Institute for Global Health, Barcelona, Spain; Department of Experimental and Health Sciences, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain; CIBER Epidemiología y Salud Pública, Madrid, Spain.
German Aerospace Center, Earth Observation Center, Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany.
Lancet Planet Health. 2024 Jul;8(7):e489-e505. doi: 10.1016/S2542-5196(24)00120-7.
The world is becoming increasingly urbanised. As cities around the world continue to grow, it is important for urban planners and policy makers to understand how different urban configuration patterns affect the environment and human health. However, previous studies have provided mixed findings. We aimed to identify European urban configuration types, on the basis of the local climate zones categories and street design variables from Open Street Map, and evaluate their association with motorised traffic flows, surface urban heat island (SUHI) intensities, tropospheric NO, CO per person emissions, and age-standardised mortality.
We considered 946 European cities from 31 countries for the analysis defined in the 2018 Urban Audit database, of which 919 European cities were analysed. Data were collected at a 250 m × 250 m grid cell resolution. We divided all cities into five concentric rings based on the Burgess concentric urban planning model and calculated the mean values of all variables for each ring. First, to identify distinct urban configuration types, we applied the Uniform Manifold Approximation and Projection for Dimension Reduction method, followed by the k-means clustering algorithm. Next, statistical differences in exposures (including SUHI) and mortality between the resulting urban configuration types were evaluated using a Kruskal-Wallis test followed by a post-hoc Dunn's test.
We identified four distinct urban configuration types characterising European cities: compact high density (n=246), open low-rise medium density (n=245), open low-rise low density (n=261), and green low density (n=167). Compact high density cities were a small size, had high population densities, and a low availability of natural areas. In contrast, green low density cities were a large size, had low population densities, and a high availability of natural areas and cycleways. The open low-rise medium and low density cities were a small to medium size with medium to low population densities and low to moderate availability of green areas. Motorised traffic flows and NO exposure were significantly higher in compact high density and open low-rise medium density cities when compared with green low density and open low-rise low density cities. Additionally, green low density cities had a significantly lower SUHI effect compared with all other urban configuration types. Per person CO emissions were significantly lower in compact high density cities compared with green low density cities. Lastly, green low density cities had significantly lower mortality rates when compared with all other urban configuration types.
Our findings indicate that, although the compact city model is more sustainable, European compact cities still face challenges related to poor environmental quality and health. Our results have notable implications for urban and transport planning policies in Europe and contribute to the ongoing discussion on which city models can bring the greatest benefits for the environment, climate, and health.
Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, State Research Agency, Generalitat de Catalunya, Centro de Investigación Biomédica en red Epidemiología y Salud Pública, and Urban Burden of Disease Estimation for Policy Making as a Horizon Europe project.
世界正变得日益城市化。随着世界各地的城市继续发展，城市规划者和政策制定者了解不同的城市配置模式如何影响环境和人类健康变得尤为重要。然而，先前的研究结果喜忧参半。我们旨在根据当地气候带类别和 Open Street Map 的街道设计变量，确定欧洲城市配置类型，并评估它们与机动车交通流量、地表城市热岛（SUHI）强度、对流层 NO、CO 人均排放量和标准化死亡率之间的关联。
我们考虑了 31 个国家/地区的 2018 年城市审计数据库中定义的 946 个欧洲城市进行分析，其中 919 个欧洲城市进行了分析。数据以 250 m×250 m 的网格单元格分辨率收集。我们根据 Burgess 同心城市规划模型将所有城市分为五个同心环，并计算每个环的所有变量的平均值。首先，我们应用统一流形逼近和投影降维方法来识别不同的城市配置类型，然后使用 k-means 聚类算法。接下来，使用 Kruskal-Wallis 检验和事后 Dunn 检验评估结果城市配置类型之间的暴露（包括 SUHI）和死亡率的差异。
我们确定了四种不同的欧洲城市配置类型：紧凑高密度（n=246）、开放低层中密度（n=245）、开放低层低密度（n=261）和绿色低密度（n=167）。紧凑型高密度城市规模较小，人口密度较高，自然区域的可用性较低。相比之下，绿色低密度城市规模较大，人口密度较低，自然区域和自行车道的可用性较高。开放低层中密度和低密度城市的规模较小到中等，人口密度中等到低，绿地的可用性低到中等。与绿色低密度和开放低层低密度城市相比，机动车交通流量和 NO 暴露在紧凑型高密度和开放低层中密度城市中显著更高。此外，绿色低密度城市的地表城市热岛效应明显低于其他所有城市配置类型。与绿色低密度城市相比，紧凑型高密度城市的人均 CO 排放量明显较低。最后，与其他所有城市配置类型相比，绿色低密度城市的死亡率明显较低。
我们的研究结果表明，尽管紧凑型城市模式更具可持续性，但欧洲紧凑型城市仍然面临与较差的环境质量和健康相关的挑战。我们的研究结果对欧洲的城市和交通规划政策具有重要意义，并为正在进行的关于哪种城市模式能为环境、气候和健康带来最大利益的讨论做出了贡献。
西班牙科学与创新部、国家研究机构、加泰罗尼亚大区、生物医学研究网络中心-流行病学和公共卫生以及作为 Horizon Europe 项目的城市疾病负担估算以制定政策。
