Urban Health & Wellbeing

Paradigm shift in China's urban planning and the role of health

We chatted with Prof. XiaoFeng Yi, a senior city planner and a certified planner based in Beijing. As a senior urban planner in China with 20 years of experience, he has been in charge of making many different kinds of urban plans across China, and also experienced the evolution of a macro paradigm shift in China’s urban planning. In this episode, Prof. Yi shared with us his expert insights on the history of urban planning in modern China, the paradigm change in China’s urban planning, the role of "health" in the evolving practices and the future trend of people-centered urban planning in China.

Nathalie Röbbel on WHO's integrated systems approach to Urban Health

In this episode, we chatted with Nathalie Röbbel, who shared her work as Unit Head leading WHO's work on an integrated, systems, multi-sectoral and multi-stakeholder inclusive approach to urban health.

Systems approach and key transformations towards climate resilient development pathways

Dr. Kristie L. Ebi, Professor in the Center for Health and the Global Environment, discusses how a systems approach could contribute to key transformations towards climate resilient development pathways for health and wellbeing. Dr. Kristie L. Ebi is Professor at the Center for Health and the Global Environment. She has been conducting research and practice on the health risks of climate variability and change for nearly 25 years, focusing on understanding sources of vulnerability; estimating current and future health risks of climate change; designing adaptation policies and measures to reduce risks in multi-stressor environments; and estimating the health co-benefits of mitigation policies. She has supported multiple countries in Central America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Pacific in assessing their vulnerabilities and implementing adaptation policies and programs. She has been an author on multiple national and international climate change assessments, including the fourth U.S. National Climate Assessment and the IPCC 6th Assessment Report and Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5C.

From civil engineering to impact finance - improving health and wellbeing one step at a time

Prof. Peter Head devoted his decades-long career to improving the urban environment and health and wellbeing all over the world. He departed in civil engineering, designing safe and long-term resilient infrastructures and urban plans, sustainable development goals, and most recently, promoting impact financing in Africa. In this episode, we turn to Peter for his well-versed insights on how to improve health and well-being, particularly in the current global context.