Housing Spaces in Nine European Countries: A Comparison of Dimensional Requirements.

Modern housing units must meet new needs and requirements; housing dimensions and functional characteristics are relevant issues, mainly considering population ageing and disability. The housing standards of nine European countries were compared to analyze their ability to satisfy new population need, in terms of size. The regulations were downloaded from the websites of the official channels of each country.

Reliability of T-WSI to Evaluate Neighborhoods Walkability and Its Changes over Time.

More walkable neighborhoods are linked to increased physical activity. The Walking Suitability Index of the territory (T-WSI) is an easy method to evaluate walkability on the basis of direct observation. T-WSI provides 12 indicators divided into 4 categories (practicability, safety, urbanity, pleasantness); the weighted analysis of these indicators gives an overall score of the actual usability of the neighborhood.

COVID-19 and Living space challenge. Well-being and Public Health recommendations for a healthy, safe, and sustainable housing.

Background And Aim Of The Work: The ongoing pandemic of COVID-19 is a strong reminder that the lockdown period has changed the way that people and communities live, work, and interact, and it's necessary to make resilient the built environment, both outdoor and mainly the indoor spaces: housing, workplaces, public buildings, and entertainment facilities. How can we re-design the concept of Well-being and Public Health in relation to the living places of the future?

Methods: According to the previous statements and scenario, this paper aims to integrate the building hygiene and well-being, focusing the possible responses, both existing and for the new buildings, taking home a strong message from this "period" of physical distancing.

Results: The Well-being and Public Health recommendations for a healthy, safe, and sustainable housing are framed into the following key points: 1.

COVID-19 and Cities: from Urban Health strategies to the pandemic challenge. A Decalogue of Public Health opportunities.

Background And Aim Of The Work: The ongoing pandemic of COVID-19, which nowadays has exceeded 2.5 million notified infections in the world and about 200,000 deaths, is a strong reminder that urbanization has changed the way that people and communities live, work, and interact, and it's necessary to make resilient the systems and local capacities to prevent the spread of infectious diseases. How we can re-design the concept of Public Health in relation to the built environment and the contemporary cities?

Methods: According to the previous statements and scenario, aim of this paper is to integrate the Urban Health strategic objectives, focusing the possible responses, both immediate and medium-long term, to the current environmental, social, and economic aspects of the "period" of physical distancing.

Healthy Design and Urban Planning Strategies, Actions, and Policy to Achieve Salutogenic Cities.

Starting from a previous experience carried out by the working group "Building and Environmental Hygiene" of the Italian Society of Hygiene and Preventive Medicine (SItI), the aim of the present work is to define new strategic goals for achieving a "Healthy and Salutogenic City", which will be useful to designers, local governments and public bodies, policy makers, and all professionals working at local health agencies. Ten key points have been formulated: 1. climate change and management of adverse weather events; 2.

[Hygienic and sanitary aspects in urban planning: contradiction in national and local urban legislation regarding public health].

Nowadays, the majority of world population lives in urban areas and this portion is going to increase in the coming decades. The health impact of urban areas is well established and described in scientific literature. Italian health and hygiene legislation dealing with urban health is fragmented and not coordinated with the regulation about environment and city planning.

How walkable is the city? Application of the Walking Suitability Index of the Territory (T-WSI) to the city of Rieti (Lazio Region, Central Italy).

A method to evaluate the walkability of an urban neighbourhood based on direct observation has been applied. This tool, called the Walking Suitability Index of the Territory (T-WSI), measures the walkability of every street of an environmental area. It includes 12 weighted indicators, each divided into 4 categories: practicability, safety, urbanity, and pleasantness.