Toward the Development of a Planning Protocol for Public Space for Improving Health and Wellbeing of Communities

Abstract

In the field of research working on public space planning aimed at increasing the levels of health and well-being of communities, there is a significant experimental body of protocols and guidance. This study aims to identify not only the individual characteristics of the public space that influence health outcomes, already studied in the existing protocols, but also their priorities and relationships, interactions, and effects. The aim of the research is the development of a protocol that provides basic recommendations for urban planners, architects, stakeholders, and politicians interested in the design of public space aimed at pursuing the health and well-being of citizens, at the neighborhood level. We propose an approach to design aimed at increasing health through urban regeneration to considering health not only as one of the elements on which there can be positive repercussions, but as the most important element for urban regeneration for people. For pursuing this scope will be conducted a scoping review approach of protocols, evidence in literature, observations based on improving the outcomes of community health through actions on public space, and interviews to experts. The schematization and discussion of the results of the research, which is still in progress, will represent the framework for defining a planning protocol of the urban public space that affects public health at neighborhood level.