Science Committee of the International Council for Science Global Programme on Health and Wellbeing in the Changing Urban Environment

Preamble: Processes of rapid regional and global change are transforming living spaces, lifestyles and demography, and, increasingly, the environment of the Earth itself, with important consequences for human health and wellbeing. Among the forces affecting health, urbanization is of primary importance—most people already live in cities, and the fraction of urban dwellers is rapidly increasing, entailing, inter alia, a geographical shift in the global and national incidence of poverty, mass migrations, crowded habitations, and significant stresses on resources and ecosystems.

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