Healing environment and urban health

In a very brief definition, urban health denotes the application of the public health concept and methods to urban processes and situations. The urban health approach looks at urban populations, systems, and environment through what has been called the “health prism” or “health lens”. In other words, it focuses on health (promotion), on disease (prevention), and on the numerous interrelations with urban factors. In a complementarily manner, for health professionals, who commonly think in health terms, urban health introduces “urban lens” whichreveals a plethora of innovative ways to tackle population health and sustainability of welfare systems. Urban health exemplifies what the World Health Organisation (WHO) calls “Health in all policies”, a concept of health most strongly connected to societal sectors beyond traditional health care, i.e., housing, education, environment, economy. Therefore, urban health brings health professionals together with a range of other experts including city planners, architects, landscape designers, environmental engineers, and many others.