Workshop: Systems Analysis Approach to Health and Wellbeing in the Changing Urban Environment

Drexel University, Philadelphia PA

Investigators

Abstract

This award will partially support a workshop entitled "Towards a Systems Analysis Approach to Health and Well-being in the Changing Urban Environment." The aim of this workshop is to explore the requirements and determine an implementation plan for developing a systems model for health and wellbeing in the urban setting. Such a systems approach would build on the ongoing interests and projects of numerous scientific and engineering disciplines. It should reveal important issues regarding population health on which reliable scientific understanding is lacking and thus make an important contribution to setting the future global health research agenda. In addition to contributions to health research, this workshop would promote exchange of scientific and engineering information and enhance collaboration among scientists and engineers of varying disciplines. The intellectual merit of the workshop is grounded in that for the first time, scientists and engineers from many different disciplines will be brought together to explore ways in which the complex urban setting can be systematically and analytically studied, advancing new approaches and promoting new research methodologies that can lead to improved health and wellbeing in the changing urban environment. In addition to promoting exchange of scientific and engineering information and collaboration among different disciplines, it is expected that the broader impacts of this workshop will, in the long run, lead to new intellectual foundation and robust approaches among scientific disciplines that currently are either only peripherally involved in the health area or that are using only qualitative approaches. It is also expected that these disciplines will increase their participation in addressing health issues in the future.