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Better air in the city

You can't see it, but you still breathe it in: Air pollution is an invisible threat to millions of people living in urban areas, and many lives are lost prematurely because of it. Increased efforts are being made, not the least in the Nordics, to tackle this health issue through urban design. Researchers are cooperating with urban developers to change transport systems, reduce pollution around schools, and help citizens by measuring the air quality from neighbourhood to neighbourhood, even from street to street.

In this episode, we examine some of these efforts and ask the question: How can we increase the livability of our cities by improving the air quality?

 

"Nobody can argue with health… No mayor or city planner wants people to die from air pollution."

Mark J. Nieuwenhuijsen, Research Professor at ISGlobal – the Barcelona Institute for Global Health

This podcast episode features the following speakers

Louise Vogel Kielgast (Denmark)

Louise Vogel Kielgast (Denmark)

Louise Vogel Kielgast is an associate at Gehl, an urban design agency in Copenhagen. She holds an MA in Social Anthropology and an MSc in Urban Development Planning. At Gehl, Louise is responsible for developing new knowledge areas and Gehl's public life approach. She has worked with health and urban environments for early childhood development with public clients, foundations, and universities.

Natalie Smailou.

Natalie Smailou (Greece)

Nathalie Smailou has worked at Google for the past nine years in many different areas of Northern Europe, most recently leading the "Grow with Google" digital skills programs and several sustainability initiatives. She also founded and led Google's air quality efforts for Europe as part of Google's Project Air View. She recently left Google to start her own consulting company - one of her projects will be to continue consulting and supporting Google Air View in Europe.

Better air in the city-Quote

Mark J. Nieuwenhuijsen (Netherlands)

Professor Mark J. Nieuwenhuijsen is Director of the Urban Planning, Environment and Health Initiative and Director of the Air Pollution and Urban Environment Programme at ISGlobal, the Barcelona Institute for Global Health. He focuses on healthy urban living and is a leading expert in environmental exposure assessment and health risk and impact assessment.