Urban Health as a New Vector to Characterise Vulnerable Neighbourhoods

Abstract

For decades, public administrations have been working on rigorous analysis to identify and delimit vulnerable neighbourhoods in order to prioritize their regeneration and rehabilitation actions. The progress and improvements have been significant, mainly in Euskadi (Spain), thanks to an alignment of economic investment with an exhaustive knowledge based on the articulation of indicators that integrate social, economic, environmental, and urban data into a digital open access platform (GeoEuskadi). However, despite all these plans and actions, most vulnerable neighbourhoods continue to have these challenges. This situation has made the Government of Euskadi contract a pilot plan with the aim of establishing a new methodology to characterise vulnerable residential areas. The new methodology has focused on urban health and well-being, combining quantitative and qualitative data, and the analyses for this goal are presented in this chapter.