In recent decades, the increasing frequency, intensity, and duration of heatwaves generated by climate change has posed significant challenges to public health, particularly in urban areas. Despite extensive research on the impacts of heatwaves on human health, there is still a need for enhanced understanding of how, and to what extent, the spatial attributes of urban environments exacerbate these effects at the very local scale. This research addresses this gap and emphasises the importance of analysing the relationship among urban form, climate and health through high resolution geo-spatial data. By investigating the spatial correlations between geolocated cardiovascular and respiratory emergency calls, the modelled universal thermal climate index (UTCI) and selected socio-demographic factors during the summer of 2022 in Milan, this study aims to enhance our understanding of the complex interaction among heat, the built environment, and specific health outcomes. The findings identify geographical locations where emergency calls occur more frequently and where health concerns emerge during hot spells. Morphological and socio-demographic factors both play a critical role in determining vulnerability to heat stress. The results provide valuable insights for identifying high-risk areas, where tailored interventions in terms of planning, governance and urban design may be implemented to address heat-resilience and health-equity in cities.

Introduction: In recent decades, there has been a rise in mental illnesses. Community infrastructures are increasingly acknowledged as important for sustaining good mental health. Moreover, green spaces are anticipated to offer advantages for both mental health and social cohesion. However, the mediating pathway between green space, social cohesion and mental health and especially the proximity and characteristics of green spaces that trigger these potential effects remain of interest. Methods: We gathered data from 1365 individuals on self-reported social cohesion and mental health across four satellite districts in European cities: Nantes (France), Porto (Portugal), Sofia (Bulgaria), and Høje-Taastrup (Denmark). Green space data from OpenStreetMap was manually adjusted using the PRIGSHARE guidelines. We used the AID-PRIGSHARE tool to generate 7 indicators about green space characteristics measured in distances from 100–1500 m, every 100 m. This resulted in 105 different green space variables that we tested in a single mediation model with structural equation modelling. Results: Accessible greenness (900–1400 m), accessible green spaces (900–1500 m), accessible green space corridors (300–800 m), accessible total green space (300−800), and mix of green space uses (700–1100 m) were significantly associated with social cohesion and indirectly with mental health. Green corridors also showed negative indirect and direct associations with mental health in larger distances. Surrounding greenness and the quantity of green space uses were not associated with social cohesion nor indirectly with mental health. We also observed no positive direct associations between any green space variable in any distance to mental health. Conclusions: Our results suggest that accessibility, connectivity, mix of use and proximity are key characteristics that drive the relationship between green spaces, social cohesion and mental health. This gives further guidance to urban planners and decision-makers on how to design urban green spaces to foster social cohesion and improve mental health.

Introduction: Non-communicable diseases are the global disease burden of our time, with physical inactivity identified as one major risk factor. Green spaces are associated with increased physical activity of nearby residents. But there are still gaps in understanding which proximity and what characteristics of green spaces can trigger physical activity. This study aims to unveil these differences with a rigorous sensitivity analysis. Methods: We gathered data on self-reported health and physical activity from 1365 participants in selected neighbourhoods in Porto, Nantes, Sofia, and Høje-Taastrup. Spatial data were retrieved from OpenStreetMap. We followed the PRIGSHARE guidelines to control for bias. Around the residential addresses, we generated seven different green space indicators for 15 distances (100–1500 m) using the AID-PRIGSHARE tool. We then analysed each of these 105 green space indicators together with physical activity and health in 105 adjusted structural equation models. Results: Green space accessibility and green space uses indicators showed a pattern of significant positive associations to physical activity and indirect to health at distances of 1100 m or less, with a peak at 600 m for most indicators. Greenness in close proximity (100 m) had significant positive effects on physical activity and indirect effects on health. Surrounding greenness showed positive direct effects on health at 500–1100 m and so do green corridors in 800 m network distance. In contrast, a high quantity of green space uses, and surrounding greenness measured in a larger radius (1100–1500 m) showed a negative relationship with physical activity and indirect health effects. Conclusions: Our results provide insight into how green space characteristics can influence health at different scales, with important implications for urban planners on how to integrate accessible green spaces into urban structures and public health decision-makers on the ability of green spaces to combat physical inactivity.

Cities are the core of social interactions and resource consumption in our current times. However, urban systems are still largely based on linear activities in which resources are discarded after usage. Current practices around waste reduce possibilities of circularity, mainly due to low percentages of sorting and recycling practices in high- and middle-income countries and landfill practices in middle- and low-income countries. This resulted in a continuous increase in urban waste and negative environmental impact over the last decades. The development of circular practices and innovations, such as additive manufacturing, is crucial to modify the current supply chain and return valuable discarded materials to urban industries. Additive manufacturing is a novel technology based on the creation of objects layer by layer involving the use of a diverse range of materials. Several materials such as plastics, metal or concrete, for example, can be transformed into functional products for cities. Based on a literature review, this paper showcases the potential of urban waste for 3D printing with a main focus on recycling practices at the end of the supply chain. This paper aims to examine the current knowledge, regulations, and practices in circularity and additive manufacturing in the urban context, to identify opportunities and practices for material recovery applications, and showcase applications for additive manufacturing at the last stage of the supply chain. Furthermore, it identifies the needs for further research that could support the implementation and diffusion of additive manufacturing in society.

With circular economy being high on governmental agendas, there is an increasing request from governing bodies for circularity measurements. Yet, currently existing macro-level monitoring frameworks are widely criticized for not being able to inform the decision-making. The criticism includes, among others, a lack of consensus on terminologies and definitions among scholars, politicians, and practitioners, a lack of supporting data and tools and, consequently, a lack of transparency and trustworthiness. To address those needs, a bottom-up approach to build a shared terminology is suggested as a starting point for monitoring development. The government, data providers, and tool developers are involved in the process of formal ontology development and alignment. The experiment builds upon a use case of the Amsterdam Circular Economy Monitor (2020). First, four ontology development approaches are used to create a theory-centered, a user-centered, a tool-centered, and a data-centered ontology. The ontologies are later compared, merged, and aligned to arrive at one single ontology which forms the basis of the circular economy monitor. The notes taken during the process have revealed that next to a material flow model, typical of socioeconomic metabolism analysis, policy makers are concerned with actors (i.e., institutions, companies, or groups of people) who participate in the analyzed processes and services. Furthermore, a number of terms used by the decision-makers lack clear definitions and references to be directly associated with the available data. Finally, a structured terminology alignment process between monitor users, developers, and data providers helps in exposing terminology conflicts and ambiguities.

The relationship between green spaces and health is attracting more and more societal and research interest. The research field is however still suffering from its differing monodisciplinary origins. Now in a multidisciplinary environment on its way to a truly interdisciplinary field, there is a need for a common understanding, precision in green space indicators, and coherent assessment of the complexity of daily living environments. In several reviews, common protocols and open-source scripts are considered a high priority to advance the field. Realizing these issues, we developed PRIGSHARE (Preferred Reporting Items in Greenspace Health Research). It is accompanied by an open-source script that supports non-spatial disciplines in assessing greenness and green space on different scales and types. The PRIGSHARE checklist contains 21 items that have been identified as a risk of bias and are necessary for understanding and comparison of studies. The checklist is divided into the following topics: objectives (3 items), scope (3 items), spatial assessment (7 items), vegetation assessment (4 items), and context assessment (4 items). For each item, we include a pathway-specific (if relevant) rationale and explanation. The PRIGSHARE guiding principles should be helpful to support a high-quality assessment and synchronize the studies in the field while acknowledging the diversity of study designs.

In the interdisciplinary field of green space health research, there is a demand to reduce the effort to assess green space, especially for non-spatial disciplines. To address this issue, we developed AID-PRIGSHARE, an open-source script that automates over 400 QGIS processes to substantially reduces the time-intensive task of generating green space indicators. AID-PRIGSHARE calculates greenness, public green space, access to green infrastructure, and green space uses within distances of 100–1500 m around geolocations. This substantially reduces the effort for sensitivity analysis and may provide support for research that aims to understand the impact of different green space features and distances on health outcomes.

Challenges and potential are embedded in peri-urban agriculture under metropolitan sprawl, which requires a future-oriented development to address major trends such as the climate crisis, metropolitan sprawl, autonomy in food production and environmental quality issues. Following a design exploration in Oosterwold, Almere, The Netherlands, a biophilic design framework was used to demonstrate the effective transformation of a symbiotic peri-urban agricultural interface. The results embody a sequence of principles based upon biophilic design, urban metabolism, and bottom-up governance mechanism.