(Ebook) Shaping the City that Decreases Overweight and Obesity through Healthy Built Environment by PhD candidate. MARIA A. EL HELOU

(Ebook) Shaping the City that Decreases Overweight and Obesity through Healthy Built Environment by PhD candidate. MARIA A. EL HELOU

Cities are being built based on the concepts of the comfortable, easy, and fast for theinhabitants. However, what is being constructed is promoting physical inactivity, and peopleare finding that what was being considered as convenient for daily life is, in fact, harmful totheir physical health. The life of a city relies on the activity of the inhabitants who are thebreathing engine of the built environment. Hence, the balance between physical activity andmental activity (e.g., office work) should be maintained because the more people are physicallyhealthy, the more they are productive and the more the city experiences economic growth whichall leads to satisfaction and happiness among the city’s inhabitants. Therefore, a city thatfacilitates the reach to physical activity helps its inhabitants to overcome many physical healthissues such as overweight and obesity, the causes of many physical complications that canaffect mental health over time. This study points to the many components of a city that beatsoverweight issues and especially obesity. One of this healing city’s aspects is the presence ofgreen spaces and the green mobility that typically promotes walking and cycling instead ofdriving cars. Moreover, this city could foster the healing of prolonged stress and overall mentalhealth related to human inactivity. Its analysis is based on in-depth interviews and results ofprevious empirical research in urban planning, psychology, and neuroarchitecture regardingpeople's perception of the visual environment they live in. The case study is the city of Beirut:in-depth interviews were conducted with a representative sample of Beirutis (people whosefamilies come from the Beirut city and who were born in this city and are still living in it).These interviews helped measure these participants’ satisfaction with the physical activities andsocial life that is accessible for all the inhabitants through inclusive urban planning (such asclean open spaces, parks, sidewalks, free or inexpensive public spaces, facilities for greentransportation, etc.). The results of the interviews analysis were supported with past datademonstrating the increasing obesity issues in Lebanon and previous data in urban andpsychological studies that expound the way the brain processes the urban spaces that increasesatisfaction and the urban areas that the city should be offering to its inhabitants for positivehealth outcomes. The results uncovered the cycle of physical health, mental health, and socialcontacts which altogether affect the soul of a city where the aim is first and foremost the right toa healthy lifestyle.JOURNAL OF CONTEMPORARY URBAN AFFAIRS (2019), 3(2), 16-27.Doi:10.25034/ijcua.2018.4697