Browsing by Author "Brown, Chelsea"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3

Open Access
Barriers to healthy urban design policies: Perspectives from the City of Regina in Saskatchewan
(Johnson Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy, 2024-03-06) Mahani, Akram; Lyeo, Joonsoo Sean; Fung, Agnes; Ali, Shanzey; Husack, Kelly; Muhajarine, Nazeem; Diener, Tania; Brown, Chelsea
The intricate interplay between urban design, health, and equity has emerged as a critical focal point in pursuit of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 11, which seeks to make cities inclu¬sive, safe, resilient, and sustainable. It reflects an increasing aware¬ness of the social determinants of health – a term encapsulating the socioeconomic variables that shape an individual’s living and working conditions. In other words, a person’s-built environment (the human-made surroundings within which people live and work) can either support or detract from their health. This relationship is underscored by the impact of urban design on equity. With Canada now 80% urbanized, it is not surprising that cities and urban centers have emerged as a primary arena for addressing current health challenges and safeguarding the wellbeing of residents. Therefore, by recognizing the relationship between urban design and health provides an opportunity to address gaps that contribute to health inequities. However, not all municipal actors and urban design professionals readily acknowledge their pivotal role in improving population health. To understand how key municipal policy- and decision-makers view the relationship between health and urban design, our team used the City of Regina as a case study. We interviewed 30 municipal actors from various roles and educational backgrounds within Regina’s municipal government. These interviews were analyzed using qualitative research methods and the findings were used to inform this policy paper. We identified three key categories of barriers to integrating health and equity into urban design policies: constrained policy-making environment, societal and cultural factors, and competing interests of stakeholders.
Open Access
Barriers to integration of health and equity into urban design policies in Regina, Saskatchewan
(2024-12-06) Mahani, Akram; Lyeo, Joonsoo Sean; Fung, Agnes; Husack, Kelly; Muhajarine, Nazeem; Diener, Tania; Brown, Chelsea
Although there is extensive literature on the impact of urban design on health, little is known about the barriers to integrating health into urban design policies. As cities increasingly lead efforts to improve health equity and population health, understanding the perspectives and experiences of municipal actors on health and equity is essential. To address this gap, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 30 stakeholders engaged with urban design policy- and decision-making at the City of Regina in Saskatchewan, Canada. We analysed our data using a qualitative thematic framework. Our research uncovered a lack of shared understanding of health among municipal actors. Interviewees identified several barriers to integrating health and equity in urban design policies, including inaccessibility of evidence; insufficient resourcing; fragmented governance structure; limited legal power of local governments in Canada; a deeply ingrained culture of individualism and lack of representation. Our findings underscore the importance of adopting an integrated and holistic approach for healthy and equitable urban design. As urbanization continues to bring a greater share of the world’s population into urban areas, it is crucial to understand how municipal governance can foster environments that promote residents’ well-being.
Open Access
How Municipal Actors Leverage Evidence to Support Urban Planning: Perspectives from the City of Regina
(University of Toronto Press, 2024-11-14) Mahani, Akram; Lyeo, Joonsoo Sean; Fung, Agnes; Husack, Kelly; Muhajarine, Nazeem; Diener, Tania; Brown, Chelsea
Despite growing calls for evidence-informed policy-making, policy- and decision-makers in municipal governments often face barriers to the integration of evidence into their work. These barriers may be especially prominent in small-to-medium-sized cities, which are often comparatively resource-strained relative to the larger cities that are the focus of much of the existing literature. We interviewed 30 municipal actors involved in urban planning at the City of Regina—the municipal government representing the medium-sized city of Regina located in western Canada. Our study revealed that evidence was often positioned differently among policy- and decision-makers. Interviewees had different definitions of evidence, accessed various sources of evidence, placed differing levels of trust in certain forms of evidence, and experienced different barriers to the integration of evidence into their day-to-day work. This article contributes to a better understanding of the role of evidence among urban planners and has important lessons on how to bridge the gap between urban planning policy- and decision-makers and producers of evidence.