Periodic Reporting for period 3 - URBANOME (Urban Observatory for Multi-participatory Enhancement of Health and Wellbeing)
Período documentado: 2024-03-01 hasta 2025-08-31
What is the problem/issue being addressed?
Rising urbanisation and longer life expectancy of the population, makes cities face complex health challenges that are often linked to environmental challenges and interact with the increasingly sedentary lifestyles of urban populations. Concurrently, social inequality and inequity across urban areas increases in European cities accentuating differences in health and wellbeing among population subgroups. URBANOME seeks to enhance evidence-based knowledge on how environmental quality, consumer choice, lifestyle, and socio-economic status affect health and wellbeing for particular groups across the EU and how this is determined by a number of city specific characteristics, including biophysical, social, operational, political and structural and local culture and effectiveness of governance systems.
Why is it important for the society?
URBANOME aims to identify interventions, potential investments and innovations in the urban environment towards a green, climate-neutral and smart economy to improve urban health and wellbeing as well as the quality of environment; it strives to do so with enhanced societal participation and citizen engagement. Integrating socio-economic dynamics and population vulnerability in its analytical framework URBANOME promotes social cohesion and equality, as well as inclusiveness and cost-effectiveness in environmental management, leading hopefully to more resilient, healthy, and equitable cities.
What are the overall objectives?
The overall objective of URBANOME is to promote urban health, wellbeing, and liveability, through systematically integrating health concerns in urban policies and the activities of urban citizens, on the basis of detailed and comprehensive evidence on environmental health determinants, the spatial distribution of these in the city, and the social distribution of their impact among different population groups, accounting for different lifestyles and behaviours.
Rising urbanisation and longer life expectancy of the population, makes cities face complex health challenges that are often linked to environmental challenges and interact with the increasingly sedentary lifestyles of urban populations. Concurrently, social inequality and inequity across urban areas increases in European cities accentuating differences in health and wellbeing among population subgroups. URBANOME seeks to enhance evidence-based knowledge on how environmental quality, consumer choice, lifestyle, and socio-economic status affect health and wellbeing for particular groups across the EU and how this is determined by a number of city specific characteristics, including biophysical, social, operational, political and structural and local culture and effectiveness of governance systems.
Why is it important for the society?
URBANOME aims to identify interventions, potential investments and innovations in the urban environment towards a green, climate-neutral and smart economy to improve urban health and wellbeing as well as the quality of environment; it strives to do so with enhanced societal participation and citizen engagement. Integrating socio-economic dynamics and population vulnerability in its analytical framework URBANOME promotes social cohesion and equality, as well as inclusiveness and cost-effectiveness in environmental management, leading hopefully to more resilient, healthy, and equitable cities.
What are the overall objectives?
The overall objective of URBANOME is to promote urban health, wellbeing, and liveability, through systematically integrating health concerns in urban policies and the activities of urban citizens, on the basis of detailed and comprehensive evidence on environmental health determinants, the spatial distribution of these in the city, and the social distribution of their impact among different population groups, accounting for different lifestyles and behaviours.
URBANOME successfully developed and tested an integrated European framework for assessing and improving urban health and wellbeing. Using a multidisciplinary approach that combined data science, participatory governance, and environmental health research, the project put into practice the “Health in All Policies” concept and demonstrated how urban interventions can effectively reduce environmental exposures and promote healthier, more sustainable lifestyles.
Across several Urban Living Labs, citizens, local authorities, and researchers worked together to design and test and tested interventions addressing key environmental and lifestyle factors of health and wellbeing, including air quality, noise, and lifestyle-related factors. More than 600 citizens participated in harmonised field campaigns using portable and wearable sensors (Figure 1) and completing validated health and wellbeing surveys, generating high-resolution environmental, behavioural, and health datasets. These were integrated into the URBANOME Big Data Engine and Visual Analytics Platform (Figure 2), which provided interoperable tools for exposure analysis and intervention assessment. A dedicated mobile application (URBANOME Fit) was also developed to enhance awareness and behavioural change through personalised feedback, biomonitoring, and gamified interaction (Figure 3).
A complementary qualitative, ethnographic approach enriched the quantitative evidence by capturing citizens’ perceptions, practices, and motivations underpinning behavioural change. Overall, evidence from the ULLs showed measurable improvements in exposure to environmental stressors and in overall health and wellbeing following the interventions. Multi-omics analyses revealed early molecular adaptations linked to reduced oxidative stress and inflammation, identifying candidate biomarkers supporting precision-prevention strategies.
Agent-based modelling (ABM) (Figure 4), health impact assessment, and cost–benefit analyses confirmed that integrated interventions generate tangible health, environmental, and economic shared benefits while reducing social and spatial exposure inequalities. Building on these findings, URBANOME produced practical governance guidelines to integrate health, environmental, and equity objectives into urban policy and planning, promoting collaborative and evidence-based decision-making.
URBANOME’s results were disseminated through more than twenty peer-reviewed publications, policy briefs, newsletters, international conferences, and capacity-building activities. Further publications are expected after the project’s completion, ensuring continuity and long-term impact.
The project also actively contributed to the European Urban Health Cluster, co-leading working groups on science-to-policy translation and communication, and promoting synergies with the EU Partnership for the Assessment of Risks from Chemicals (PARC) and the EURION cluster on endocrine disruptors.
Across several Urban Living Labs, citizens, local authorities, and researchers worked together to design and test and tested interventions addressing key environmental and lifestyle factors of health and wellbeing, including air quality, noise, and lifestyle-related factors. More than 600 citizens participated in harmonised field campaigns using portable and wearable sensors (Figure 1) and completing validated health and wellbeing surveys, generating high-resolution environmental, behavioural, and health datasets. These were integrated into the URBANOME Big Data Engine and Visual Analytics Platform (Figure 2), which provided interoperable tools for exposure analysis and intervention assessment. A dedicated mobile application (URBANOME Fit) was also developed to enhance awareness and behavioural change through personalised feedback, biomonitoring, and gamified interaction (Figure 3).
A complementary qualitative, ethnographic approach enriched the quantitative evidence by capturing citizens’ perceptions, practices, and motivations underpinning behavioural change. Overall, evidence from the ULLs showed measurable improvements in exposure to environmental stressors and in overall health and wellbeing following the interventions. Multi-omics analyses revealed early molecular adaptations linked to reduced oxidative stress and inflammation, identifying candidate biomarkers supporting precision-prevention strategies.
Agent-based modelling (ABM) (Figure 4), health impact assessment, and cost–benefit analyses confirmed that integrated interventions generate tangible health, environmental, and economic shared benefits while reducing social and spatial exposure inequalities. Building on these findings, URBANOME produced practical governance guidelines to integrate health, environmental, and equity objectives into urban policy and planning, promoting collaborative and evidence-based decision-making.
URBANOME’s results were disseminated through more than twenty peer-reviewed publications, policy briefs, newsletters, international conferences, and capacity-building activities. Further publications are expected after the project’s completion, ensuring continuity and long-term impact.
The project also actively contributed to the European Urban Health Cluster, co-leading working groups on science-to-policy translation and communication, and promoting synergies with the EU Partnership for the Assessment of Risks from Chemicals (PARC) and the EURION cluster on endocrine disruptors.
URBANOME advanced the state of the art by linking environmental health science, urban governance, and citizen participation within a unified European framework connecting exposures, behaviour, and health outcomes.
Key progress and innovations include:
• Citizen engagement and co-creation: Development of innovative participation models combining citizen-led data collection through sensor campaigns and surveys with involvement in adaptive governance processes promoting behavioural change and wellbeing awareness, thus moving from awareness to engagement and transforming citizens’ everyday practices.
• Integration of health into policy: Establishment of flexible procedures for integrating health and wellbeing objectives across policy sectors, adapted to local governance contexts and operational realities.
• Advanced modelling and analytics: Application of machine-learning and Agent-Based Models informed by wearable data to simulate spatio-temporal behaviour and assess individual exposure, accounting for the social dynamics that influence policy outcomes.
• Comprehensive exposure and health assessment: Development of methods for total exposure evaluation and estimation of individual and community health effects, integrating quantitative and qualitative dimensions into a unified framework.
• Cross-omics innovation: Use of multi-omics (integrated biological analysis) platforms to identify early biological responses and potential biomarkers of non-communicable diseases associated with environmental stressors.
URBANOME is expected to have a positive impact on communities and the economy, contributing to more cost-effective environmental health and wellbeing management by prioritizing tangible interventions with the maximum benefit:investment ratio, enhanced urban resilience and reduced costs associated to the health burden from environmental stressors, encompassing citizen behavioural change, and finally helping to reduce social inequality while strengthening cohesion and inclusion.
Key progress and innovations include:
• Citizen engagement and co-creation: Development of innovative participation models combining citizen-led data collection through sensor campaigns and surveys with involvement in adaptive governance processes promoting behavioural change and wellbeing awareness, thus moving from awareness to engagement and transforming citizens’ everyday practices.
• Integration of health into policy: Establishment of flexible procedures for integrating health and wellbeing objectives across policy sectors, adapted to local governance contexts and operational realities.
• Advanced modelling and analytics: Application of machine-learning and Agent-Based Models informed by wearable data to simulate spatio-temporal behaviour and assess individual exposure, accounting for the social dynamics that influence policy outcomes.
• Comprehensive exposure and health assessment: Development of methods for total exposure evaluation and estimation of individual and community health effects, integrating quantitative and qualitative dimensions into a unified framework.
• Cross-omics innovation: Use of multi-omics (integrated biological analysis) platforms to identify early biological responses and potential biomarkers of non-communicable diseases associated with environmental stressors.
URBANOME is expected to have a positive impact on communities and the economy, contributing to more cost-effective environmental health and wellbeing management by prioritizing tangible interventions with the maximum benefit:investment ratio, enhanced urban resilience and reduced costs associated to the health burden from environmental stressors, encompassing citizen behavioural change, and finally helping to reduce social inequality while strengthening cohesion and inclusion.