Developing livable cities: do we have what it takes?

ABSTRACT

A popular and intuitive way to capture the quality of life in cities is by evaluating ‘livability.’ This study aims to gain insight on the types, importance, and availability of skills needed to develop livable cities, as perceived by researchers and practitioners. Participants in a separate concept mapping project were asked to provide a list of the skills they found most important to the development of livable cities. Responses were synthesized into broader categories. Survey respondents most referenced Collaboration, Communication, and Community Engagement. In a second phase, respondents were asked to select those that they felt were most important. Collaboration and Community Engagement were the two most frequently selected skills in the second phase. Results were compared against competency requirements for program accreditation in the fields of Public Health, Urban Planning, Architecture, Landscape Architecture, and Parks and Recreation Administration. All are vital partners in livable city development. Further trends, similarities, and differences are discussed. This study underscores the enduring need for ‘soft skills,’ non-traditional approaches to education and workforce development, and the increasing relevance of team science. Understanding the skills needed for livable city development helps ensure researchers and practitioners are equipped to participate.

KEYWORDS:

• Livability
• evidence-based practice
• professional competence
• urban health
• urban planning

This article is related to:

Research for city practice

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Prevention Research Center (St. Louis).

Notes on contributors

Samuel Yang

Samuel Yang was a Masters Research Fellow with the Developing Livable Cities project. He graduated from Washington University in St. Louis with his Master of Public Health, specializing in urban design, and is a member of the class of 2022 at Harvard Law School. He has an undergraduate degree from the University of Alabama.

Amy Eyler

Dr. Amy Eyler is an Associate Professor of Public Health in the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis and the Deputy Director of the Prevention Research Center in St. Louis. Her research focus is physical activity policy and chronic disease prevention.

Ross Brownson

Dr. Ross Brownson is the Lipstein Distinguished Professor of Public Health at Washington University in St. Louis. He studies the translation of evidence to public health practice and policy, with a content focus on environmental and policy determinants of chronic diseases. Dr. Brownson is the author of 15 books and over 550 peer-reviewed articles. He has received numerous awards for his work. Among these, he is the recipient of the American Public Health Association’s (APHA) Abraham Lilienfeld Award for excellence in teaching and mentoring (2003) and the APHA Award for Excellence (2016).

Linda Samuels

Dr. Linda Samuels is an Associate professor of urban design at Washington University in St. Louis where she teaches infrastructural urbanism studios and seminars on urban theory and sustainability. Dr. Samuels was co-PI on a 2017-18 Mellon Humanities Divided Cities grant, Mobility For All By All, which aimed to increase the social and environmental benefits of St. Louis’s proposed Metrolink expansion. Her publications include “Top/Up Urbanism” (2017) in Amplified Urbanism, “Stitches and Insertions” in Cuff and Sherman's Fast-Forward Urbanism (2011), and “Working Public Architecture” (2010) in Places journal. She is currently writing a book with Routledge Press entitled Infrastructural Optimism.

Grace Kyung

Grace Kyung is a Project Manager with Urban Strategies, Inc. Grace works as a catalyst in changing the way we plan for communities by applying a health and racial equity lens to equitable development. To do this in a just way, she works alongside communities to recognize historical circumstances and the current conditions necessary to achieve equity. Grace has a Master in Public Health and a Master in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Rodrigo Reis

Dr. Rodrigo Reis is a Professor of public health and chair of the urban design and public health MPH specialization at Washington University in St Louis, and Associate Professor at the Urban Management Graduate Program at the Pontifical Catholic University of Parana in Curitiba, Brazil. His research focuses on built environment, active transportation, quality of life and public health. His policy and research experience includes large built environment and community-based projects and policies in Latin America and United States.