Collaborative Project Evaluates Urban Development Measures

How do urban development measures affect health, social justice, and ecological sustainability? Researchers are now investigating this in the SalusTransform collaborative project, which is being coordinated by the Institute of Public Health and Nursing Research at the University of Bremen.

The joint project, funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research with 1.66 million euros, begins in February 2025 and will run for a period of three years. Researchers from the University of Bremen, Bochum University of Applied Sciences, and the Wuppertal Institute are working together on the project. The aim is to comprehensively evaluate integrated urban development concepts (ISEK). These concepts are designed to improve the situation in urban, socially, and economically disadvantaged areas.

ISEK are control and coordination instruments for urban development in a municipality. These include a variety of measures that improve the quality of residential buildings, mobility options, or public green and open spaces, as well as social and health care structures. The development of new ideas for the use of vacant shops or for improving the image of the district can also be among the measures. So far, mainly the processes for developing and implementing integrated urban development concepts have been evaluated, but not their effects on health, social justice, and ecological sustainability.

Comprehensive evaluation of integrated urban development concepts for the first time

The aim of SalusTransform is to comprehensively evaluate integrated urban development concepts in Germany for the first time. The aim is to clarify whether the concepts as a whole lead to an improvement in health, a reduction in social inequalities, and greater ecological sustainability. To this end, integrated urban development concepts in the cities of Bremen, Bochum, and Wuppertal were selected. Together with the stakeholders from the municipal administration and from the urban districts, the project team is analysing how the concepts were designed and the individual measures implemented. The researchers are also investigating the extent to which integrated urban development concepts can contribute to establishing health-promoting and sustainable living conditions for everyone in the urban district. To do this, one district in each of the three cities with an integrated urban development concept will be compared with a district without such a concept. In Bremen, for example, the researchers are comparing the district of Blumenthal, for which such a concept was adopted in spring 2023, with the district of Kirchhuchting.

The evaluation includes municipal data on population structure, traffic volume, noise pollution, and the quality of green spaces, among other things. On the other hand, the researchers collect extensive data by surveying residents, conducting interviews with stakeholders involved in implementing the measures, and using participatory formats such as neighborhood walks and citizen science approaches to measure air pollution.

In the SalusTransform project, the Wuppertal Institute is responsible for measuring air quality with the help of particulate matter sensors and the assessment of the  biodiversity and ecological quality as well as traffic counts in Bremen, Bochum and Wuppertal  through district inspections. The researchers are also evaluating the processes and results in Wuppertal and conducting qualitative interviews with municipal representatives of the Wuppertal city administration. "In the SalusTransform project, we are taking a close look at the impacts of urban development measures on the living conditions and lifestyles of the city residents," emphasises Dr. Franziska Stelzer, project manager at the Wuppertal Institute and senior researcher in the Innovation Labs Research Unit.

The methodology for evaluating integrated urban development concepts, which is being developed and tested within the framework of SalusTransform, should be able to be continued in the participating municipalities and transferred to others. This aims to support the consideration of health equity in municipalities.

Joint Press Release

Wuppertal Institut für Klima, Umwelt, Energie gGmbH
Responsible for content: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Manfred Fischedick, President and Scientific Managing Director
Press contact: Luisa Lucas, Deputy Head of Public Relations
Tel: +49 202 2492-292
Email: luisa.lucas@wupperinst.org

Scientific contact person
Dr. Franziska Stelzer
Tel: +49 202-2492-224
Email: franziska.stelzer@wupperinst.org