Human health and wellbeing and the health of the biosphere are inextricably linked. The state of Earth’s life-support systems, including freshwater, oceans, land, biodiversity, atmosphere, and climate, affect human health. At the same time, human activities are adversely affecting natural systems. This review paper is the outcome of an interdisciplinary workshop under the auspices of the Future Earth Health Knowledge Action Network (Health KAN). It outlines a research agenda to address cross-cutting knowledge gaps to further understanding and management of the health risks of these global environmental changes through an expert consultation and review process. The research agenda has four main themes: (1) risk identification and management (including related to water, hygiene, sanitation, and waste management); food production and consumption; oceans; and extreme weather events and climate change. (2) Strengthening climate-resilient health systems; (3) Monitoring, surveillance, and evaluation; and (4) risk communication. Research approaches need to be transdisciplinary, multi-scalar, inclusive, equitable, and broadly communicated. Promoting resilient and sustainable development are critical for achieving human and planetary health.

From a complexity science perspective, urban health and well-being challenges emerge due to the complexity of urban systems. Adverse urban health outcomes emerge from failing to respond to that complexity by taking a systems approach in knowledge and action which would open opportunity spaces for human agents to create benefits which in turn would generate salutogenic health and well-being outcomes. Lessons learned from complexity science suggest that adverse urban health outcomes emerge from a poor understanding of their complexity and from not engaging with them in a transdisciplinary, integrated fashion. A conceptual framework is presented which combines systems models from the natural and social sciences and explains how opportunities for advancing health and well-being can be co-created. The framework demonstrates that taking a systems approach is a necessary cognitive response from learning the lessons of complexity science and from understanding that humans are an inextricable part of the systems they aim at understanding and managing. Such response is at the core of systems intelligence. The implications are far reaching for the science of urban health and well-being.

The form of human settlements impacts on planetary health, population health and health equity. Yet goals for urban and territorial planning are only tangentially linked to public health outcomes. The WHO and UN-Habitat support actions to bring health to the fore in planning and design of human settlements, recently publishing ‘Integrating Health in Urban and Territorial Planning: a sourcebook’ focusing on ‘why’ action is needed, ‘how’ to initiate it; and curating several existing resources on ‘what’ to do. Recommendations for research, policy and practice include calls for rapid development of closer relationships between public health and spatial planning.

Household-level food storage can help families save money, minimize food waste, and enhance food safety and security. Storing food within households may, however, be affected by domestic routines, like food shopping and cooking. Therefore, it is essential to evaluate how consumers’ attitudes and behaviors influence food storage at the household level. This study aimed to assess the determinants of household-level food storage, ascertain consumers’ behavior and perception towards food storage, and assess the effect of household-level food storage on food safety, wastage, food expenditure and security. Dzorwulu and Jamestown, both located in Accra, Ghana, served as the study’s primary sites. The study employed a survey and structural equation modeling to evaluate key determinants of household-level food storage practices and their impacts. A semi-structured questionnaire was administered to 400 food household heads, sampled using a systematic sampling procedure. The results showed that food shopping drives food storage. There was, however, significant negative association (p < 0.001) between food shopping and time of food storage. Although cooking impedes household-level food storage, there was significant positive association (p < 0.001) between frequency of cooking and storage period of food commodities. The findings also revealed that household-level food storage promotes food safety, reduces food expenditure and waste, and contributes to enhancing food security by 43%. To promote household-level food storage and ensure food safety and security, future study should concentrate on enhancing conventional household-level food storage practices that are efficient, cheaper and easily implementable.

The intensity and range of health challenges that people in cities are facing has increased in recent years. This is due in part to a failure to adequately adapt and respond to emergent and expanding global systemic risks, but also to a still-limited understanding of the profound impacts of complexity on urban health. While complexity science is increasingly embraced by the health and urban sciences, it has yet to be functionally incorporated into urban health research, policy, and practice. Accelerating urbanization in a context of escalating environmental constraints will require deeper engagement with complexity, yet also, paradoxically, much swifter, more effective, and more risk-averse decision-making. Meeting these demands will require adopting a science, policy and practice style which is integrative, inclusive, collaborative, systemic, fast, and frugal. We propose transformational shifts in scientific methodology, epistemological and ontological stances, types of rationality, and governance to shift researchers, policymakers, practitioners, and citizens towards a new, complexity-informed science of urban health.