Urban environments and health: identifying key relationships and policy imperatives

This Research Monograph investigates the relationship between urban environments and health. The project examines the empirical evidence for relationships between urban environments and health outcomes, focusing on three specific aspects of the urban environment: urban form, transport systems and the location of health services. The main finding of the research is that the evidentiary base for many expected relationships between urban form, transport systems, health services location and eventual health outcomes is underdeveloped. While some associations between urban environments and behavioural outcomes have been identified, there is insufficient evidence to identify specific causal relationships between urban form, transport systems, the location of health services within urban areas and specific health outcomes. This finding indicates that a much greater research effort is required into both health and urbanity to identify urban-health relationships