Assessing spatial indicators in global healthy and sustainable city initiatives: a Jakarta context

Source abstract

Promoting healthy and sustainable cities through urban design and planning is essential to improving the urban environment and overall population well-being. The Global Healthy and Sustainable City Indicators (GHSCI) initiative is a collaborative effort that provides open-source tools to support the development of spatial indicators for urban health promotion. This study used GHSCI software to analyze spatial indicator data for the Jakarta region. The collected data were evaluated and compared with the median values of the 25 initial cities from GHSCI’s first collaboration project. The research findings highlight Jakarta’s comparative position among other cities within the GHSCI framework. An analysis of GHSCI reveals both strengths and weaknesses in Jakarta’s efforts to achieve a healthy and sustainable urban status. Key findings include limited access to fresh food markets; high intersection density in most neighborhoods, which may serve as a potential marker for promoting walkability; and widespread access to public transportation, with the majority of residents living within proximity to bus stops. While these indicators provide valuable information, this study suggests that future refinements of GHSCI could benefit from expanded indicators that incorporate lessons from recent public health crises to better predict urban health.