University of the West of England

Academic Institute

Abby TaborDr Ann Smith

B3874

It is increasingly realised that urban environments constitute complex ecosystems, from microscopic organisms to social networks. As the principal human habitat, the design of our urban environments has the capacity to determine the health of the populace, across the lifespan. Over the past 150 years, health in the urban environment has largely been determined by pathogen control and automation; consequently, health and safety in the city has come to reflect sanitation and efficiency. Through design we have sought to reduce our exposures to potential stressors, from the cleanliness of our homes to highly prescriptive civic spaces. Although proving vital to the mitigation of many communicable diseases and physical dangers, an inadvertent side-effect of such urban environmental control is an exponential rise in non-communicable diseases (NCDs), which now account for 80% of years lived with disability globally. Although people are living longer, they are not necessarily living better. This suggests that while our cities prioritise safety, they do so at the expense of other health outcomes and human wellbeing. Specific to this project, we will consider the link between environmental exposures (biodiversity, green space), inflammation, and persistent symptoms.

This research aims to address a gap in the literature, which considers the influence of one's environmental exposures on health outcomes, specifically pain and fatigue. These symptoms, indeed, disease processes in their own right, constitute enormous individual and population level burden, to which there must be an appropriate response. One approach to this is creating environments that in the public interest reduce the prevalence of such cases. This research looks to consider biodiversity as a key method of intervention, relevant to the furnishing of one's immune system.

21/09/2021