Transition to a healthy living environment

The Core Set of Healthy Living Environment Indicators of TNO and RIVM has been developed to provide professionals with an unambiguous and practical instrument to provide insight into the quality of the living environment and the health of residents and to be able to steer, monitor and evaluate. The set combines both physical (such as air quality and greenery) and social factors (such as quality of life and social cohesion) in one integrated approach, because existing indicator sets are often fragmented and unbalanced.

The indicators have been carefully selected for relevance, measurability and action perspective, and make it possible to make differences between areas visible, to determine priorities and to monitor the effects of policy. Through applications such as the Area Check, users can spatially analyze and compare this data, with the aim of structurally including health in policy and area development and ultimately reducing health inequalities.

For more information, you can watch the webinar: Webinar Indicators for a Healthy Living Environment and Webinar (part 2) Indicators for a Healthy Living Environment.

IMPROVE Equity (IM EQ) is a European research project in which TNO works with international partners to reduce health inequalities in vulnerable neighbourhoods with regard to obesity. The project focuses on understanding the complex interrelationship between social, physical and policy factors that cause health inequalities (pdf), and translates these insights into local, structural policy measures.

By actively involving residents and stakeholders and using system modelling and (digital twin) simulations, the effects of interventions are made transparent and evaluated. In this way, IMPROVE-Equity contributes to the development and substantiation of effective, area-specific approaches that strengthen health and equality of opportunity and reduce obesity.

The design of the living environment can influence social cohesion and connectedness between residents. Spatial design can facilitate this, but the actual impact depends on the (in)formal possibilities that are offered and the extent to which they meet the wishes and needs of residents.

In our knowledge development and publications, such as 'Spatial design for social cohesion (pdf)' (Dutch) and 'Neighbourhood connectedness' (Dutch), we show how the direction of neighbourhoods contributes to meeting, trust and community building. We translate these insights into applicable tools for policy and area development, so that social cohesion becomes an explicit and controllable part of spatial choices.

An example of this is the Health Impact Twin for Social Cohesion (HITS). In this project, we work towards a model and dashboard to analyse the social impact of spatial interventions integrally from the perspective of the relationship between hardware, software and orgware. This allows it to support policymakers, designers and civil society organisations in comparing scenarios and optimising social impact in the built environment.

How do you ensure that health and well-being really become part of area development? The Value-Driven Healthy Area Development guide offers project leaders and professionals concrete tools to structurally include health in vision, cooperation and decision-making from the start.

The guide, developed by TNO together with Brink, Urban Sync, Rho Adviseurs and Horizons, helps to make social values explicit and translate them into practical choices.

• It offers building blocks, models, process steps and tools to lay a solid foundation in the initiation phase.
• It supports the organisation of complex cooperation, the involvement of the right parties and the overcoming of resistance.
• It leads to a tangible result: a Programme of Values, in which joint ambitions and social goals are laid down as the basis for management, cooperation and investment choices throughout the development process.

How do investments in the living environment affect different policy areas and budgets, and how can we manage this integrally? Urban Financial Metabolism (UFM) is a systemic methodology that helps municipalities and area coalitions to make visible where money comes from, how it moves through an area and how investments in, for example, greenery, mobility or social facilities affect spatial and social effects, such as health, quality of life and sustainability. This also provides better insight into indirect benefits, such as avoided healthcare costs or improved quality of life.

In Dordrecht, among other places, TNO used UFM to investigate the relationships between policy goals, residents' needs, activities in the neighbourhood and financial flows for linking health with spatial challenges. This showed how investments affect different parts of the municipal budget and other parties. The approach thus supports governments and partners to connect and discuss financial and social logic and to steer more specifically towards a healthy, future-proof living environment from an integral perspective.

Read here about the application at the Municipality of Dordrecht: Financial flows healthy living environment (Dutch)

TNO is researching how resident initiatives can contribute more effectively to social challenges by improving cooperation ('co-creation') with governments and other parties.

The Better Together programme focuses on understanding which factors determine the success of citizens' initiatives, such as cooperation, organisational strength and alignment with policy, and develops knowledge and tools to better support and scale up these initiatives. Through practice-oriented research and collaboration with partners, TNO wants to contribute to stronger, more sustainable citizens' initiatives that have a greater impact on their living environment and on social issues.

• Health and Urban Design: A Framework
• Measuring air quality for a healthy environment