Urban Environment is the natural, built and institutional elements that determine the physical, mental and social health and wellbeing of people who live in cities and towns.
The urban environment is more than a physically defined entity. It includes the environmental and ecological context, psycho-social structures and supports, and patterns of migration as well as all aspects of the geography and politics of cities. Hence, governance arrangements, cultural identities and related activities, housing and urban form, education, food security, health services, land use and tenure, transport, water, crime and exposure to pollutants and extreme weather events are all dimensions of urban life that are properly included in a focus on health in a changing urban environment. (Chen, 2011)
Happiness
The quantitative analysis of happiness by social scientists has resulted in the development of sophisticated scales to measure individual and collective norms that include satisfaction with life as a whole as well as with various domains of life, such as health and income. And there are a number of on-going surveys that attempt to measure “happiness,” one being the Australian Unity Wellbeing Index, which has been measuring the happiness of Australians since April 2001 (see Cummins et al. 2003). It uses the Subjective Wellbeing Homeostasis management system, which suggests that we hold happiness within a relatively narrow range of values. It has been shown to be resilient. It would seem
Lyubomirsky defines happiness as the “experience of joy, contentment, or positive well-being, combined with a sense that one’s life is good, meaningful, and worthwhile” (184). She challenges the myths that people can find happiness by changing their circumstances and that people either are “born happy or unhappy” (186). Happiness is not something that can be found or something that not everyone can have. People make their own happiness, despite the difficulties they may face. Happiness comes by “choosing to change and manage your state of mind” (185). Lyubomirsky gives cases of people who are happy even though they suffer from losses and setbacks. These are the people whose circumstances should make them unhappy, but their intentional actions bring them joy. She also gives cases of people who have not suffered any major losses but are still unhappy because they may see events negatively and feel helpless before them. Lyubomirsky asserts that “changes in our circumstances, no matter how positive and stunning, actually have little bearing on our well-being” (186). Even though a person’s circumstances may be positive, those circumstances do not make them happy. Lyubomirsky uses a Subjective Happiness Scale to measure happiness, which takes the average of numerical answers to four questions. She argues that in order to become happier, “you need to determine your present personal happiness level, which will provide your first estimate of your happiness
Happiness, an elusive eight letter word with a mighty punch! Many have sought to define happiness, but found it a difficult task to do. While reading an article published in the New Yorker by Will Sorr on July 07, 2017 titled “A Better Kind of Happiness”, I was informed that happiness is more than just a word, happiness is essential to the well-being of human health. Dating back nearly two and half million years ago an ancient Greek Philosopher and scientist, Aristotle, proposed the idea of eudaemonic happiness. He stated that “happiness was not merely a feeling, or a golden promise, but a
Urban sustainability is the idea that an urban area can be organised without excessive reliance on the surrounding countryside and be able to power itself with renewable sources of energy. The aim of this is to create the smallest possible environmental footprint and to produce the lowest quantity of pollution possible, to efficiently use land, compost used materials, recycle it or convert waste-to-energy, and to make the urban area overall contribution to climate change minimal. Therefore allowing the next generations and future generations to have the required resources without compromising them. However sustainably needs to focus also on other issues such as crime and economic factors.
Happiness is a popular topic that is constantly being discussed by experts around the world. In the article “Happy Like God”, written by Simon Critchley, Critchley proposes his view on happiness and its inability to be measured or found through sources outside of ones-self. In another piece written by Richard Schoch, titled “A Crtique of Positive Psychology”, Schoch also discusses the topic through a process of critiquing studies and experiments that claim to have the answer to happiness. Both of these texts not only make claims that happiness cannot be measured, but they also bring questions to the table that provide valuable insights on the wrong answers in order for us to find the right ones.
Urban geography is a term that addresses the location of a city as well as that cities access to natural resources. Urban ecology, however, “analyzes how people spread out within an urban area” (12). According to the author the geographical location of a city is determined by geographical assets.” That is, the availability of water, ability to produce goods, and access to transportation routes (12).
Cities have always been the center of economic growth and development. People like to live the city lifestyle because of its promise for many jobs and prosperity. (L, Katherine) But as we look deeper into the health concerns of Canadian cities, we can find that they are becoming less healthy for citizens to live because of urbanization, pollution and poor water treatment. Municipalities in Canada should continue to look at solutions in how to make a more sustainable lifestyle to benefit the public health of local citizens.
Urbanization is currently having a huge effect on civilization causing appalling living conditions, widespread disease, and a influx in crime; which is shortening peoples lives. This terrible event is being caused by the appearance of Industrialization. With the increase of machine-based job availability in factories that are alongside each other thousands of people are flooding to nearby cities that are not prepared for them. With many unprepared cities doubling or even tripling in population and nothing to keep them in order the cities are covered in dirty, leftover trash and the housing often includes full families in small, damp, bare rooms. These unfitting environments are the reason people are often coming down with illnesses that are easily spread to become epidemics that can effect everyone.
An urban environment can majorly effect on an individual itself or others around them. The effect on them can either be positive or negative depending on the environment. In the short story ‘The Pedestrian’ by Ray Bradbury, the urban environment has made a negative impact towards the individual, however in the poem ‘Homo Suburbanizes’ by Bruce Dawe the individual has found a happy place in a busy environment.
Ever since the establishment of cities, many migrated into the city hoping for a better future. With population grew larger overnight, many citizens are cramped into a small living space and forced to live under critical conditions. Despite the fact that there were many inventions formed to regulate a healthier living conditions, we are still facing problems that haunted naïve cities during the past Victorian period.
City life involves not just the relations of people with one another or with the environment in some generic sense of spatiality or natural resources. People live
City life refers to living in a settlement of significant size and importance in terms of permanent human population, commerce and culture. Studies have shown that living in the city is straining for both the body and the brain. Most city dwellers have high rates of psychosis, anxiety disorders and depression. Why is this so? City dwellers being resident of a city typically face more noise, fast paced life and growing demands in their workplace and are expected to do many things within short time frame. Land in the city is scare and expensive so city dwellers need to share the limited space with many people. When more people are packed into a given area, conflicts developed and chances of arguments and fights occurring become high. Although
As unique environmental aspects of education are considered, common aspects of urban living must be considered as they have a major impact on the
Urbanization is the relative increase of the urban population as a proportion of the local population and it is occurring on a much larger scale than ever experienced (Trivedi, Sareen, & Dhya, 2008).
Urbanization is increasing in both the developed and developing countries. However, rapid urbanization, particularly the growth of large cities, and the associated problems of unemployment, poverty, inadequate health, poor sanitation, urban slums and environmental degradation pose a formidable challenge in many developing countries. Available statistics show that more than half of the world’s 6.6 billion people live in urban areas, crowded into 3 percent of the earth’s land area (Angotti, 1993; UNFPA, 1993). The proportion of the world’s population living in urban areas, which was less than 5 percent in 1800 increased to 47 percent in 2000 and is expected to reach 65 percent in 2030 (United Nations, 1990; 1991). However, more
Urbanisation has become somewhat of a fast growing phenomenon in the last 40 years especially, but it was not always the case. In the year 1800 only 5% of the global population was urbanized (DeVries, 1984) but following the agricultural and industrial revolutions, that number grew. In England for example the urban population jumped from 17% in 1801 to 72% in 1891 (Watson, 1993), and according to the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population division, in 2011 52.% of people were living in urban areas worldwide (United Nations, 2012). The same department estimate that by the year 2050 close to 70% of the worlds population will be living in urban areas, which will equate to over 6 billion people (United Nations, 2012). The areas with the highest urban populations currently are those in Latin America, with 76% of the population living in urban areas in the year 2000, however South and East Asia are set to have the biggest jump in urban population in the next 40 years (UN,2004). Today the largest and fastest growing cities are in developing countries (Envio Facts 2001).This data shows that urbanisation is responsible for massive growth, obviously in urban settlements. This massive growth is bound to have some effects on the environment both negative and positive.