New European Urban Design Index Highlights Health and Well-Being Across 917 Cities

The Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal) has introduced the Healthy Urban Design Index (HUDI), a comprehensive tool evaluating 917 European cities based on 13 key indicators linked to residents' health and well-being. These indicators are grouped into four primary domains: urban design, sustainable transportation, environmental quality, and green space access. The index aims to identify how urban planning influences public health, highlighting areas for improvement.

The development of HUDI stems from recent research published in The Lancet Planetary Health, and all data is openly accessible online. Cities have been categorized by population size—ranging from large metropolitan areas to small towns—to allow meaningful comparisons.

Main indicators utilized include urban density, housing configurations, walkability, cycling infrastructure, public transport availability, air pollution levels, heat mitigation capacity, and green space accessibility. Each indicator is scored from zero to ten, culminating in an overall HUDI score that reflects the city's strengths and weaknesses.

Interestingly, smaller cities, with populations between 50,000 and 200,000, tend to score higher overall, especially in environmental aspects like air quality and heat mitigation. Cities such as Pamplona (Spain), Geneva (Switzerland), and Harlow (UK) lead in these categories with scores around 6.8. Larger cities generally excel in urban design and transportation infrastructure, particularly in Northern Europe and parts of Spain.

A notable trend reveals that Western European cities, particularly in the UK, Spain, and Sweden, tend to have higher HUDI scores compared to Eastern European counterparts such as Romania, Bulgaria, and Poland. This variation suggests disparities in urban health environments across the continent.

It’s important to emphasize that HUDI is not a final ranking but a tool to foster better urban health strategies. According to ISGlobal researcher Mark Nieuwenhuijsen, the index provides a basis for cities to analyze their urban health performance through open-source data, enabling targeted interventions and ongoing improvements.

Top-ranked cities in each category include Madrid (large metropolitan), Lisbon (metropolitan), Bilbao (medium-sized), Pamplona (small city), and Campobasso (small town). The methodology relies on open data sources like remote sensing, OpenStreetMap, and governmental datasets, with the aim of integrating additional indicators such as socioeconomic factors and diverse amenities in future updates.

Overall, HUDI serves as a vital resource for urban planners, policymakers, and researchers seeking to promote healthier city environments through informed design and planning, with the goal of enhancing residents’ quality of life.