The crisis of COVID-19 and its requirements for physical distancing, staying at home and handwashing have re-established public health’s link with urban planning. The early origins of the planning movement in the 19th century were in response to the poor health conditions in Europe’s rapidly industrializing cities. By taking a public health perspective, planners influenced […]
Five million houses: where and how?
Imran Khan’s government’s announcement to build 5 million houses is timely and welcoming. However, the question is where to build these houses, how to build these houses, for whom to build these houses and its relationship with job destinations, social network and public transport availability? Building mass housing, especially low-cost housing, is not a new […]
100 billion trees to a green economy
Can Imran Khan’s goal to plant 10 billion trees change the future of Pakistan? In my opinion, planting 10 billion trees will not only benefit the environment through improved air quality, temperature reduction and wider climate change benefits; it will also be a step towards a green and healthy economic future. However, the critical question […]
Climate change and our cities
In the second week of April this year, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released its fifth assessment report on climate change mitigation. Over 270 lead academics and scientists from 58 different countries were involved as volunteers in making a neutral assessment of scientific knowledge on mitigating climate change to help policy-makers make well […]