Urban Mobility and Wellbeing: Insights from Environmental Psychology and Neuro-Urbanism

Abstract

This presentation first gives a brief introduction to neuro-urbanism, a short history and future applications for understanding how we experience our cities. It provides a quick review of mHealth (mobile health) data sources for capturing physiological experiences in real-world settings including Electroencephalography (EEG), Heart Rate Variability (HRV), Galvanic Skin Response (GSR) and electrodermal activity (EDA) and their respective merits.

Next, it is focused on the pedestrian experience of our cities addressing how the urban environment has a systematic psychological and physiological effect on pedestrians as they navigate the city. Research of this field typically quantifies the experience of two (or three) very contrasting settings, for example navigating built (‘grey’) city places versus urban nature (‘green’) settings. It illustrates the effects of different settings, drawing on several case studies that have employed mobile health sensors.

Finally, the presentation will discuss future research directions, and the opportunities for using mHealth tools to understand what types of design interventions in our cities can best support health, including the design of mobility hubs. It will also discuss the challenges ahead for mHealth, including data analytics and ethical challenges. The insights allow designers to develop new prototypes for our streets, homes, schools and offices.

Speaker’s bio

Jenny Roe directs the Center for Design + Health and the Healthy Cities Lab in the School of Architecture, University of Virginia. She is an environmental psychologist and a specialist researcher in urban design for mental wellbeing. Her research targets hard-to-reach urban communities in order to quantify the health benefits of good neighbourhood and city design. Current research includes a study in Richmond, VA exploring mood of place, mobility and cognitive outcomes in older people and a multi-lab replication of a famous study by Roger Ulrich, exploring stress recovery from exposure to urban and natural settings. Prior to her current career in academia, she was Principal Landscape Architect in a multi-disciplinary architectural practice in London called Sprunt specialising in social housing, educational and healthcare design.