This year our initiative developed three very special products:

  • Redrawing Barcelona, a comic about the quest for a new urban model for the city. The story of a woman with small children who becomes an activist for a healthier urban model is intertwined with scientific evidence and interviews with our researchers. Pau Rubio, author of the text, explains that the project grew out of a feeling of déjà vu—ever since Cerdà’s time, the city has needed to find a healthier, more sustainable model. The comic has been distributed to primary schools in Barcelona as part of the Escoles + Sostenibles programme and to libraries across Barcelona province. It is available for free online in three languages.
  • The ISGlobal Ranking of Cities, a website where visitors can see and compare different urban exposures in 1,000 European cities. The first phase of this ongoing project, on air quality and air-pollution-related mortality, was published in January (and updated recently to include the new WHO guidelines). A second phase, on green spaces, was published in August. Other urban exposures, such as noise, will soon be included.
  • The Health in Public Spaces tool, which facilitates the integration of health criteria into the planning of public spaces such as parks and plazas. Part of a multi-year collaboration with the Barcelona provincial government (DIBA) under the Urban Environment and Health programme, this resource was developed, digitalised and released this year as an open-source online tool.

Our initiative has continued its work in promoting healthy school environments with the Barcelona City Council and beyond through several projects (Athlete, Protegim, Patis X Clima), as well as collaborations with local governments to promote the integration of health into urban planning, including a housing and health report (DIBA) and the Salurban checklist (Catalan government).

More initiatives

  • Back to Our Institution