Urban Health

An essential collection that advances our understanding of how cities influence our health

More than half the world's population lives in cities -- a figure that will grow to two-thirds by 2030. As global populations rapidly consolidate around urban centers, the scientific understanding of what this means for human health faces a new and greater urgency.

Urban Health connects urban exposures -- the experiences, choices, and behaviors shaped by living in a city -- to their impact on population health. By using the ubiquitous aspects of the urban experience as a lens to study these exposures across borders and demographics, it offers a new, scalable framework for understanding health and disease. Its applications to public health, epidemiology, and social science are virtually unlimited.

Enriched with case studies that consider the state of health in cities all over the world, this book does more than capture the state of a nascent field; it holds a critical mirror to itself, considering the next decade and arming a new generation with the tools for research and practice.