How children experience, negotiate and connect with or resist their surroundings impacts on their health and wellbeing. In cities, various aspects of the physical and social environment can affect children’s wellbeing. This edited collection brings together different accounts and experiences of children’s health and wellbeing in urban environments from majority and minority world perspectives. Privileging children’s expertise, this timely volume explicitly explores the relationships between health, wellbeing and place. To demonstrate the importance of a place-based understanding of urban children’s health and wellbeing, the authors unpack the meanings of the physical, social and symbolic environments that constrain or enable children’s flourishing in urban environments. Drawing on the expertise of geographers, educationists, anthropologists, psychologists, planners and public health researchers, as well as nurses and social workers, this book, above all, sees children as the experts on their experiences of the issues that affect their wellbeing. Children’s Health and Wellbeing in Urban Environments will be fascinating reading for anyone with an interest in cultural geography, urban geography, environmental geography, children’s health, youth studies or urban planning.

Children's health has clearly improved over the past several decades. Significant and positive gains have been made in lowering rates of infant mortality and morbidity from infectious diseases and accidental causes, improved access to health care, and reduction in the effects of environmental contaminants such as lead. Yet major questions still remain about how to assess the status of children's health, what factors should be monitored, and the appropriate measurement tools that should be used. Children's Health, the Nation's Wealth: Assessing and Improving Child Health provides a detailed examination of the information about children's health that is needed to help policy makers and program providers at the federal, state, and local levels. In order to improve children's health-and, thus, the health of future generations-it is critical to have data that can be used to assess both current conditions and possible future threats to children's health. This compelling book describes what is known about the health of children and what is needed to expand the knowledge. By strategically improving the health of children, we ensure healthier future generations to come.

Given the significant benefits of play on children's health, wellbeing and happiness, the design of a new residential community should begin with the question: How can we provide the youngest residents with opportunities to freely play outdoors, walk independently, and feel a sense of belonging and ownership within their communities? This publication, funded by the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust, explores various design interventions and policies from around the world, which aim to improve liveability for children and their families living in urban environments.

A journey into the lives of children coping in a world compromised by poverty and inequality, The Children in Child Health challenges the invisibility of children's perspectives in health policy and argues that paying attention to what children do is critical for understanding the practical and policy implications of these experiences.

Overcrowding, noise and air pollution, long commutes and lack of daylight can take a huge toll on the mental well-being of city-dwellers. With mental healthcare services under increasing pressure, could a better approach to urban design and planning provide a solution? The restrictions faced by city residents around the world during the COVID-19 pandemic has brought home just how much urban design can affect our mental health – and created an imperative to seize this opportunity. Restorative Cities explores a new way of designing cities, one which places mental health and wellness at the forefront. Establishing a blueprint for urban design for mental health, it examines a range of strategies – from sensory architecture to place-making for creativity and community – and brings a genuinely evidence-based approach that will appeal to designers and planners, health practitioners and researchers alike - and provide compelling insights for anyone who cares about how our surroundings affect us. Written by a psychiatrist and public health specialist, and an environmental psychologist with extensive experience of architectural practice, this much-needed work will prompt debate and inspire built environment students and professionals to think more about the positive potential of their designs for mental well-being.

Transportation and Children's Well-Being applies an ecological approach, examining the social, psychological and physical impacts transport has on children at the individual and community level. Drawing on the latest multidisciplinary research in transport, behavior, policy, the built environment and sustainability, the book explains the pathways and mechanisms by which transport affects the different domains of children's travel. Further, the book identifies the influences of transportation with respect to several domains of well-being, highlighting the influences of residential location on travel by different modes and its impact on the long-term choices families make. The book concludes with proposed evidence-based solutions using real-world examples that support positive influences on well-being and eliminate or reduce negative solutions.