The Los Angeles area has over 20,000 active, idle or abandoned oil wells. The city and county have voted to ban new ones after studies showed health problems in residents living nearby.
An image from the summer of 2019 in London.
Damien Walmsley/Flickr
After living one of the hottest summers in European history, we have to look to the population suffering these temperatures. How does heat affect our physical and mental health?
Oil pumps can be found near homes across the Los Angeles area.
David McNew/Getty Image
Photos from the early 1900s show LA’s forests of oil derricks. Hundreds of wells are still pumping, and research shows how people living nearby are struggling with breathing problems.
People in poorer urban areas aren’t receiving the necessary healthcare.
Shutterstock
Jako Nice, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research
The study of two hospitals was a first for researching the microbiology of the built environment in South Africa – a multi-disciplinary approach to understanding how to design healthier buildings.
Cities are going to be reshaped by the coronavirus pandemic, which has closed public parks, decreased traffic and put pressures on housing.
(Nathan Shurr/Unsplash)
Dockless or stationless bike sharing is risky business, relying a bit too much on common decency. Bike sharing schemes can work, but they may need to forego user convenience for bike safety.
Only a quarter of Nairobi’s solid waste reaches the main dumpsite east of the city. Piles of uncollected garbage are a common sight across the capital.
Stony Creek drain: untidy and often slightly threatening, informal green space still has value for residents, which appropriate intervention can enhance.
Residents often have concerns about informal green space but some still use it. Work to enhance these areas should aim to resolve these concerns without destroying what residents do value.
It’s now possible to experience virtual walks through nature – like this video, for example – but can that ever match the real thing?
Video screenshot, sounds from the core/YouTube
Faecal transplants and virtual nature are technological solutions to ‘nature deficit disorder’ from urban living. Such ‘quick fixes’ offer some benefits, but are no substitute for the real thing.
The traditional backyard provides a retreat from the pressures of city life.
Australians are losing the backyards that once served as retreats from the stresses of city living. Our health is likely to suffer as cities become less green and much hotter.
Whether it’s pressures of space or a warmer climate, which is affecting Melbourne’s elms, urban greening must respond to the challenges of 21st-century urban living.
Joe Castro/AAP
Greening cities that are becoming denser is a major challenge. City-dwellers’ health benefits from both well-designed green spaces and urban density, so we must manage the tensions between them.
Reader in Population and Public Health, MRC/Wits Rural Public Health and Health Transitions Research Unit, School of Public Health, University of the Witwatersrand