ICSU ROAP Urban Health and Wellbeing Research Scoping Workshop
The Asia – Pacific region is urbanizing rapidly. Currently about 45% of the region’s population lives in urban areas and the annual population growth rate is 2.3%. Across the region more than 40 million people are added to the urban population each year. The urban population is growing more than twice as fast as the population as a whole.
Urbanization needs to be carefully managed if it is to enhance, not threaten, human health and wellbeing. The increasing complexity of urban systems had led to an awareness of the need for practical systems approaches. Such approaches range from simple ‘systems thinking’ methods, through conceptual models, to quantitative dynamical analyses. ICSU ROAP recommended a systems approach as a first step in implementing the systems analysis proposed in an ICSU report on urban health and well-being.
The research scoping workshop on 28 and 29 August was held in Bangkok, Thailand, hosted by the ICSU National Member the National research Council of Thailand (NRCT). It was attended by 8 key health and urban environment researchers mainly from Asia and the Pacific. It was aimed to draft a research programme on urban health and wellbeing in the changing environment in the Asia – Pacific that can be promoted for funding and implementation in the short and medium – term. Specifically, it:
- Elaborate the priority research areas identified at the pre-scoping workshop on urban health and well-being held in Hyderabad in July;
- Scope research programmes to be undertaken in first year (12 months) of implementation;
- Identify research teams with solid results and ability to produce high-quality publications who would engage with the work in Asia and the Pacific; and
- Identify opportunities for research funding and agencies that can support the implementation of the programme.
Read the Research Scoping Workshop Report.
