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The issue of access to health is critical, both as it relates to access to health services, as well as general mobility. Access to health can therefore influence the various determinants of health.
Living in an area poorly served by public transport, or without any bike lanes, can greatly impact one’s social and professional life, as well as health. Being restrained to a car can have negative individual and environmental consequences.
Public service transport, bike lanes, and car-sharing networks are not developed the same way depending on the area. The further out one goes from the city center, the fewer services there are. Often, housing prices and gentrification push the most vulnerable people to migrate out of the city center. The share of the population with the least economic means tends to face more difficulties to access work and hobbies.
Neighborhood determines the travel time to reach work, leisure and cultural places, friends and family, or to get medical treatment. Beyondtravel time, the means of transport vary and have different impacts on individuals and the planet.
The One Urban Health CERCwishes to explore justice and equity questions in mobility: which sectors are best and less served in terms of accessibility? How are decisions made to organize travel options? Which communities are the most impacted by these decisions?
In collaboration with Indigenous communities, we aim to enable a permanent consideration of the existing needs and possibilities to construct appropriate and jointly designed responses.
Mazumdar, S., Jaques, K., Conaty, S., De Leeuw, E., Gudes, O., Lee, J., Prior, J., Jalaludin, B., Harris, P. (2023) Hotspots of change in use of public transport to work: A geospatial mixed method study. Journal of Transport & Health, Volume 31, 101650, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jth.2023.101650.
The city is getting greener. Ecological corridors, parks, and squares of grass are left unmowed. It seems like nature is getting its rights back. Groundhogs, raccoons, and squirrels live in the city and accustom us to their presence.
Biodiversity in cities seems like a good thing, but what is its real impact on health? How do more insects, ducks, and “weeds” improve our health? Is there a link between biodiversity and human health?
In partnership with Espace pour la Vie, the chair’s team aims to map biodiversity in the city and assess its links with the health of the population.
De Leeuw, E. (2022) One Urban Health. URBANET – News and Debates on Municipal and Local Governance, Sustainable Urban Development and Decentralisation. GIZ, German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). https://www.urbanet.info/one-urban-health/
A new hospital is expected to be built in the near future in Quebec. The chair has been approached to think about this project (both in its process and outcome) and make it an eco-responsible one . The idea is to have a hospital that is oriented towards the community, not only as a treatment center but also as a place that promotes health.
The One Health approach guides our reflections, as well as consultation and citizen mobilization to lead the discussions.
Dooris, M., Kokko, S. & E. de Leeuw (2022) Evolution of the Settings-Based Approach. Pp 3-22: in Kokko, S. & M. Baybutt, eds. (2022) Handbook of settings-based health promotion. Springer, New York DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-95856-5_1
Treasured relations exist between the University of Liège and the University of Montreal, embodied by collaborations with Nicolas Antoine-Moussiaux.
A first partnership has been concretized around the financing of a research project on eco-grazing. A project is currently under construction and should be submitted soon.
De Leeuw, E., N. Palmer & L. Spanswick (2015) City fact sheets: WHO European Healthy Cities Network. World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe, Copenhagen, ISBN 978 92 890 5097 5 http://www.euro.who.int/__data/assets/pdf_file/0006/280842/CityFactSheetsBook_12-06.pdf?ua=1
Montreal is famous for its underground city. It is connected to various buildings, and shopping malls, creating a city on multiple dimensions, vertical rather than underground.
What would happen if we faced a new pandemic, an attack, or a bacteriological catastrophe? The team is focusing on governance mechanisms in place in crisis management inside this particular ecosystem.
De Leeuw, E., & Simos, J. (2022) Healthy Cities. R. Brears (ed.), The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Urban and Regional Futures, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-51812-7_281-1
Every summer, Repaire de Biquette oversees sheep at Maisonneuve Park . Their presence allows the grass to be mown without a machine and delights both volunteers and visitors of the park. However, what impacts do these kinds of initiatives have on human health, on the sheep themselves, and also, on the environment? The chair’s team is focusing on these questions in partnership with Repaire de Biquette.
Today, air transport is no longer reserved for the elite. Many people have a taste for traveling, even if not everybody partakes in it, whether because of financial or moral reasons, for example, ecological ones.
Beyond a space for transport, airports are becoming living spaces, anchored in their community. Considering this, and following a meeting with members of IPADIS, the chair’s team is thinking about the concept of airports in health.
Many explorations are undertaken around the world. As the capital of aviation, Montreal could become a field of research and interventions for airports in health.
Crimeen, A., de Leeuw, E., & Freestone, R. (2018). Towards a health promotion paradigm for airport development. Cities & Health, 2(2), 134–142. https://doi.org/10.1080/23748834.2019.1585701
Thanks to its privileged partnership with Espace pour la Vie, the chair’s team has had the opportunity to visit the Friches Industrielles en Transition (Brownfields in Transition) project in Pointes-aux-Trembles. It is a phytoremediation project led for eight years by the Montreal Botanical Garden.
Willow trees have been planted between old factories and houses to depollute the ground and bring back nature in an urbanized space. Once the willow trees are cut, they are sent to an organization that produces biofuel. This unique project reflects the possibilities that are brought to us by nature to fight against the consequences of anthropogenic actions.
In partnership with the Montreal Botanical Garden's team, our team is thinking about the future of this space and its reappropriation by the community. Throughout different research projects, governance mechanisms will be studied and citizen consultation carried out.
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