Virtual Only | Track 1 | Session 5. Health, Covid-19 and Planning

Complexity of urban systems, ecological assessment of quality of “urban green” is an emerging prerequisite in Gothenburg’s planning strategy due to ongoing rapid densification process. The recent pandemic situation highlighted the role of good quality green space, deficiencies in green space provision and accessibility in urban areas. The concept of Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) is currently promoted to provide simultaneous environmental, social and economic benefits, linked to ecosystem services (ES). Yet, there is an observed knowledge and methodological gap on the development links between the built and natural environment. This article aims to reflect on planning strategies for Gothenburg’s green urban space in relation to COVID-19 pandemic. The main idea behind the research work presented in this paper is to investigate and explore possibilities to model and develop future integrated built and natural habitats that meet needs of everyday citizens. This is to strengthen connectedness between people in urban settings and their natural environment in the nearest neighbourhoods. The results show a necessity to promote an approach of going beyond calculating accessibility to green areas, but also taking into consideration planning for qualities of urban green space in relation to city’s shape and urban form. Spatially explicit indicators for ES like Green Area Factor are required to support real urban planning practice for biodiversity conservation and prioritization of green infrastructure in the urban development process. There is an expressed need for long term perspectives in planning with new tools and methods for assessing values and benefits associated with urban green space.

College students' daily emotional experiences, closely related to mental health, are also influenced and limited by the campus environment. Existing research has explored the relationship between the campus environment and emotional health, involving both the elements of the built environment and the social environment, and has formed a variety of theoretical explanations. However, it should be noted that the effects of the physical environment and the social environment on healthy emotions do not exist independently or juxtaposed, but are a complex mechanism of interaction, and there is still a lack of a clear and reliable empirical basis and no consensus conclusions. To explore how the campus environment affects the emotional health of college students, this paper uses a multi-level path analysis method based on the perspective of perception, and explores the complex relationship between the campus environment and emotional health using the campus and surrounding environment as the geographical background. The study found that after controlling individual factors in majors and grades, the campus environment had a significant impact on the emotional health of college students by providing a space for interacting activities. In particular, the enhancement of the accessibility of blue-green spaces and public service facilities can significantly promote students' more frequent social interaction, maintain good social activities, and thus enhance the emotional health and stability of individuals. Therefore, this paper recommends that in the process of improving the campus environment, the consideration of emotional health should be included, and the creation of public social spaces should be paid attention to.

Urban governance in COVID-19 prevention and control is a common problem all over the world. In this process, it is equally important to care for people's physical and mental health. As a representative place for the floating population, colleges and universities have high mobility and high residential density. Therefore, Chinese colleges and universities often take measures to close down schools to avoid the spread of COVID-19.Although this long-term physical closed management is an effective method in dealing with the spread of COVID-19, at the same time, the proportion and frequency of psychological problems of students on campus have risen sharply, which needs to be paid attention to. What impact has the long-term closed management brought to the mental health of young people in Chinese colleges and universities? How do different campus planning and spatial forms affect the mental health of students? This is the key problem to be solved in this study. Taking southeast University, Tongji University, Shandong Jianzhu University and other universities in China as examples ,through extensive questionnaires and interviews, we investigated the activities, use of campus space and facilities, and psychological changes of students living in different campus environments and in different state of closure and management, so as to study the impact of campus physical environment and spatial planning on their mental health during the period of school closure.The study found that campus planning and physical environment have significant influence on the psychology of young people, among which sufficient effective activity area, high visual green rate and space openness are the top three factors that have a positive impact on mental health. In particular, the use of outdoor gathering space such as large lawn, large square and playground can effectively relieve the anxiety of students during the closure period. At the same time, the narrow scope of activities, lack of privacy space and monotonous space form are all negative factors that affect the mental health of students. For example, too small campus area will bring obvious sense of constraint to the closed school students; The larger the number of students in the dormitory, the smaller the independent private space of the students, resulting in the higher proportion of students with psychological problems. On this basis, we put forward some suggestions to optimize the campus planning with mental health orientation, including the planning of sufficient and diverse collective activities and sports venues, and the combination of sufficient open public space and enough private space , etc.

Covid-19 challenged the public health in an unprecedented way, creating discomforts in conventional urban planning; it exposed underlying issues of our built environment and exacerbating weaknesses in this environment where urban design/engineering remain essential contributor to human enjoyment of life. Urban Planning is in an urgent need of paradigm shift, for today’s environment is increasingly complex . We are witnessing in cities increasingly complex stages of transformations (spatial, physical, social), which directly affect the urban experience; these changes often result from the emergence of new forms and functions that surface and compromise or hamper previous urban dynamics. The predictions of increasing urban population are drastic changes that will probably generate enormous challenges in cities’ ability to manage new inflows of people with; intense circulation of citizens with needs for housing, work, entertainment; and many other demands that cannot be satisfied with existing industries or infrastructures, because, this new urban population forms new social diversities, inequalities as well as patterns of urban spatial segregation and differentiation hitherto unknown; hence, the importance of developing a scientifically rooted strategy that combines GIS and artificial intelligence (AI) to help predict, resolve potential problems before they arise. GeoEmotionMAPPING is a practical grounding in (AI) and its application in urban experience through developing an informed strategic decision-making mechanism that augments users’ urban lived experience. It engages on novel research axes through intersecting AI with urban analytics to create new use cases for building urban/geo-emotional data infrastructure of contributing smart citizens into smart city design. It involves individual/collective data collection (e.g., imagery-tracking-point clouds), for developing systems that identify patterns through capturing and remembering spatiotemporal reactions (emotional, behavioral) of the experience, and compute it to carry out predictions, and ultimately perform actions with accuracy. This model relies on personal devices applications (cameras, sensors), facilitated by (AI) technology for improving and helping understand interdependencies between urban morphology and users reactions. This is a transdisciplinary setting in understanding of how people live through quantifying non-tangibles ephemeral events to use for developing a Geo-Info HUB for data Dashboard visualization. The Geo_HUB platform provides a collective intelligence gain where people experience from different geographical contexts are spatialized and compared with geolocation, exhibiting cultural, geographical, individual, or time-based environmental reactions. This research promises a new milestone for small- and large-scale urban data analytics. The research builds on: (1) - Physical infrastructure: (infrastructure already been generated) such as those generated through LiDAR extruded city, Google, 3D, OpenStreetMap etc… (2) - Advanced Robotics: enhanced collaboration between human and machine; with adaptive and flexible structural and functional design. From the GeoEmoTionMAPPING activity will emerge a Geo-INFO-HUB as a collective learning opportunity where behaviors from one geography could be source of inquiries that raise questions linked to culture, environment, social or cultural norms. In this context, highlighting and celebrating others differences as a learning and growth opportunity. This research intends to blend the user Low-tech with the digital High-tech where data capture is concerned with the subject’s private emotions and feelings in ways that value the individual as a key player who by contributing makes personal decision to filter the emotions and feedback and asks important questions, heretofore unaddressed. What data or information about our minds, bodies, health can or should be shared with others? What rights and responsibilities do we have when it comes to changing the essence of the enjoyed as freedom of our individual privacy? What code are we creating for the future generation? And how does that translate to a generation that live a different experience?

Based on the dynamic data of China's migrant population in 2017, this paper firstly used spatial measurement methods to introduce indicators such as population migration selection index, sub-index heterogeneity, isolation index, etc., then summarize the migration flow in the Yangtze River Delta . Secondly, paper established the index of the factors affecting the choice of different subordinate areas, and use the regression model of geographical characteristics to study the spatial characteristics of the migration behavior on urban migrant population. Finally，paper analyzed the reasons behind the relevant urban and regional policies, the level of industrial structure, the division of functions, and social systems, and made relevant recommendations.

Urban health is a determinant of effective city planning mechanisms focusing on the improvement of living conditions and well being of citizens. MDGs and SDGs have both laid the foundation of national and local development goals with a prime focus on the improvement of health and mental well-being for all people. The cities of the global south are old with a historical timeline of evolution and development. Increased population-led urbanization, haphazard industrialization, and lack of sanitation and water coupled with poor economic conditions have created high vulnerability resulting in an easy spread of diseases. Thus, urban planning for the global south is myriad and complex, finding a hard balance between regenerating the old settlements or keep building new settlements also highlights the inequality from the planning perspective. The question of urban planning from the lens of urban health lacked behind before the world was hit by pandemic Covid-19. This paper will bring out the comparative analysis of an old settlement which is characterized by all the ills of urban planning compared with the new settlement which is planned and regulated by the planning norms. The focus of this paper will be to present the analysis of urban health as a factor of planning and development approaches generalizing the need for healthy cities in the global south. The learning from the Indian case studies will bring out the way forward to design both existing and new settlements for the regions where the majority of the population of the world will live in future.

Abstract: COVID-19’s worldwide spread emphasized and accentuated the priority of the individual’s well-being for a healthy city. This pandemic clearly demonstrated that resilient city characteristics are neither related to being rich or poor nor to being an old or new city. Nevertheless, city placemaking criteria such as accessibility and comfort have had a significant role in easing the brunt of the pandemic and increasing human tolerance to maintain human well-being. This paper focuses on investigating the role of the public plaza environment in Madinaty, one of the attractive residential districts in Cairo, Egypt. This is done while taking into account that Madinaty was originally designed with the claim that it meets international standards regarding a healthy city’s criteria, in which it provides community services and quality open spaces within walking distance. Before the pandemic, lack of awareness of the importance of public outdoor spaces, particularly plazas, led them to be categorized as wasted space. However, during the pandemic and afterwards, people’s perspectives of the residential public plazas changed and the use of these spaces increased against expectations. Post-pandemic, public plazas and open spaces between residential districts proved to be the lungs that nourished the city and enhanced people’s well-being. We examine Madinaty’s public spaces as an applied case study for the placemaking approach and observe how such characteristics of “sociability, uses and activities, comfort and image, access and linkage” were mainly to improve human well-being and combat the pandemic’s drawbacks, whether during pandemics exclusive precautionary regulations or at other times, by highlighting the research’s following two main questions: First, how did COVID-19 cause the residents to use public spaces? Second, how does the placemaking of public plazas play a role in people's presence during the post-pandemic?. The research used a systematic review that relied on a qualitative approach focusing on observation, a questionnaire designed for Madinaty city residents, a semi-structured interview for the central agency of Madinaty to measure the research’s two main independent variables: the placemaking indicators and COVID-19’s regulations and precautionary measures that had an influence on people’s appearance in the public plaza during and following the pandemic, consequently coming up with an adapted framework to enhance the city’s public spaces tolerance at all times to sustain the community’s well-being. It can help in better understanding the place and place-making to achieve a more robust and resilient city. Keywords: Covid-19, Health Environment, Human Needs, Post-pandemic Placemaking, Healthy city

South Asian countries such as India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Bhutan have similar socio-economic and cultural characteristics. They also face similar climate challenges. As per the world bank reports, 65.12 % of the population of this region lives in rural areas in 2020. The socio-economic strata of the people residing in rural settings in this region is mostly low. They are unable to afford contemporary concrete houses and lack basic amenities such as ceiling fans and air conditioning systems. India hosts one of the world’s largest populations, second only to China. As per the population census of 2011 about 68.84% of the country’s population resides in rural regions. Most of the houses in rural area of the country are constructed of mud or unburnt bricks, which are cheap and easily available. India, being in a tropical climate, faces the problem of heat in most parts of the year. Mud and unburnt bricks being one of the poorest conductors of heat help in mitigating the problem of overheating. These types of houses are generally termed as naturally ventilated houses or unconditioned buildings, both the terms being used alternatively. Occupants of these naturally ventilated houses are exposed to environmental conditions that vary significantly throughout the day and through the year. The rural household highly depends upon the woman of the family as she takes care of the household chores and children. The Woman, who spends most of her time in these houses faces challenges of heating and overheating and evolves methods to mitigate it. In day-to-day life they perform various activities such as cooking, sitting, sleeping and recreational activities. All these activities generate heat in the body, leading to perspiration and ultimately getting exhausted. If the working environment is not favorable to dissipate this heat, the body gets exhausted or starts sweating fast to prevent overheating. The dissipation can take place only when the temperature of the environment is lesser than the surface temperature of the human body. The rural housing units are constructed so as they offer a wider range of comfort without depending on artificial means of environment making. The occupants also shift spaces for functions according to season and level of thermal comfort, as different functions require different working environmental conditions and working in extreme thermal conditions is not feasible and recommended for the human body. A study is necessary, to create understanding towards the range of comfort temperature needed for various functions in these houses. This may help to devise ways to construct houses that might be capable of achieving comfortable thermal conditions for various functions that take place in such houses. In this study, an attempt has been made to assess the thermal environmental conditions and quantification of thermal adaptation by women for cooking in Bhaismuda village of Raipur district of Chhattisgarh plains in India. The village falls under the warm climatic zone of India. The study aims to determine thermal neutrality and thermal acceptability of women in naturally ventilated houses of this region. The findings of this research suggest the extent to which these hoses allow thermal adaptability.

Chronic diseases related to nutritional intake ,such as obesity and overweight ,are increasingly becoming one of the world's prevalent public health problems. The illogical spatial layout of the food environment in urban areas, especially at the community scale, can further exacerbate the health effects related to eating behaviors of residents.Based on the theory of health-supportive environments and environmental behavior, it is believed that the food environment stimulates the behavioral intentions of residents and thus influences the development of eating behavior. This series of processes can be divided into three steps: "basic stimulus - directional response - motivated habit".The spatial components of the community food environment are discussed and "facility provision, health attributes and spatial connections" are extracted as the components of health support. The study constructs a quantitative spatial model of health support in community food environments, and calculates the level of health support in community food environments through the Diversity Index, Health Index and Balance Index.Selecting 79 communities in Yuzhong District, Chongqing as a case study, the results showed that there was spatial variation in the level of health support in the community food environment.Based on the results of the health support levels, the geographical detectors was used to detect the drivers of spatial variation in community food environments. The results show that social, economic and built environment factors all have a driving effect on community food environment health support in Yuzhong District, with the most significant being the built environment influences, and the socio-economic factors acting as a combined contextual factor to enhance the effect of all drivers.