• To provide a conceptual and methodological basis for planning and designing urban systems based on the principles of well-being and sustainability.
• To provide knowledge on metrics, tools and methods from areas such as ecology, engineering, urban planning, urban design, urban geography, psychology, sociology and economics, to address the transition towards healthier urban environments.
• To provide knowledge on the scientific evidence available about the environmental, social, cultural and economic factors that influence people’s health and well-being.
• To provide knowledge on a wide array of emblematic healthy urban actions –from policies and regulations to planning and design.
• To teach students skills to help them to plan, execute and communicate strategic urban transformations aimed at enhancing public health and well-being.

This programme is aimed at university graduates from the following areas:

• Main recipients: architects, urban designers, urban planners, landscape designers, civil engineers, students from all disciplines involved in the design, management, physical planning of the city.
• Secondary recipients: environmental scientists, urban geographers, students from all disciplines who (despite the fact they do not intervene directly in the physical transformation of cities) generate the urban cartographies that are necessary to transform them.

Student competences

• Holistic urban analysis skills based on sustainability and health principles.
• The ability to develop surveys and plans to mitigate the impact or maximize the benefits of the environmental, social, cultural and economic factors that affect people’s health and well-being.
• The ability to incorporate environmental, social, cultural and economic dimensions into the design of healthy urban solutions.
• The ability to undertake the supervision and coordination of urban projects for healthy cities.

The master's programme prepares you to develop your career in areas focused on transforming cities into healthier, more sustainable and people-centred environments.

Professional Fields

• Urban Design
• Urban Planning
• Healthy Cities
• Urban Sustainability
• Urban Consultancy and Transformation

Where You Can Work

• Public Administrations
• International Organisations
• Specialist Consultancies
• Architecture and Urban Planning Firms
• Research and Innovation Centres

• Knowledge on key topics (healthy cities, sustainable cities and planetary health).
• Knowledge on research and dissemination tools (quantitative and qualitative analysis methods, and e-communication skills).
• Knowledge on the determinants of health and well-being in urban environments, including four dimensions: environmental, social, cultural and economic.
• Knowledge on the tools and methods tested by practitioners to increase good health and well-being among citizens.
• Ability to apply this knowledge in real urban scenarios.

Metrics, tools and methods for planning and designing healthy and sustainable built environments, will be elicited through literature review –scientific evidence-, and analysis of case studies at all scales –from policies and regulations to planning and design- related to each dimension. This content reviewed in the seminars will then be applied in a workshop (focusing on the transformation of the built environment in a specific case study) using a holistic approach. The mains topics proposed for this first edition are:

• Environmental Dimension: (1) Environmental Epidemiology: Air Pollution, Noise, Green Spaces, Temperature. (2) Mobility: Sustainable Transport Systems, Transport Planning, Infrastructure and Cities. (3) Energy and Waste: Materials and Energy Flows, Waste Collection, Energy Transition. (4) Food and Water:  Peri-urban Agriculture, Food/Water Planning and Governance, Climate/Food/Water Emergency. (5) Nature-Based Solutions: Blue and Grey Infrastructure.
• Social Dimension: (1) Physical Activity in the City (Benefits/Problems), The City as a Gym. (2) Safety Perception: Determinants of Fear, Effects of Fear in Public Space. (3) Empowerment and Social Capital: Empowerment Theories and Urban Transformation, Social Capital in Urban Areas. (4) Environmental Justice: Gentrification and Health in Global Cities, Health Effects in Gentrified Neighbourhoods. (5) Everyday Urbanism: Cooperative Urban Transformation Processes. (6) Citizen Science: Evaluation of Citizen Science Initiatives, Co-Designing Citizen Science Projects, Citizen Science and Urban Sustainability.
• Cultural dimension: (1) Place Attachment: Place Meanings and Living Experience, Applications of Place Attachment and Place Identity to Urban Planning Processes. (2) Urban Sense of Place: The Modern Urban Sense of Place, From Genius-Loci to Placelessness, Urbanalisation, Sense of Place after Urbanalszation. (3) Landscape Values and Development: From Landscape Characterisation to Landscape Management, Planning the Landscape with Communities, Planning Ordinary Landscapes. (4) Heritage in Urban Intervention: Mapping Heritage, Cultural Landscapes Recovery, Cultural Tourism, Cultural Heritage and Cooperative Processes. (5) City and Identity. Identity in Designing New Cities, Designing Proximity, Intermediate Landscapes; Pre-Urban Patterns.
• Economic dimension: (1) Economic Evaluation: Efficiency in Decision-Making, Environmental Valuation Techniques, Cost-Benefit Analysis. (2) Sustainable Economy: Circular Economy, Sharing Economy, Local Economy.