VIRTUAL London.

Abstract

In recent years, the need to approach health within the urban environment using complex systems and ecological thinking has come to the fore. This area is quickly gaining momentum and attention as a response to the challenge of creating healthy, resilient and sustainable urban environments. At the heart of this thinking lies the need to visualise/conceptualise how parts relevant to health and urban environments (as complex systems) interconnect using conceptual approaches, such as models, frameworks and maps. A plethora of conceptual approaches have developed over the years to help advance knowledge for research and practice concerning policy, intervention, assessment or general understanding. However, there is lack of a rigorous conceptual taxonomy of such approaches which attributed to a general venturing by professionals and researchers across multiple disciplines. This presentation maps the terrain of different conceptual approaches applied in research. In this context, it lays out three key streams that progressively advanced our understanding of such connections: early public health models, healthy cities and settlement approaches, and practice-oriented approaches. With such mapping of approaches, researchers and those involved in conducting healthy urban environments research would become better informed and educated about the conceptual anchoring to such commonly cited and used approaches as we navigate this era of complexity and planetary health.