MOBI-HEALTH: Mobility, Health and Inclusive Urban Epidemic Resilience

MOBI-HEALTH fokuserer på effektene av pandemiens ulike faser på mobilitet, digitalisering og helse, og hvordan disse effektene slår ut i forskjellige områder og for ulike deler av befolkningen. Hovedmålet var å skaffe kunnskap som kan bidra til økt robusthet mot epidemier innenfor rammen av inkluderende og bærekraftig by- og tettstedsutvikling. Ulike metoder har blitt benyttet for å belyse problemstillingen. Prosjektet har gjennomført flere runder med spørreundersøkelser (2020, 2021, 2022) og dybdeintervjuer (2020, 2022) blant innbyggere i stor-Oslo og Luxembourg, samt dybdeintervjuer med planleggere i Oslo og Bergen (2021, 2023/2024) om pandemi-erfaringer og konsekvenser for byplanlegging. Vi har også analysert historisk mobildata for perioden 2019–2023. Resultatene viser at COVID-19-pandemien har endret daglig mobilitet og bruk av digitale alternativer dramatisk. Noen endringer har positive miljø- og helseimplikasjoner, for eksempel økt sykling og gange, eller at langdistansereiser ble erstattet av digitale møter. Andre endringer kan ha negative effekter, som unngåelse eller frykt for å bruke kollektivtransport, eller økt privat bilbruk. Vi har undersøkt hvilke endrede mobilitets- og digitaliseringsmønstre som mest sannsynlig vil vedvare, og hvilke som vil gå tilbake til tidligere mønstre. Prosjektet viser også at pandemien har påvirket opplevd tilgjengelighet og boligpreferanser. Et annet element som fremkommer i forskningen, er hvordan pandemien og endringer i mobilitet påvirker mental helse og tillit til samfunnet. Det er også viktig å påpeke at generelle tendenser skjuler store forskjeller mellom ulike sosiale grupper og geografiske områder. Vi fant for eksempel at pandemien rammet kvinner hardere enn menn, spesielt når det gjelder opplevd frykt og stress i kollektivtrafikken. En viktig oppgave for politikk og planlegging i byområder er å hindre at denne og eventuelle fremtidige pandemier rammer skjevt, at eksisterende ulikheter minskes, og å sikre at pågående bærekraftsmål opprettholdes.

The academic impact of MOBI-HEALTH has been fourfold: First, the project provided a transdisciplinary understanding of how land use, mobility, digitalisation, mental health, and epidemiological vulnerability intersected, integrating knowledge from urban planning, psychology, mobility, and public health. Second, international comparisons between Oslo, Stockholm, and Luxembourg revealed how differing epidemic trajectories, governmental responses, societal trust, and risk perceptions affected outcomes. Third, longitudinal comparisons across pre-, peri-, and post-epidemic phases offered insights into COVID-19’s impacts on wellbeing, health, sustainability, as well as its significance for social innovation processes. Fourth, MOBI-HEALTH highlighted uneven health and mobility vulnerabilities across societal groups and geographic contexts. The project societal impact has been threefold. First, thanks to early peri-epidemic data collection and follow-ups, the project produced timely initial insights on travel restrictions, group- and area-specific effects, and pandemic vulnerabilities. These insights had the potential to support COVID-19 risk management in the studied city regions and to generate generalisable lessons for other urban contexts, highlighting context-sensitive responses. Second, although the immediate COVID-19 threat had subsided by the time some of the later outputs were disseminated, the knowledge remained relevant. By identifying epidemic and other inequalities in health, digitalisation, and mobility, and exploring urban epidemic resilience pathways that could support mitigation alongside other societal goals, MOBI- HEALTH has the potential to strengthen local capacity to manage and recover from future epidemic threats, as well as to draw lessons from the pandemic in other areas, such as for addressing social inequalities or behavioural change required to mitigate climate crisis. Third, MOBI-HEALTH outputs have the potential to contribute to five UN Sustainable Development Goals: SDG 3 (health and wellbeing), SDG 9 (resilient infrastructure), SDG 10 (reduced inequalities), SDG 11 (sustainable cities and communities), and SDG 13 (climate action).

Background: COVID19 presents our most serious health threat in over a century. The linkages of this health crisis to mobility are profound and complex. Extensive global mobility has facilitated a global spread of the virus more widely and rapidly than ever before. Yet, in the absence of effective and approved pharmaceutical intervention, unprecedented mobility restrictions have become our prevailing medicine to suppress COVID19 mortality and relieve healthcare demand all around the world. The rapidly changing landscape of epidemic, economic and societal conditions has revealed deep epidemic vulnerabilities in cities that intersect with health, mobility, digital and socioeconomic inequalities. MOBI-HEALTH produces transdisciplinary knowledge on the interdependencies, impacts and inequalities of mobility, digitalisation and health in face of COVID19, to support inclusive urban epidemic resilience. It will do so by drawing on quantitative and qualitative empirical investigations of pre, peri- and post-epidemic mobility, digital, health and policy/planning practices and perceptions (several already ongoing given the time-urgency of matters), and with an international comparative design across cases from the greater Oslo, Bergen, Luxembourg and Stockholm areas. The project analyses the effects of the built environment and socio-economic status on epidemic vulnerability in urban neighbourhoods, directly and via its effects on travel responses during confinement. It also addresses people's practices of (digital) mobility and experiences of fear, (dis)trust and wellbeing under confinement, as well as the mid- and long term impacts on sustainable mobility, residential choice and health. The project discusses how the produced knowledge can support the implementation of epidemic resilience in alongside other goals in planning processes towards inclusive and sustainable urban transformation.