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PubMed2003

[Analysis of urban forest landscape pattern in Hefei].

Based on the theory and methodology of landscape ecology, the landscape pattern of the study area (17.6 km2) in the downtown of Hefei was analyzed by using the techniques of RS, GPS and GIS. The object was to provide a comprehensive method to study urban forest structure and its function in environmental improvement. The results showed that there were 5 major landscape elements, i.e., building and hard pavement surface, water, road, urban forest, and general green land in the area. The landscape matrix was building and pavement surface, occupied 73.13% of total land. Road was the typical corridor element in the city and occupied 6.89%. Green land occupied 11.44%, in which, urban forest patch occupied 9.18%. There were 408 urban forest patches, with an area of 161.16 hm2. The average area of the patch was 0.396 hm2, and the maximum area was 12 hm2. 48% of urban forest patch was identified as small scale patches with < 500 m2 of area, and only 8.6% of them was larger than 1 hm2. The number of general green land patch was 255, with an area of 39.74 hm2, which accounted for 2.26% of land area, and its average and maximum area was 0.1558 hm2 and 3.86 hm2, respectively. There were 147 water patches, with an area of 149.93 hm2, and occupied 8.54% of land, and the average and maximum area of the patch was 1.02 hm2 and 16 hm2, respectively. In the study area, both of the Shannon-Weiner landscape diversity index and evenness were low, only 0.928 and 0.576, respectively. In addition, the dominance of urban forest patch and general green land was 0.39 showing that the two landscape elements had a certain influence on the environment of the study area. The concept of interior habitat for forest was introduced in this paper, which was employed to make a scale class system of urban forest patch. The threshold area with interior habitat for urban forest patch was 9800 m2, and there was 31.69 hm2 of interior habitat of urban forest in total, which occupied 19.7% of the total area of urban forest patch. This situation was not favorable for providing more habitats to support species diversity. It's suggested that the concept of interior habitat could be employed to identify urban forest patch, and a scale system of small scale patch of urban forest-middle patch-large patch-extra large patch was build in the paper. Based on this system, the ratio of different scales of urban forest patch in the study area should be 2:2:2:3. The authors also suggested that larger pieces (1.5-3.0 hm2) of urban forest patch should be built, and more urban forests should be established in the northeastern part of the city in the future.

China↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Prevalence of sustained hypertension and obesity in urban and rural school going children in Ludhiana.

BACKGROUND: Increasing trend of hypertension is a worldwide phenomenon. The data on sustained hypertension in school going children is scanty in India. The present study was conducted to evaluate the prevalence of sustained hypertension and obesity in apparently healthy school children in rural and urban areas of Ludhiana using standard criteria. METHODS AND RESULTS: A total of 2467 apparently healthy adolescent school children aged between 11-17 years from urban area and 859 students from rural area were taken as subjects. Out of total 3326 students, 189 were found to have sustained hypertension; in urban areas prevalence of sustained hypertension was 6.69% (n=165) and in rural area it was 2.56% (n=24). Males outnumbered females in both rural and urban areas. The mean systolic and diastolic blood pressure of hypertensive population in both urban and rural population was significantly higher than systolic and diastolic blood pressure in their normotensive counterparts (urban normotensive systolic blood pressure:115.48+/-22.74 mmHg, urban hypertensive systolic blood pressure: 137.59+/-11.91 mmHg, rural normotensive systolic blood pressure: 106.31+/-19.86 mmHg, rural hypertensive systolic blood pressure: 131.63+/-10.13 mmHg, urban normotensive diastolic blood pressure: 74.18+/-17.41 mmHg, urban hypertensive diastolic blood pressure: 84.58+/-8.14 mmHg, rural normotensive diastolic blood pressure: 68.84+/-16.96 mmHg, rural hypertensive diastolic blood pressure: 79.15+/-7.41 mmHg). Overweight populationwas significantly higher in urban area. There were 287 (11.63%) overweight students and 58 (2.35%) were obese. In rural population overweight and obese students were 44 (4.7%) and 34 (3.63%) respectively. There was significant increase in prevalence of hypertension in both rural and urban population with increased body mass index in urban students; those with normal body mass index had prevalence of hypertension of 4.52% (n=96), in overweight it was 15.33% (n=44) and in obese it was 43.10% (n=25). In rural area, the overweight students showed prevalence of sustained hypertension in 6.82% (n=3) and in obese group it was 61.76% (n=21). None of the student with normal body mass index in rural area was found to be hypertensive. The mean body mass index of hypertensive population in both rural and urban areas was significantly higher than respective normotensive population (mean body mass index in urban normotensive group: 20.34+/-3.72 kg/m2, hypertensive group: 24.91+/-4.92 kg/m2; mean body mass index in rural normotensive group: 18.41+/-3.41 kg/m2, hypertensive group: 21.37+/-3.71 kg/m2, p<0.01). CONCLUSIONS: Prevalence of sustained hypertension is on the rise in urban area even in younger age groups. Blood pressure is frequently elevated in obese children as compared to lean subjects. This is possibly related to their sedentary lifestyle, altered eating habits, increased fat content of diet and decreased physical activities.

Adolescent↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Urbanization and tropical health--then and now.

Since the launch of the Annals of Tropical Medicine and Parasitology 100 years ago, the percentage of the world's population living in urban settings has more than tripled and is now approaching 50%. Urbanization will continue at a high pace, particularly in the less developed regions of Africa and Asia. The profound demographic, ecological and socio-economic transformations that accompany the process of urbanization have important impacts on health and well-being. In industrialized countries, urbanization led to the so-called 'epidemiological transition', from acute infectious and deficiency diseases to chronic non-communicable diseases, many decades ago. In the developing world, surprisingly little research has been carried out on the health-related aspects of urbanization. In a temporal analysis of publications in the Annals of Tropical Medicine and Parasitology, for example, in which the first volume in every decade from 1907 was examined, only 16 (2.6%) of the 604 articles investigated focused on epidemiological and/or public-health issues in urban tropical settings. This review begins with the question 'what is urban?' and then provides a summary of the trends seen in urbanization, and its impacts on human health, over the past century, on both a global and regional scale. For the main tropical diseases, estimates of the at-risk populations and the numbers of cases are updated and then split into urban and non-urban categories. The inhabitants of urban slums are particularly vulnerable to many of these diseases and require special attention if internationally-set targets for development are to be met. Heterogeneity, a major feature of urban settings in the tropics that complicates all efforts at health improvement, is demonstrated in an exploration of a densely populated municipality of a large West African town. Urban planners, public-health experts and other relevant stakeholders clearly need to make much more progress in alleviating poverty and enhancing the health and well-being of urban residents, in an equity-effective and sustainable manner.

Bibliometrics↗

PubMed2004

The application of the biosphere reserve concept to urban areas: the case of green rooftops for habitat network in Seoul.

This article consists of two parts. The first shows how the principles of the ecosystem approach can be applied to green rooftops, and the second attempts to illustrate it through a case study. In particular, it suggests new approaches and techniques for creation of green rooftops in a perspective of urban habitat network and urban biosphere reserve. To endow urban rooftops with the roles and functions of urban habitat network and urban biosphere reserve, it is necessary to apply "an ecosystem approach to urban management." In this article, an ecosystem approach to urban management is illustrated with Seoul as an example. The Habitat Network in Seoul will be reviewed with a focus on the model suggested by MAB Urban Group. Then, the roles and functions of Myeongdong UNESCO Green Rooftop and its possible contribution to building the Seoul Urban Biosphere Network will be described. The UNESCO Green Rooftop is 628 m(2) and was created on the 12th floor rooftop of UNESCO Building in Myeongdong 2-ga, Jung-ku, Seoul. In the green rooftop, which was created with goals of securing green areas and biotopes in downtown, creating an urban econetwork, securing a base for urban ecosystem study and environment education, and disseminating an idea of coexistence between nature and humankind, wetland, meadow, scrub and woodland, wall revegetation, and a vegetable field are created. Also, rainwater recycling facilities and a solar energy water circulation system were set up. Rest facilities including observation and education facilities were built. Based on the Seoul example, as well as urban biosphere reserve models suggested by the MAB Urban Group, we suggest several principles to be applied for a green rooftops to qualify as a category of urban biosphere reserves.

Architecture↗

PubMed2004

[Impacts of the urbanization on waters non-point source pollution].

Non-point source (NPS) pollution is the prominent source of water pollution in many countries, included America and China, of the world. Urban NPS pollution was attached little importance for long, compared with agriculture NPS pollution. While urbanization is the dominant form of land-use change in terms of impacts on water quality, the hydrology, other physical properties of watersheds as well as their NPS pollution potential at present. The formation of urban NPS pollution of water could be described by "source-process-sink". Urbanization has changed the source, process and sink of urban NPS pollution. A review was conducted on the international researches of urbanization impacts on NPS pollution in urban water environment from the point of view of "describe-predict and evaluation-application". The studies of urbanization impacts on urban NPS pollution were focused on modeling the process of urban NPS pollution by hydrologic model, predicting the pollutants load of NPS pollution. It is a fresh methodology that the relationship between urbanization and urban NPS pollution of water was analyzed by the method of landscape change and ecological process. The research on temporal-spatial comprehensive impacts of landscape pattern changes, led by urbanization, on the urban NPS pollution will be one of the hotspots.

Fresh Water↗

PubMed2001

Evidence of a dose-response relationship between urbanicity during upbringing and schizophrenia risk.

BACKGROUND: Many studies have demonstrated that an urban birth or upbringing increases schizophrenia risk, but no studies have been able to distinguish between these effects. The objectives of this study were to discriminate the effect of urbanicity at birth from an effect of urbanicity during upbringing, and to identify particularly vulnerable age periods and a possible dose-response relationship between urbanicity during upbringing and schizophrenia risk. METHODS: Using data from the Danish Civil Registration System, we established a population-based cohort of 1.89 million people, which included information on place of birth, place of residence during upbringing, and the accumulated number of years lived in each category of the 5-level degree of urbanization during upbringing. Schizophrenia in cohort members and mental illness in a parent or sibling were identified by linkage with the Danish Psychiatric Central Register. RESULTS: Individuals living in a higher degree of urbanization than 5 years earlier had a 1.40-fold (95% confidence interval, 1.28-1.51) increased risk, while individuals living in a lower degree of urbanization than 5 years earlier had a 0.82-fold (95% confidence interval, 0.77-0.88) decreased risk of schizophrenia. For fixed urbanicity at the 15th birthday, risk increased with increasing degree of urbanization at birth. Furthermore, the more years lived in the higher the degree of urbanization, the greater the risk. Individuals who lived their first 15 years in the highest category of the 5-level urbanicity had a 2.75-fold (95% confidence interval, 2.31-3.28) increased risk of schizophrenia. CONCLUSION: Continuous, or repeated, exposures during upbringing that occur more frequently in urbanized areas may be responsible for the association between urbanization and schizophrenia risk.

Age Distribution↗

PubMed2025

Urban mental health: a position paper of the European psychiatric association.

BACKGROUND: Urbanization, the shift of a growing population into urban areas, is shaping global development across infrastructure, health, and sustainability. Although it brings economic growth, innovation, and improved access to services, it may also impact mental health. METHODS: The present article was prepared on behalf of the European Psychiatric Association and explores the complexity of associations between urbanization and mental health, highlighting both potential risks and opportunities for improvement. RESULTS: Urban growth often leads to increased population density, social fragmentation, and environmental stressors, including noise, pollution, and reduced green spaces, all of which might account for worsening mental health. Urban residents might be at risk of various mental disorders due to these stressors, accompanied by the risk of social disconnection. Moreover, socioeconomic disparities in urban settings can lead to unequal healthcare access, further contributing to these challenges. However, urbanization also offers unique opportunities to improve mental health through better resource allocation, innovative healthcare solutions, and community-building initiatives. Indeed, cities might serve as areas for mental health promotion by integrating mental health services into primary care, utilizing digital health technologies, and fostering environments that promote social interactions and well-being. Urban planning that prioritizes green spaces, safe housing, and accessible public transportation holds the potential to mitigate some risks related to urban living. CONCLUSIONS: While urbanization presents significant challenges to mental health, it also provides grounds for transformative interventions. Addressing the mental health needs of urban populations requires a multifaceted approach that includes policy reform, community engagement, and sustainable urban planning.

Humans↗

PubMed1988

Urbanization in Taiwan: 1900-1985.

This paper reviews previous research and statistical data concerning urbanization and its relationship to migration in Taiwan from 1900-1985. The level of urbanization was very low when Taiwan was under Japanese rule. The low level of industrialization and the difficulty of communication and transportation in the early stage of development may have impeded migration. Beginning in 1953, Taiwan began a series of economic construction plans. Modern industries have burgeoned in many large cities and their peripheral townships, thus accelerating the urbanization process. The data clearly show that the growth rate of the urban population has been much faster than the rate of change in the proportion that is urban. During the 1920-1940 period, the population of Taiwan gradually moved from places of early settlement to new city centers or newly developed areas. It is quite clear that the process of metropolitan dispersion has increased with the development of urbanization in Taiwan. The pattern of city growth was not consistent from period to period. It was reverse U-shaped for the 1950-1960 period, upward-wave-shaped for the 1960-1970 period, and J-shaped for the 1970-1985 period. If a longer period (e.g., 1947-1985) was observed, then it became upward-wave-shaped again. It is quite clear that there is no simple relationship between city size and city growth. This relationship is affected by stage of development; it also appears to be affected by duration of observation. Generally, the longer the interval observed, and the later the period analyzed, the more the upward-wave-shape holds for the relationship. Many scholars maintain that urban growth in developing countries results primarily from the natural increase of urban populations. However, judging from the rapid urban growth in Taiwan during the 1953-1985 period, and considering the natural increase contributed by migrants in urban areas, it is likely that rural-urban migration is a more important source of urban growth.

Asia↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Rural-to-urban migration in Latin America: an update and thoughts on the model.

Urbanization is an important demographic phenomenon, and in Latin America it transformed the settlement pattern from rural to predominantly urban in less than 50 years. Understanding the biological consequences of this change in settlement pattern is an important challenge for human biologists. One approach to understanding the effects of urban environments on human biology has been to study rural-to-urban migrants. In Latin America this research has shown that 1) the fertility of migrants tends to be intermediate between that of rural and urban populations, and 2) migrants tend to suffer higher rates of mortality and morbidity, at least initially, than long-term urban residents. There is some indication that the actual physical conditions under which migrants live in urban areas-and these tend to be among the most impoverished-are more important variables than migrant status per se. Studying rural-to-urban migrants requires careful attention to a number of conceptual issues. One issue is the definition of rural and urban. These two types of settlements are no longer as distinct as they once were, and "urban" can mean very different things in different places. Another issue is the complexity of current migration patterns. The classic case of people moving from a distinctly rural setting to a distinctly urban one and staying there for the remainder of their lives is not the norm. Third, the urban environments of large cities are extraordinarily heterogeneous environments with enormous socioeconomic differentials in health. Hence, it matters where in the urban environment the migrants live.

Adult↗

PubMed1993

Urbanization and human health.

Urbanization involves a physical change in which increasing proportions of populations live in urban settings, however defined. It also implies considerable changes in the ways in which these people live, how they earn their livelihoods, the food which they eat, and the wide range of environmental factors to which they are exposed. There is another underlying assumption that, increasingly, urban populations will be more healthy than their rural counterparts and that higher levels of urbanization will equate with better health status. This paper discusses some of the assumptions underlying this contention. It takes issue with certain of them, particularly the assumption that urbanization affects the health of all residents equally. It is manifestly evident that in many cities, particularly in the developing world, the poor are exposed to greater risks and have much lower health status than their richer neighbours. In addition, whilst urban residents may theoretically have a better access to health care and services than do residents in many rural areas, and whilst many indicators of health do appear better in more highly urbanized societies than ones less so, there are caveats. The paper introduces the concept of epidemiological transition, which suggests that, whilst life expectancy might be higher in many urbanized countries and in certain cities, the inhabitants are often merely suffering from different forms of ill-health, often chronic or degenerative, rather than infective. In certain cities in middle-income countries, residents, particularly the poor, are exposed to a double risk of both infection and chronic degenerative ailments. The paper concludes with a consideration of more general recent statements from the World Health Organization among others, on the impact of urbanization on health. The 'Healthy Cities' project is also discussed. WHO identifies a range of general determinants of urban health: physical, social, cultural and environmental. Many represent the by-products of modernization and especially industrialization. It is emphasized that urbanization, and the concentration of human beings into new areas in particular, can bring exposure to new risk factors for large numbers of people. The growth of infectious and parasitic disease in some urban settings must therefore be recognized, as must the emergence of chronic diseases, with the concomitant need for investment in new types of health and social care. However, a number of constraints militate against the achievement of improved urban health, especially in developing countries.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

Developing Countries↗

PubMed1997

Trauma deaths in a mature urban vs rural trauma system. A comparison.

OBJECTIVE: To compare the timing, severity, and injury characteristics of patients dying from trauma in an urban vs a rural setting. DESIGN: Retrospective review of autopsy database (urban) and medical examiner database (rural), with selected medical chart review. SETTING: An organized urban trauma system with 6 trauma centers and a rural state with no formal trauma system and 1 trauma center. PATIENTS: All trauma fatalities occurring in an urban (n = 612) and a rural (n = 143) setting during a 1-year period. RESULTS: In the urban system, 248 patients (40.5%) died at the scene of injury compared with 103 (72%) patients in a rural environment. During the first 24 hours of hospitalization 243 (39.7%) urban patients died compared with 23 (16%) rural patients. Eighty-nine urban patients (14.5%) and 17 rural patients (11.8%) survived for more than 24 hours but later died in the hospital. The mean age of those who died was significantly greater in the rural trauma system than in the urban trauma system (P < .001), and the Injury Severity Score was significantly less in the rural trauma system than in the urban trauma system (P < .01). In the patients who died after being admitted to the hospital for more than 24 hours there was a significantly higher rate of preexisting comorbidity in the rural patients than in the urban patients (P < .05). The most frequent cause of death in the rural setting was multisystem organ failure; head injury was the most common cause of death in the urban setting. CONCLUSIONS: Patients who die in a rural area without a formal trauma system are more likely to die at the scene, are less severely injured, and are older. Rural trauma patients who are admitted to a hospital and who survived for at least 24 hours before dying are older, less severely injured, have significantly more comorbidities, and are more likely to die of multisystem organ dysfunction than their urban counterparts. These differences reflect the different patient populations and injury patterns that confront urban and rural trauma centers. The higher proportion of scene deaths in the rural environment may reflect the longer discovery and transport times that occur in a rural setting.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1999

Maternal responses to childhood fevers: a comparison of rural and urban residents in coastal Kenya.

Urbanization is an important demographic phenomenon in sub-Saharan Africa, and rural-urban migration remains a major contributor to urban growth. In a context of sustained economic recession, these demographic processes have been associated with a rise in urban poverty and ill health. Developments in health service provision need to reflect new needs arising from demographic and disease ecology change. In malaria-endemic coastal Kenya, we compared lifelong rural (n = 248) and urban resident (n = 284) Mijikenda mothers' responses to childhood fevers. Despite marked differences between the rural and urban study areas in demographic structure and physical access to biomedical services, rural and urban mothers' treatment-seeking patterns were similar: most mothers sought only biomedical treatment (88%). Shop-bought medicines were used first or only in 69% of the rural and urban fevers that were treated, and government or private clinics were contacted in 49%. A higher proportion of urban informal vendors stocked prescription-only drugs, and urban mothers more likely to contact a private than a government facility. We conclude that improving self-treatment has enormous potential to reduce morbidity and mortality in low-income urban areas, as has frequently been argued for rural areas. However, because of the underlying socio-economic, cultural and structural differences between rural and urban areas, rural approaches to tackle this may have to be modified in urban environments.

Adult↗

PubMed2006

[Landscape pattern changes in urbanization of Pudong New District, Shanghai].

Urbanization is one of the most important anthropogenic impacts on natural landscape, while urban landscape pattern can reflect the urbanization process and its ecological consequences. In this paper, landscape metrics combined with gradient analysis was employed to analyze the landscape pattern changes of Pudong New District in Shanghai, based on the land use datasets derived from 1:50,000 aerial photos of 1994 and 2000, respectively. The results demonstrated that the landscape pattern of Pudong changed dramatically in its ever-increasing urbanization. The land cover, which was dominated by agriculture in 1994, gradually transformed to urban land use, such as residential area, public facilities, and industry. The percentage of agriculture land use decreased from 71.45% to 41.32%, while the urban land use hold 18.2% in 1994 but rose to 41.9% in 2000. Synoptic landscape characteristics showed the increased patch numbers (from 4.08 to 28.65 ind. x km(-2)), diminished area-weighted mean (from 24.43 to 1.75 km2), decreased aggregation index (from 98.31 to 95.09), and augmented landscape diversity and evenness, all of which demonstrated the higher landscape fragmentation and landscape heterogeneity induced by urbanization. The landscape pattern along the urban-rural gradient reflected the different urbanization stages, and the expanding urban frontier in different years in Pudong New District could be identified precisely with class-level landscape indices. The changes in landscape pattern along the transect suggested that the quantitative analysis of landscape dynamics, especially the landscape metrics combined with gradient analysis, could be a robust tool to study urban morphology, urban structure, and ecological consequences during urbanization.

China↗

PubMed1995

The urban environment, poverty and health in developing countries.

The process of urbanization could be described as one of the major global environmental changes directly affecting human health today. Populations particularly affected are in developing countries where rapid urban growth has been accompanied by massive urban poverty. Urban environmental health impacts, particularly the impact on adults of an environment of poverty, are still poorly understood. Definitions of the urban environment tend to be physical, excluding the complex ramifications of a social setting of disadvantage. This paper provides a brief overview of existing knowledge on the links between environment, poverty and health in urban areas of developing countries, with an emphasis on the policy implications implied by research on health differential between groups within cities. The paper argues that urban poverty and inequalities in conditions between groups within cities present a central crisis confronting urban policy in terms of human health and quality of life. The paper suggests that definitions of the urban environment tend to consider only the physical, and not the social complexity of the urban setting. The review concludes that the scale and the complexity of the urban crisis in developing countries demands a real commitment to re-thinking the management of cities to address multiple deprivation. The paper suggests that this challenges urban professionals who continue to act with a bias towards unintegrated single sector solutions despite claims to the contrary.

Developing Countries↗

PubMed2006

Modelling carbon dynamics from urban land conversion: fundamental model of city in relation to a local carbon cycle.

BACKGROUND: The main task is to estimate the qualitative and quantitative contribution of urban territories and precisely of the process of urbanization to the Global Carbon Cycle (GCC). Note that, on the contrary to many investigations that have considered direct anthropogenic emission of CO2 (urbanized territories produce ca. 96-98% of it), we are interested in more subtle, and up until the present time, weaker processes associated with the conversion of the surrounding natural ecosystems and landscapes into urban lands. Such conversion inevitably takes place when cities are sprawling and additional "natural" lands are becoming "urbanized". RESULTS: In order to fulfil this task, we first develop a fundamental model of urban space, since the type of land cover within a city makes a difference for a local carbon cycle. Hence, a city is sub-divided by built-up, "green" (parks, etc.) and informal settlements (favelas) fractions. Another aspect is a sub-division of the additional two regions, which makes the total number reaching eight regions, while the UN divides the world by six. Next, the basic model of the local carbon cycle for urbanized territories is built. We consider two processes: carbon emissions as a result of conversion of natural lands caused by urbanization; and the transformation of carbon flows by "urbanized" ecosystems; when carbon, accumulated by urban vegetation, is exported to the neighbouring territories. The total carbon flow in the model depends, in general, on two groups of parameters. The first includes the NPP, and the sum of living biomass and dead organic matter of ecosystems involved in the process of urbanization, and namely them we calculate here, using a new more realistic approach and taking into account the difference in regional cities' evolution. CONCLUSION: There is also another group of parameters, dealing with the areas of urban territories, and their annual increments. A method of dynamic forecasting of these parameters, based on the statistical regression model, was already suggested; nevertheless we shall further develop a new technique based on one idea to use the gamma-distribution. This will allow us to calculate the total carbon balance and to show how urbanization shifts it.

Journal Article↗

PubMed2002

[Basic theory and research method of urban forest ecology].

With the development of world economy and the increment of urban population, the urban environment problem hinders the urban sustainable development. Now, more and more people realized the importance of urban forests in improving the quality of urban ecology. Therefore, a new subject, urban forest ecology, and correlative new concept frame in the field formed. The theoretic foundation of urban forest ecology derived from the mutual combination of theory relating to forest ecology, landscape ecology, landscape architecture ecology and anthrop-ecology. People survey the development of city from the view of ecosystem, and regard the environment, a colony of human, animals and plants, as main factors of the system. The paper introduces systematically the urban forest ecology as follows: 1) the basic concept of urban forest ecology; 2) the meaning of urban forest ecology; 3) the basic principle and theoretic base of urban forest ecology; 4) the research method of urban forest ecology; 5) the developmental expectation of urban forest ecology.

City Planning↗

PubMed2003

Health and access issues among Australian adolescents: a rural-urban comparison.

INTRODUCTION: Previous research has reported rural-urban differences in health concerns and access issues. However, very little of this has concerned young people, and what has been published has been mainly from countries other than Australia and may not generalise to Australian youth. The study described in this paper is a subset of a larger study on health concerns and access to healthcare for younger people (12-17 years) living in New South Wales (NSW), Australia. This paper reports findings on rural-urban similarities and differences. The specific study objective was to identify and describe rural-urban differences, especially those associated with structural disadvantage. METHOD: The reported findings form part of a larger state-wide cross-sectional study of access to healthcare among NSW adolescents. Adolescents were drawn from high schools in ten of the 17 Area Health Services in NSW. These Area Health Services were selected because they represent most aspects of rural-urban NSW with respect to population characteristics and health services. Eighty-one focus groups were conducted with adolescents (35 with boys and 46 with girls), of which 56 were conducted in urban, 22 in rural and 3 in regional areas. The focus groups were tape-recorded, transcribed and analysed using the computer software package NUD*IST 4. RESULTS: The analysis revealed certain health concerns that were common to both rural and urban adolescents: use of alcohol and illicit drugs, bullying, street safety, diet and body image, sexual health, stress and depression. However, certain concerns were mentioned more frequently in rural areas (eg depression), and two concerns were raised almost exclusively by rural youth (youth suicide and teenage pregnancy). There were also structural differences in service provision: adolescents in rural areas reported disadvantage in obtaining access to healthcare (limited number of providers and lengthy waiting times); having only a limited choice of providers (eg only one female doctor available), and cost (virtually no bulk billing--ie direct charge to Medicare with no patient co-payment). A lack of confidentiality as a barrier to seeking service access was raised by both rural and urban youth, but was a major concern in rural areas. No issues specific to urban areas were raised by urban youth. Male and female rural adolescents were more likely than urban adolescents to express concerns over limited educational, employment and recreational opportunities, which they believed contributed to their risk-taking behaviour. Gender differences were evident for mental health issues, with boys less able to talk with their peers or service providers about stress and depression than girls. These gender differences were evident among adolescents in both rural and urban areas, but the ethos of a self-reliant male who does not ask for help was more evident among rural boys. CONCLUSIONS: While Australian rural and urban youth shared many health concerns, rural-urban differences were striking in the almost exclusive reporting of youth suicide and teenage pregnancy by rural adolescents. The findings suggest that structural disadvantage in rural areas (limited educational, employment opportunities, and recreational facilities) impact adversely on health outcomes, particularly mental health outcomes, and contribute to risk-taking behaviour. Such disadvantages should be considered by health-service policy makers and providers to redress the imbalance. Gender differences were also evident and efforts to target the specific needs of Australian adolescent boys are warranted.

Journal Article↗

PubMedDate not supplied

[Distribution of causes of death in communities with different urbanization levels].

The aim of the present work was to compare mortality data during 1980-94 (24 causes of death for males and 25 for females) in populations living in municipalities with different urbanization levels of seven Italian regions (Piemonte, Lombardia, Emilia Romagna, Marche, Lazio, Campania and Sicilia). Urbanization levels were established following the classification of the Italian Institute of Statistics (ISTAT, Classificazione dei comuni secondo le caratteristiche urbane e rurali, 1986). A quite uniform configuration of causes of death with characteristic excesses in the urban environment was evident. The only exception was represented by the male population in Lombardia, probably due to the prevalence of occupational exposure. The urban excesses included: all tumors (also for the population < 64 year old), trachea, bronchi and lung tumors (also < 64 year old people), colorectal cancer, bladder cancer, male liver cancer and female breast cancer. Mortality due to stomach cancer and, only in males, to larynx cancer was lower in urban than in the other types areas, except the Southern regions. Concerning some non tumoral pathologies a more dyshomogeneous situation was observed, with a prevalence of urban defects in Piemonte and Lombardia, of urban excesses in the Southern regions and of both excesses and defects in Emilia Romagna and the Central regions. The "semi-rural" and "rural" types municipalities resulted quite similar, with the exception of Campania and Lazio. In fact, in these two regions a greater association with stomach cancer and lower mortality for all other tumors compared to the urban and, at a lesser extent, to the semi-urban municipalities was found. However, the lower tumor mortality was partly balanced by some other causes of death, again with the exception of Campania and at a lesser extent of Sicilia. On the basis of the causes of death comparisons, the semi-urban municipalities seem to represent a transition type between the urban and the rural ones.

Accidents, Traffic↗