Urban Design and Planning for Age-Friendly Environments Across Europe: North and South: Developing Healthy and Therapeutic Living Spaces for Local Contexts

This book provides a multidisciplinary and international perspective on aging and quality of life in European cities, exploring health inequities, residential models, and the relationship between the built environment and health. It highlights the need for innovation, smart technologies, healthier environments, and climate change mitigation to create friendly environments for older people. The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed health inequalities and vulnerabilities in deprived areas, emphasizing the urgent need for sustainable, inclusive, and health-promoting urban planning. Each chapter offers insights into addressing urban planning and design for aging and social inclusion in European cities.

Format: Hardback
Length: 469 pages
Publication date: 30 September 2022
Publisher: Springer Nature Switzerland AG

This book offers a comprehensive and interdisciplinary perspective across various European countries, exploring the challenges of aging and quality of life in contemporary cities. It is organized into three main sections, covering the global context of health in cities, reducing health inequalities, and examining current research on diverse study cases, with a focus on residential models and their relationship with the built environment. The third chapter showcases best practices from various European cities.

Creating friendlier environments for older individuals goes hand in hand with the demand for innovation, smart and updated technologies, healthier environments, and climate change mitigation. Health has regained its prominence in urban planning and design, encompassing not only communicable diseases and the impact of pandemics but also non-communicable diseases that affect the well-being and equity of our cities. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought to light health inequalities and vulnerabilities in areas that were already deprived and grappling with various health issues, such as obesity, diabetes, social isolation, respiratory problems, and mental health issues, particularly affecting vulnerable groups. Older adults have been among the most severely affected by the pandemic's threats and subsequent consequences.

In this context, the care crisis intertwines with the design and planning of our cities, where there is an urgent need to regenerate our environments with a sustainable, inclusive, and health-promoting perspective. Each chapter in this book provides an up-to-date insight into the key questions that we face as we navigate the urban challenges and tailor them to the specific contexts of each city and study case. By examining these issues from a multidisciplinary and international lens, the book aims to contribute to the development of more resilient and healthier cities for generations to come.

Weight: 910g
Dimension: 235 x 155 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9783030938741
Edition number: 1st ed. 2022