The UK National Innovation Centre for Ageing (NICA) has launched a global initiative to prioritise health and longevity in urban areas.
The City of Longevity project will be geared towards promoting healthy habits and lifestyles for those living in cities, allowing both ageing and young communities to thrive, according to NICA. This will be supplemented by data to optimise urban planning and design to boost wellbeing.
The project is designed to provide toolkits and guidance for local government, planners, policy makers and citizens to implement healthier lifestyle advice and build wellbeing-centric communities.
Nic Palmarini, director of NICA, said, “Cities are more exposed to the consequences of age-related social and demographic changes due to the faster nature of change, living standards, more complex social composition and the greater degree of human design and initiative that their functioning requires. For this reason, not only do governments have the fundamental role in defining how to react to our ageing society simply, but they also have the critical opportunity to suggest ‘proposals’ rather than ‘responses’ to this phenomenon.”
