Multicity research networks are needed to address global One Health challenges

Résumé fourni par la source

Urban areas are Earth's fastest growing land-use type (Gao and O'Neill 2020) and face unique One Health challenges at the intersection of human, animal, and environmental health. With urban development comes noise pollution, light pollution, elevated contaminant exposure risk, heat, habitat loss, and spillover risk from novel species assemblages, all of which affect the health of animals, people, and urban ecosystems (Murray et al. 2022). These processes also differ among neighborhoods on the basis of racial discrimination, income disparities, and gentrification, contributing to health inequity (Schell et al. 2020). Because of these challenges, cities must be at the forefront of One Health solutions. Most of humanity lives in cities and this proportion is expected to grow, particularly in the Global South (Jiang and O'Neill 2016). Therefore, One Health policies in cities will heavily affect the global population. Urban green spaces (i.e., vegetated areas such as parks and preserves) are increasingly recognized for supporting biodiversity conservation (Lepczyk et al. 2017) and human health (Felappi et al. 2020). Urban green spaces support urban-adapted wildlife, as well as species of conservation concern (Soanes and Lentini 2019), and promote mental restoration in people (Grahn and Stigsdotter 2010). Promoting local healthy urban ecosystems will therefore have global benefits to both people and biodiversity.