Health-driven design for cities (HD4)

Cities have high populations, traffic and infrastructure densities, leading to heat islands, noise, pollution, stress, and inadequate opportunities to be physically active or access healthy food. Investing in public health research is important to tackle the growing burden of non-communicable diseases and to develop cities that enhance the health of their residents.

HD4 will convene a world-leading team of epidemiologists, clinicians, scientists, engineers, and architects to investigate how individuals move in space and time in Singapore, their corresponding exposure to risk factors that intersect with urban environments, and how this influences their behaviour.

The programme will work hand-in-hand with the SG100K cohort study to overlay information about environmental and behavioural factors on the cohort, enabling the links between these factors and health outcomes to be studied and support the ongoing analysis of the cohort beyond the time frame of the programme.

Research areas

HD4 will undertake research in the following key areas:
– characterising the features of the environment that potentially impact health in Singapore;
– understanding the links between environmental factors, individual behaviour and health outcomes;
– observing the impact of environmental change on health in Singapore;
– simulating the impact of potential changes on the health of Singaporeans;
– working with government agencies to co-develop data-rich public health tools

The programme’s engagement with government stakeholders will support active knowledge transfer and iterative co-creation throughout the programme, seeking opportunities to observe the impact of previous policies to maximise the health potential of Singapore and to feed into future policies.

HD4’s projected impacts to Singapore

The scientific techniques, technologies, tools, and knowledge from HD4 will create a comprehensive systems view of how the urban environment affects population health and will provide a basis for the evaluation of the impact on health outcomes of changes to the environment.. The programme will enrich the talent pool in Singapore by training the next generation of researchers, supplemented with international expertise, to create an innovative interdisciplinary research ecosystem. HD4 will provide the basis for a data-rich public health framework, supporting the development of a healthy Singapore.

This research is supported by the National Research Foundation, Prime Minister’s Office, Singapore under its Campus for Research Excellence and Technological Enterprise (CREATE) programme.