‘Living Green, Liveable Cities’ Research Symposium

The ‘Living Green, Liveable Cities’ Research Symposium took place 4-5th February 2024 in Doha, Qatar, alongside Expo 2023 Doha Qatar.

The Research Symposium accompanied the special Cities & Health journal issue, also titled ‘Living Green, Liveable Cities’. This special issue was instigated by AIPH and Expo 2023 Doha Qatar to investigate the science and practice supporting the concept showcased by the Expo of creating liveable and healthy urban environments through city greening.

Contributing authors to the special issue gave presentations on their research at the Symposium, focussing on three themes:

• Social and Cultural Health
• Health and Wellbeing
• Environmental health

Living Green, Liveable Cities

Watch the full Symposium on-demand in this playlist, or find links to individual presentations below.

Region Focus: Arabian Peninsula

• Traditional practices and Cultural Heritage Towards Sustainability – Dr. Deema Almasri, Senior Policy Associate, Earthna
• Sustainability certification as a catalyst for greener cities – Rubén Muñoz, GORD

Living Green for Social and Cultural Health

• Designing Therapeutic Environments: Social and Cultural Practice for Health and Wellbeing – Dr Bruno Marques, President of IFLA
• Exploring nature-based urban design for public space regeneration along River Liffey – Aura Istrate, Lecturer/Assistant Professor in Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Dublin
• Gardens for wellbeing – can we identify features linked to emotional reactions and perceived restoration? – Lauriane Chalmin-Pui, Wellbeing Fellow at the Royal Horticultural Society and Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Sheffield

Living Green for Environmental Health

• Green for healthier cities – Judith van der Poel, Director of Niek Roozen Landscape
• Breathing Life into Urban Spaces: Navigating the Challenges of Vertical Greenery Systems in Delhi, India – Irfan Khan, Architect at the Central Public Works Department, Government of India
• 2 million gardens could be the biggest National Park in Ireland: pathways to nature in domestic gardens – Dr Christine Mullan-Jensen, Environmental psychologist and qualitative researcher based in Ireland
• The importance of local-scale for assessing, monitoring and predicting air quality in urban areas – Dr Marcello Vitale, Associate Professor, Sapienza University of Rome, Faculty of Mathematics, Physics and Natural Sciences

Living Green for Health and Wellbeing

• Benefit of living green, liveable cities: Health and wellbeing – Dr Gayle Souter-Brown, Special Envoy from IFLA to the International Society of Urban Health
• Greening the City: The C40’s Case Study – Stefano Ceccotto, Technical Director, NET Engineering, and guest lecturer at the University of Bologna
• Leaves, lectures and lunchtime: Integrating nature into university life for better student wellbeing – Dr Francesca Boyd, AIPH Green City Consultant and Knowledge Exchange Leader at Ecosystems Knowledge Network
• Landscape Sheffield – ‘The Elephant in the room’ – Does real or perceived biodiversity elicit restorative responses in a virtual park – Lauriane Chalmin-Pui, Wellbeing Fellow at the Royal Horticultural Society and Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Sheffield

Keynote Speakers

Dr Deema Almasri

Dr. Deema Almasri is a Senior Policy Associate at Earthna. Her expertise encompasses sustainability and the environment, water resources, water treatment technologies, wastewater treatment and reuse, and chemical engineering. At Earthna, she leads the water studies where she explores fundamental local, regional and global challenges related to water resource management and water security. Dr. Almasri is also a Research Fellow at the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment, and Health (UNU-INWEH).

Dr. Almasri was previously a scientist at the Qatar Environment and Energy Research Institute (QEERI), HBKU, where she worked on material synthesis and membrane fabrication for water treatment and desalination applications. Dr. Almasri received her B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Chemical Engineering from Texas A&M University and her Ph.D. in Sustainable Environment from Hamad Bin Khalifa University at Qatar.

Rubén Muñoz

Rubén Hernández Muñoz joined Gulf Organization for Research & Development (GORD) in January 2017. He is the Head of Civil Group and he is involved in the Global Sustainability Assessment System (GSAS) Certification throughout the construction projects life, design, construction management and operations. He is currently the project manager for the Expo 2023 GSAS EcoLeaf certification for events and festivals.

He holds a Master of Science in Civil Engineering from the Politechnic University in Madrid, Spain.

He has 23 years of experience in Construction Management as both Contractor and Project Management & Construction Management (PMCM) in Spain and Qatar. As a Project Manager he has been involved in a wide range of construction projects including: highways, urban roads, infrastructures, landscaping, bridges and malls.

He is a passionate supporter of the sustainability principles in construction activities emphasizing on the implementation of good waste management practices to promote a circular economy.

Dr Bruno Marques

Dr Bruno Marques is a registered landscape architect and educator. He completed his Landscape Architecture studies at the University of Lisbon (Portugal) and Berlin Technical University (Germany), followed by his PhD studies at the University of Otago (New Zealand). Bruno has practised in Germany, Estonia, the United Kingdom and New Zealand, having an extensive portfolio of built projects. During the past ten years at Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand, he has developed a comprehensive research agenda to embrace the formulation of frameworks on landscape rehabilitation, cultural landscapes, place-making and Indigenous community health and wellbeing. He is currently the Associate Dean for the Faculty of Architecture and Design Innovation and the President of the International Federation of Landscape Architects (IFLA).

Judith van der Poel

Judith (1979) studied Garden and Landscape Design in Velp (2001) and graduated from the Academy of Architecture in Amsterdam (2015) as a landscape architect. In her graduation project on Huzhou (China), she combined her travel experiences with keen interest in cultural landscapes. Huzhou has beautiful historical water and green structures, which form the potential areas for the city’s future expansion. She proposed an alternative green structure design which would preserve the city’s identity. The green zones will be a living and breathing element in the city and serve to reduce problems such as poor air quality, water pollution and heat stress.

In addition to being the company’s landscape designer, in 2019 Judith became the director and owner of Niek Roozen Landscape. Judith excels in creating strong, detailed concept designs in which positive existing landscape qualities are preserved and serve as the design foundation.

Judith has a considerable amount of experience in landscape design projects in the Netherlands and in China. In recent years, rapid development in China resulted in a high demand for large scale projects in rural regions and tourism-oriented designs on the fringes of larger cities. In the Netherlands we worked on themes like greening new city parts, but also revitalising and intensifying existing neighbourhoods is a way of making cities greener and healthier. The design team is knowledgeable and committed in creating realistic design plans where nature, culture and recreation are harmonized and form a synergistic relationship.

The urban environment contributes to important issues such as flooding, drought, heat stress, lack of greenspace, biodiversity reduction, air pollution, and climate change. One of the core philosophies of the company is the green city principles, in which we believe that the right type of greenery in the right place can contribute significantly to improving the quality of urban environments. We were involved in numerous designs of various scale both in The Netherlands and abroad, where the appropriate application of the green city principles became important added value elements for the projects.

Dr Gayle Souter-Brown

Connecting research, policy and practice, Dr Souter-Brown’s holistic systems thinking led Taylor Francis to name her a ‘global thought leader’ UN Sustainable Development Goals #3 Good health and wellbeing, #11 Sustainable Cities and Communities, #13 Climate Action and #15 Life on Land. Her multidisciplinary approach bridges landscape architecture, public health and ecology. She is special envoy from the International Federation of Landscape Architects to the International Society of Urban Health.

Souter-Brown’s research and practice explore human-nature interaction as it impacts stress and hence incidence of non-communicable disease. Effects of the qualities of the built and natural environment on physical activity, diet, wellbeing, feature across her work. Unafraid to question the status quo, she uses quantitative methods to inform her work, balanced by the qualitative ‘how things feel’.

Interested in health promotion, mental health and sustainable development, Dr Souter-Brown integrates innate wisdom, indigenous knowledge, and modern-day mixed methods research. Working remotely and in-person, her international award-winning salutogenic design practices reference theories of place, attachment, stress reduction, attention restoration and biophilia. Author of the international text Landscape and Urban Design for Health and Wellbeing, she researches, writes, is an invited speaker, advises and teaches internationally. Gayle is based between London, England, and her farm in rural Canterbury, New Zealand.

Session Speakers

Aura Istrate

Dr. Aura-Luciana Istrate is an Assistant Professor in the School of Architecture, Planning, and Environmental Policy at University College Dublin, Ireland. She is the Primary Coordinator of a Doctoral Network (C-NEWTRAL) under a Marie-Sklodowska-Curie-Actions scheme, aiming to advance new approaches for integrated planning of climate-neutral cities through citizen engagement and city governance decision-making support. She is co-leading another Horizon Europe project (REALLOCATE) focusing on rethinking the design of streets and public spaces to leverage modal shifts towards climate-friendly active mobility in 10 European Cities. Her main research interests concern public spaces, active mobility, integrating nature-based solutions in cities, and overall improving urban liveability.

Lauriane Chalmin-Pui

Lauriane is an independent expert on the influence of gardens and gardening on human health and wellbeing. Lauriane was a postdoctoral Wellbeing Fellow at the Royal Horticultural Society and the University of Sheffield Department of Landscape Architecture. Lauriane holds a BA in Geography from the University of Cambridge, an MSc in Environmental Policy and Regulation from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and a PhD in Landscape Architecture from the University of Sheffield. During her doctorate, she was also a visiting scholar to the Center for Design and Health at the University of Virginia School of Architecture.

Irfan Khan

Irfan Haider Khan is an architect and a research scholar who is passionate about creating sustainable and climate-resilient architecture. Currently serving as an Architect at the Central Public Works Department, Government of India, he is concurrently pursuing his doctoral thesis, titled “Performance Evaluation of Vertical Greenery Systems for Energy Efficient Architecture – A Case of Delhi.” His research interests include building-integrated vegetation, landscape urbanism, and environmental design. With over 12 years in the industry, he has successfully designed and executed innovative projects that seamlessly integrate green solutions. He has also published and presented his work at various national and international forums. He is here to share his insights and findings on how vertical greenery systems can enhance the performance and aesthetics of buildings, and what are the barriers to their implementation in Delhi, India.

Dr Christine Mullan-Jensen

Dr Christine Mullan-Jensen is an environmental psychologist and qualitative researcher based in Ireland. She has over 25 years of experience across multiple sectors (market research, health research and social research). She blends a psycho-social perspective with applied research investigations through her consultancy Repsychable and is interested in how everyday actions can be aggregated for change. In recent years she retrained as an environmental psychologist through Maynooth University Ireland which had a strong focus on implementation in policy and practice. Christine holds a PhD in Social Work from Queen’s University Belfast, a MSc in Environmental Psychology from Maynooth University and a BA in Psychology and French from Trinity College Dublin.

Stefano Ceccotto

Stefano Ceccotto, architect and urban designer, Master of Science in Architecture and Urban Design at Columbia University (NY) is Technical Director within the international consulting form NET Engineering, as well as guest lecturer and thesis supervisor at the University of Bologna. Author of awarded and internationally published projects, he collaborates with institutions (among which CIRI-UniBO, Fondazione Golinelli, Fondazione Del Monte) in the field of research and authorship of essays and scientific publications.

His most important achievements are: Bostanci Intermodal Hub, Istanbul (Most Innovative Underground Concept of the Year 2017, finalist, ITA awards), Denver Union Station (Global Award for Excellence by Urban Land Institute, National Honor Award for Urban Design by American Institute of Architects), Saadyiat Island Cultural District, Abu-Dhabi (internationally published and mentioned by the White House), and -on going, the Ravone-Prati urban rehabilitation project in Bologna, within the C40 City Climate leadership group.

Francesca Boyd

Dr Francesca Boyd’s work is focused on enabling connections to be made between people and urban nature for wellbeing. Her PhD at the University of Sheffield focused on tailoring opportunities for engagement with urban nature for the wellbeing of university students. Specifically, Francesca is interested in how the university campus could be a resource to mitigate wellbeing issues through facilitating the salutogenic effects of engagement with nature. Francesca has worked as a social scientist in the civil service and is now responsible for knowledge exchange at UK-based Ecosystem Knowledge Network.

Take a look at some of the articles that feature in the Special Journal ‘Living Green, Liveable Cities’

Identifying features within a garden linked to emotional reactions and perceived restoration (Harries et al., 2024)

Cities & Health has been established to support human and planetary health by sharing the latest international research and practice for urban health and health equity. Our mission is to provide practitioners, researchers and communities with a platform to share, discuss problems to shape solutions from a spatial planning, urban design and physical city governance perspective.

From climate change to the digital city, from city leadership to community resilience, cities all over the world are in transition. The journal covers a wide range of topics – but public health and the health of planetary systems needs to be at the heart of the research we publish.

W: www.tandfonline.com

Expo 2023 Doha, Qatar, is the first AIPH-approved World Horticultural Expo to be held in a desert climate.

W: www.dohaexpo2023.gov.qa

Earthna Center for a Sustainable Future (Earthna) is a non-profit policy research and advocacy center, established by Qatar Foundation (QF) to promote and enable a coordinated approach to environmental, social, and economic sustainability and future prosperity. They are a facilitator of sustainability efforts and action, and a convenor of climate change thinking and action, in Qatar and other hot and arid countries.

W: www.earthna.qa

The International Federation of Landscape Architects (IFLA) is a truly global federation, representing 78 national associations from Africa, the Americas, Europe, Asia Pacific and the Middle East. Their mission as landscape architects is to create globally sustainable and balanced living environments for the benefit of humanity worldwide.

IFLA officially represents the world body of landscape architects through its member associations and regions and in both governmental and non-governmental organizations, such as the UN, UNESCO, UIA, etc.

W: www.iflaworld.com

Established in 1965, the International Society of City and Regional Planners (ISOCARP) brings together individual and institutional members from 90+ countries with the vision to make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable through integrative participatory urban and territorial planning.

In 2016, the Society initiated the ISOCARP Institute as a research spin-off for generating and disseminating knowledge for better cities and territories.

W: www.isocarp.org