Scientific Outputs and Recognition
Overview | Selected peer-reviewed papers | Visual summaries
Overview
The Urban Design Science for Health Lab is internationally recognised for producing high-quality, interdisciplinary research that contributes to addressing complex urban challenges. Under the leadership of Prof KOOHSARI—ranked among the top 2% of scientists globally (Stanford/Elsevier 2021–2025)—the lab plays a central role in advancing urban design as a scientific discipline.
The lab’s work has informed academic debates and urban policy discussions worldwide, with particular relevance to urbanising and ageing regions in Asia. Its research contributes to the scientific evidence on the built environment and its associations with population health, environmental pressures, and social outcomes.
Indicators of the lab’s global academic impact include:
• Over 140 peer-reviewed publications in high-ranking international journals across urban design, planning, public health, informatics, geography, and transportation.
• 94 peer-reviewed publications (70.7%) published in Q1 journals (Scopus SciVal, 2025).
• 76 peer-reviewed publications (54.7%) in the top 25% most cited documents worldwide (Scopus SciVal, 2025).
• Inclusion in Research.com’s Best Scientists in Social Science and Humanities (2022, 2024, 2025, and 2026).
• Editorial board membership in journals such as Landscape & Urban Planning, npj Exercise Medicine & Health, Heart & Mind, and Clinical eHealth.
• Contributions to research fields such as spatial epidemiology, health-supportive neighbourhood design, AI-assisted urban design, urban informatics, and urban health inequality.
The lab’s outputs are regularly cited across multiple disciplines, including urban studies, public health, environmental science, artificial intelligence (AI), and data analytics. Its work supports global efforts to create cities that are liveable, adaptable, and guided by science-based, digitally informed governance.
This standing reflects a core mission: to generate transferable, actionable knowledge that strengthens the role of urban design science in shaping the future of cities.
Selected peer-reviewed papers
- Clinical medicine as a model for scientific rigour in urban design
The field of urban design has generated a substantial body of scientific research across areas such as health, walkability, sustainability, and space syntax. However, the field still lacks a systematic and formalised framework to support cumulative scientific progress. Its interdisciplinary nature is sometimes misperceived as a barrier to strengthening its… Read more: Clinical medicine as a model for scientific rigour in urban design - From Associations to Action: Parametric Urban Design Science for Cardiometabolic Health
The built environment influences cardiometabolic health by impacting human behaviours and environmental exposures. However, the current focus on identifying associations between static built environment measures and cardiometabolic health outcomes has limited practical relevance for urban design. Current approaches fail to capture the spatial complexity of urban environments or provide actionable… Read more: From Associations to Action: Parametric Urban Design Science for Cardiometabolic Health - Make cities more walkable, in the real world and in virtual reality
Your article (T. Althoff et al. Nature 645, 407–413; 2025) shows that residents of more-walkable cities — pedestrian-friendly, with access to nearby amenities — engage in more physical activity than people living in less-walkable cities do. Given that more than half of the world’s population lives in urban areas, it’s crucial to consider… Read more: Make cities more walkable, in the real world and in virtual reality - Revisiting public open space and physical activity: What we know, what we still don’t, and emerging issues—a decade later
Public open spaces provide settings for physical activity, but research on their role continues to develop. A decade ago, a paper published by Koohsari et al. (2015) in Health & Place identified key conceptual and methodological challenges in public open spaces and physical activity research. Since its publication, the paper… Read more: Revisiting public open space and physical activity: What we know, what we still don’t, and emerging issues—a decade later - Beyond companionship: Psycho-social benefits of pet ownership
Background Pet ownership, which has increased over the last decade, can offer owners health benefits. However, relatively few studies have examined the psycho-social benefits of pet ownership, particularly across diverse contexts and types of pets. Existing research is largely Western-focused, and has paid limited attention to the potential interrelationships between… Read more: Beyond companionship: Psycho-social benefits of pet ownership - Redesigning Urban Parks for Active Living in Dense Urban Areas: A Remote Audit Approach
The pervasive adoption of virtual audits has revolutionised the assessment of urban design attributes by eliminating the necessity for on-site visits. However, specialised virtual audit tools for evaluating urban parks that facilitate physical activity in high-density urban environments are still lacking. This study aims to (1) adapt the Audit Tool… Read more: Redesigning Urban Parks for Active Living in Dense Urban Areas: A Remote Audit Approach - At-Home Immersive Virtual Reality Exergames to Reduce Cardiometabolic Risk Among Office Workers: Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial
Background: The worldwide rise in the prevalence of noncommunicable diseases has increased the recognition of the need to identify modifiable risk factors for preventing and managing these diseases. The office worker, as a representative group of physically inactive workers, is exposed to risk factors for metabolic syndrome, which is a… Read more: At-Home Immersive Virtual Reality Exergames to Reduce Cardiometabolic Risk Among Office Workers: Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial - The built environment and place attachment: Insights from Japanese cities
Objective Place attachment plays an important role in individuals’ health and well-being. Understanding the associations between urban design attributes and place attachment can inform strategies to promote place attachment. This study aims to examine the associations between walkable built environment metrics and place attachment. Methods This study used data collected… Read more: The built environment and place attachment: Insights from Japanese cities - Developing and testing an audit tool for activity-friendly parks in dense urban areas of Asia
Parks are important urban design settings to promote physical activity within urban areas. However, existing park audit tools often do not address the unique challenges of high-density areas, especially in Asian contexts. This study presents the development and testing of the audiT tool for Activity-friendly Parks in denSe urban areas… Read more: Developing and testing an audit tool for activity-friendly parks in dense urban areas of Asia - Can urban design be a science for health studies?
Urban design is an interdisciplinary discipline integrating elements of science and art, depending on each discipline being researched or practiced. Its classification as a science, a non-science (i.e., an art), or both, remains a widely debated topic in the field. This paper presents at least three reasons why urban design… Read more: Can urban design be a science for health studies? - Active workplace design: current gaps and future pathways
Insufficient physical activity and excessive sitting time among office-based workers have been linked to various health risks and economic consequences. While health promotion interventions are essential, the role of workplace design in encouraging active behaviours is increasingly recognised. However, significant gaps exist in knowledge about how workplace design influences these… Read more: Active workplace design: current gaps and future pathways - Residential greenspace and health: Quantity or quality?
By adopting the perspective of park quality, this article aims to contribute to the ongoing scholarly discourse on the relationship between public green space and health. Koohsari, M. J., Kaczynski, A. T., & Oka, K. (2023). Residential greenspace and health: Quantity or quality?. The Lancet Planetary Health. 7(9): e734. - Urban design and cardio-metabolic risk factors
Accumulating evidence suggests that the built environment may be associated with cardiovascular disease via its influence on health behaviours. The aim of this study was to estimate the associations between traditional and novel neighbourhood built environment metrics and clinically assessed cardio-metabolic risk factors among a sample of adults in Canada.… Read more: Urban design and cardio-metabolic risk factors - The Metaverse, the built environment, and public health: Opportunities and uncertainties
There has been a growing interest in the “metaverse,” and discourse about how this platform may contribute to different fields of science is already beginning to emerge. In this paper, we discuss key opportunities and uncertainties about how a metaverse might contribute to advancing knowledge in the interdisciplinary field of… Read more: The Metaverse, the built environment, and public health: Opportunities and uncertainties - Built environment design and cancer prevention through the lens of inequality
In this interdisciplinary article, we provided an evidence-based discussion on the role of the supportive built environment on cancer prevention. We also extended the theoretical thinking on the built environment-cancer links by raising possible equality challenges. Following the recent call in population-level interventions in cancer prevention, our aim is to… Read more: Built environment design and cancer prevention through the lens of inequality - Neighbourhood built environment and cardiovascular disease: Knowledge and future directions
Awareness of the effect of the neighbourhood built environment on cardiovascular diseases is growing. In this Comment, we identify major conceptual, methodological and policy-relevant issues in research related to the built environment and describe potential future directions to improve the scientific rigour of research in this field. Koohsari, M. J.,… Read more: Neighbourhood built environment and cardiovascular disease: Knowledge and future directions - Associations of neighbourhood environmental attributes with walking in Japan: Moderating effects of area-level socioeconomic status
Several studies have examined how the associations of built environment attributes with walking behaviours may be moderated by socio-economic status (SES). Such understanding is important to address socio-economic inequalities in health through environmental initiatives. However, to date, there is no study examining the moderation effects of SES in the relationships… Read more: Associations of neighbourhood environmental attributes with walking in Japan: Moderating effects of area-level socioeconomic status - Public open space, physical activity, urban design and public health: Concepts, methods and research agenda
Public open spaces such as parks and green spaces are key built environment elements within neighbourhoods for encouraging a variety of physical activity behaviours. Over the past decade, there has been a burgeoning number of active living research studies examining the influence of public open space on physical activity. However,… Read more: Public open space, physical activity, urban design and public health: Concepts, methods and research agenda
The full list of peer-reviewed articles can be found here.
Visual summaries
