets and Initiatives for Urban Health and Sustainability |
title_fullStr |
A Comparative Analysis of Global Datasets and Initiatives for Urban Health and Sustainability |
title_full_unstemmed |
A Comparative Analysis of Global Datasets and Initiatives for Urban Health and Sustainability |
title_sort |
comparative analysis of global datasets and initiatives for urban health and sustainability |
publisher |
MDPI AG |
series |
Sustainability |
issn |
2071-1050 |
publishDate |
2018-10-01 |
description |
Globally, urban populations are growing rapidly, and in most cases their demands for resources are beyond current limits of sustainability. Cities are therefore critical for achieving national and international sustainability objectives, such as greenhouse gas reduction. Improving sustainability may also provide opportunities for urban population health co-benefits by reducing unhealthy exposures and behaviours. However, there is currently sparse empirical evidence on the degree to which city characteristics are associated with variations in health-related exposures, behaviours and sustainability. This paper examines the feasibility of aggregating empirical data relating to sustainability and health for global cities. An initial scoping review of existing English-language datasets and networks is performed. Resulting datasets are analysed for data types, collection method, and the distribution of contributing cities across climates, population sizes, and wealth. The review indicates datasets are populated using inconsistent methodologies and metrics and have poor overlap of cities between them. Data and organisations tend to be biased towards larger and wealthier cities, and concentrated in Europe and North America. Therefore, despite vast amounts of available data, limitations of reliability, representativeness, and disparate sources mean researchers are faced with significant obstacles when aggregating data to analyse the sustainability and health of globally representative samples of cities. |
topic |
urban health sustainability data organizations |
url |
http://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/10/3636 |
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