Prof Yan Liu: Road to Healthy Cities: Health Inequalities and the Role of the Built Environment

Join our seminar online at our Zoom meeting. 

About the speaker

Yan Liu is Professor of Geographical Information Science at the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences (to become School of the Environment from July 2023) of The University of Queensland, Australia. She is a Quantitative Human Geographer and a Spatial Data Scientist, specialising in Geographical Information Science (GIS), urban modelling and geo-simulation, spatial data analytics, and spatially integrated social studies. Her research focuses on developing cutting-edge methods for the collection, analysis and modelling of spatial data in order to provide science-based decision tools and data-driven solutions to a range of social-environmental challenges we face in our urban and regional space. She is currently serving at the ARC College of Experts, in the Executive Committee of the International Geographical Union (IGU) Applied Geography Commission, and as a Scientific Advisory Board Member of the Australian Urban Research Infrastructure Network (AURIN). She is an editorial board member of Environment and Planning B: Urban Analytics and City Science and an Associate Editor of Computational Urban Science.

Abstract 

The Healthy Cities initiative has been envisioned as a framework to respond to health issues that have emerged due to rapid urbanisation; it places health at the core of local policies to promote health and well-being, equity, and sustainable development. While the current literature has been well acknowledged that the places where people live have significant impact on the quality of their lives, and consequently their health, the relationships amongst population health, access to services, and built environment features are yet to be fully understood. Using case studies, I will share our work exploring whether living in areas with certain built environment features have any impact on the health and physical activities of adults, and whether or how access to health services relate to chronic illness and subjective wellbeing amongst older adults in Australia. Our on-going research aims to pave the road towards equality of access to timely and appropriate healthcare services by all people, especially those that are socio-culturally disadvantaged to achieve healthy cities goals.