More than 50% of the world’s population currently lives in urban areas and it is estimated that this number will rise to 80% by 2025, particularly in Africa and Asia. Not only will this result in more megacities, but the estimated 1 billion people currently living in slum-like conditions could double by 2030. It is commonly assumed that economic growth and demographic changes result in better health outcomes. However, increasing urbanization poses major challenges, including clean water supply, sanitation, and environmental pollution, and has been linked to profound lifestyle changes and unfavorable outcomes. Furthermore, the double burden of disease largely affects the growing lower socioeconomic population of cities. Through collaboration with the Institute for Risk Assessment Sciences and the Faculty of Geosciences at Utrecht University, Julius Global Health conducts research on the human health risks associated with exposure to potentially harmful agents in the environment.
Exposome research
Environmental Health research has long been limited by fragmentation and compartmentalization of environmental stressors, which has made it difficult to get a full understanding of the crucial impact of the environment on health. Julius Global Health is involved in exposome research, which recognizes the totality of environmental exposures over the life course. Through partnerships between Utrecht University, the Chinese University of Hong Kong and the University of Toronto, researchers aim to contribute to the development and implementation of new technologies to study the single and combined effects of environmental stressors.
Global Geo Data and Health Centre
The Global Geo Health Data Center (GGHDC) is a shared data infrastructure of Utrecht University (UU) and the University Medical Center Utrecht (UMC Utrecht). GGHDC studies the role of the physical and social environment on health by providing a web service capable of linking personal environmental exposure data to health outcomes.
With the advanced geocomputing framework, our scientists link high-quality environmental data sets to large global healthcare cohort studies. The research results can assist urban planners, designers, and policy makers in working toward healthier cities.
Planetary health
The University Medical Center Utrecht (UMC Utrecht) is one of the eight academic hospitals in the Netherlands. UMC Utrecht aims to contribute to a healthy life and a healthy society, not only for ourselves, but also for all future generations, by providing care, education and research that is future-proof, both ecologically and economically as well as socially.
Examples of our work are the Exposome research hub, our Planetary Health educational vision and interdisciplinary courses, the ePlanet consortium (international collaboration to create educational platform on planetary health for the medical curriculum), our close collaboration with other science institutes in the country on this subject (www.ewuu.nl) and our research work with partners in low- and middle income countries. For more information, please see: https://www.umcutrecht.nl/en/sustainability.