Conceptual aspects and approaches for the healthy city

Abstract

The accelerated process of urbanization generates environmental and health consequences
such as air pollution, high noise levels, emission of greenhouse gases, generation of waste and
wastewater, loss of biodiversity, insufficient number of green areas and consumption of nonrenewable resources; increase in respiratory diseases, cardiovascular diseases, cancer and
mental health.
The Healthy City represents a Health Promotion strategy to create healthy environments. The
appropriate planning and management of cities is the basis for the promotion of this strategy to
ensure the reduction of environmental problems that affect health.
There are several approaches that are related to the healthy cities strategy, among them are
Environmental Primary Care (Pan American Health Organization), Ecological Urbanism (Urban
Ecological Agency) and Urban Planning, Environment and Health (Institute of Global Health of
Barcelona).
The participation of the community in the whole process is highlighted, from the identification of
needs to the proposal of solutions, the orientation of healthy public policies from the local level,
the need to generate information that is adapted to the reality of each territory and the
development of personal skills and environmental awareness that allows the conservation and
protection of the environment, the consequence of which is to improve the health of the
population.
In this context, the goal of this paper is to present the conceptual aspects and theoretical
approaches to address the healthy city from an environmental perspective.