Siri José Gabriel
United Nations University International Institute for Global Health (UNU-IIGH), Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Public Health Rev. 2016 Oct 28;37:22. doi: 10.1186/s40985-016-0037-0. eCollection 2016.
The world is undergoing a massive urban transition, which is now both the greatest driver of global environmental change and the most significant influence on human health. Cities offer real opportunities for improving health, but managed poorly, they can also create or reinforce significant health deficits while putting severe stresses on the natural systems which support human civilization. Management of urban problems is rarely straightforward, as complexity across scales and sectors, in causal structures, actors and incentives, can lead to ineffective policies and unintended consequences. Systems thinking offers a promising way forward in its ability to deal with non-linear relationships and simultaneous actions and outcomes. Encompassing, on the one hand, analytic frameworks and methods that can provide important causal insights and a test bed for urban policy, and on the other, broad processes of inter- and trans-disciplinary engagement to better define problems and feasible solutions, systems approaches are critical to the current and future design and management of sustainable healthy cities.
世界正在经历一场大规模的城市转型，这一转型如今既是全球环境变化的最大驱动因素，也是对人类健康的最重大影响。城市为改善健康提供了切实机遇，但管理不善的话，它们也会造成或加剧严重的健康问题，同时给支撑人类文明的自然系统带来巨大压力。城市问题的管理很少是简单直接的，因为不同规模和部门之间、因果结构、行为主体及激励措施方面存在的复杂性，可能导致政策无效和产生意外后果。系统思维在处理非线性关系以及同步行动和结果方面具有能力，为解决问题提供了一条充满希望的途径。一方面，系统方法包含能够提供重要因果见解并作为城市政策试验平台的分析框架和方法，另一方面，也包括跨学科和多学科参与的广泛过程，以更好地界定问题和可行的解决方案，对于当前及未来可持续健康城市的设计与管理而言，系统方法至关重要。
