It is increasingly realised that urban environments constitute complex ecosystems, from microscopic organisms to social networks. As the principal human habitat, the design of our urban environments has the capacity to determine the health of the populace, across the lifespan. Over the past 150 years, health in the urban environment has largely been determined by pathogen control and automation; consequently, health and safety in the city has come to reflect sanitation and efficiency. Through design we have sought to reduce our exposures to potential stressors, from the cleanliness of our homes to highly prescriptive civic spaces. Although proving vital to the mitigation of many communicable diseases and physical dangers, an inadvertent side-effect of such urban environmental control is an exponential rise in non-communicable diseases (NCDs), which now account for 80% of years lived with disability globally. Although people are living longer, they are not necessarily living better. This suggests that while our cities prioritise safety, they do so at the expense of other health outcomes and human wellbeing. Specific to this project, we will consider the link between environmental exposures (biodiversity, green space), inflammation, and persistent symptoms.

This project will investigate the relationship between inflammatory biomarkers, geospatial characteristics, specifically biodiversity and longitudinal health outcomes (symptoms of non-communicable diseases including pain and fatigue). It will first consider the relationship between the levels of inflammatory biomarkers and geospatial characteristics of one's environment (biodiversity index). Second, it will consider the relationship between inflammatory biomarkers and the prevalence of pain and fatigue symptom reporting. Third, it will investigate the potential influence of geospatial characteristics (biodiversity index) on the relationship between inflammatory biomarkers and health symptom reports (pain, fatigue, breathlessness).