Musings on neurourbanism, public space and urban health

Abstract The recent pandemic outbreak warned of the urgent need for closer interaction between health and spatial planning. The relationship between urban space and health has been widely proven and led to the emergence of new concepts, such as neurourbanism, an interdisciplinary field of research that aims to explain the relationship between mental health and the well-being of city life. The embryonic state of these interdisciplinary research fields requires further contributions to their consolidation and guidelines for practitioners and policymakers. The main aim of this article is to contribute to the discussion through reflections on public spaces and urban health. A critical analysis was conducted to respond to the following specific objectives: 1) to highlight the importance of public space for the promotion of quality of life; 2) to reinforce the awareness that the urban environment affects mental health and well-being; 3) to propose an organisation of health impact factors (determinants of urban health) that works as a tool for objective health assessment and monitoring in cities and; 4) to reinforce work on the importance of neurourbanism as an interdisciplinary science that unites neuroscience and urban planning. Despite the empirical association between health (physical and mental) and the built environment recently demonstrated Covid-19 pandemic, scarce research and evidence-based recommendations have been produced towards healthier cities.