Pub Date : 2026-01-22DOI: 10.1038/s44284-025-00371-2
Liming Yao
The intensity of urban life can amplify that of urban work. Liming Yao reflects on his awakening to the quiet, easily missed comforts of bamboo during years of academic grind in Chengdu.
{"title":"Bamboo, Chengdu and I.","authors":"Liming Yao","doi":"10.1038/s44284-025-00371-2","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44284-025-00371-2","url":null,"abstract":"The intensity of urban life can amplify that of urban work. Liming Yao reflects on his awakening to the quiet, easily missed comforts of bamboo during years of academic grind in Chengdu.","PeriodicalId":501700,"journal":{"name":"Nature Cities","volume":"3 1","pages":"103-103"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-01-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146016520","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-01-22DOI: 10.1038/s44284-025-00387-8
Given the pressures cities faced in 2025, safety and mobility are deeply relevant for 2026. They are also two key themes in this issue of Nature Cities.
{"title":"Moving toward safety","authors":"","doi":"10.1038/s44284-025-00387-8","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44284-025-00387-8","url":null,"abstract":"Given the pressures cities faced in 2025, safety and mobility are deeply relevant for 2026. They are also two key themes in this issue of Nature Cities.","PeriodicalId":501700,"journal":{"name":"Nature Cities","volume":"3 1","pages":"1-1"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-01-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.comhttps://www.nature.com/articles/s44284-025-00387-8.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146016500","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-01-20DOI: 10.1038/s44284-025-00367-y
Smruthi Bala Kannan, Rahul Goel, Ernest Agyemang, Zahidul Quayyum, Srishti Agrawal, Anisur Rahman Bayazid, Jonathan Anjaria, Kavi Bhalla
Bicycling is promoted in low- and middle-income countries to reduce emissions and improve public health. However, transportation policies often replicate built infrastructure logics from high-income countries, with limited attention to local bicyclists’ experiences and contextual realities. Here, drawing on intercept surveys, semi-structured interviews and ethnographic observations in cities of four low- and middle-income countries, we examine the current state of bicycling and user-perceived barriers. We find that bicycling is largely undertaken by low-income adult men, while women and children cycle mainly within neighborhood enclaves. We identify impediments beyond physical infrastructure, including financial systems, maintenance networks, manufacturing and design capacities, and social supports that shape everyday cycling. Using a mobility justice lens, we examine how these bicycling cultures have persisted within automobile-centric urban geographies. We highlight the importance of addressing these evidence, policy and implementation gaps through an ‘ethics of care’ approach, supported by regional health and environmental agencies and grounded in context-sensitive research. Bicycling offers great benefits for urban residents in low- and middle-income countries, yet pathways to scale its adoption remain poorly understood. This study reveals the current state of bicycling infrastructure and policy, as well as key barriers, through fieldwork in four cities.
{"title":"The status and politics of bicycling in the cities of low- and middle-income countries","authors":"Smruthi Bala Kannan, Rahul Goel, Ernest Agyemang, Zahidul Quayyum, Srishti Agrawal, Anisur Rahman Bayazid, Jonathan Anjaria, Kavi Bhalla","doi":"10.1038/s44284-025-00367-y","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44284-025-00367-y","url":null,"abstract":"Bicycling is promoted in low- and middle-income countries to reduce emissions and improve public health. However, transportation policies often replicate built infrastructure logics from high-income countries, with limited attention to local bicyclists’ experiences and contextual realities. Here, drawing on intercept surveys, semi-structured interviews and ethnographic observations in cities of four low- and middle-income countries, we examine the current state of bicycling and user-perceived barriers. We find that bicycling is largely undertaken by low-income adult men, while women and children cycle mainly within neighborhood enclaves. We identify impediments beyond physical infrastructure, including financial systems, maintenance networks, manufacturing and design capacities, and social supports that shape everyday cycling. Using a mobility justice lens, we examine how these bicycling cultures have persisted within automobile-centric urban geographies. We highlight the importance of addressing these evidence, policy and implementation gaps through an ‘ethics of care’ approach, supported by regional health and environmental agencies and grounded in context-sensitive research. Bicycling offers great benefits for urban residents in low- and middle-income countries, yet pathways to scale its adoption remain poorly understood. This study reveals the current state of bicycling infrastructure and policy, as well as key barriers, through fieldwork in four cities.","PeriodicalId":501700,"journal":{"name":"Nature Cities","volume":"3 1","pages":"58-67"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-01-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.comhttps://www.nature.com/articles/s44284-025-00367-y.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146016521","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Flood research often emphasizes local, direct damages and treats cities as isolated, overlooking development heterogeneity and cascading supply-chain effects. Here we address this gap by coupling flood hazards with a risk-extended multiregional input–output model for 306 Chinese cities across 6 return periods. We quantify direct losses and trace indirect propagation, separating local-indirect losses in the flooded city from ripple losses elsewhere and introduce a spillover indicator for passive losses in nonflooded cities. Losses rise nonlinearly with severity, shifting from direct capital losses in frequent, low-intensity events to local-indirect losses in rare, high-intensity events. Spatial disparities emerge: wealthier cities incur larger absolute but lower loss-to-GDP impacts, whereas poorer cities face higher proportional losses, especially via labor. Spillovers concentrate in major hubs, amplifying systemic risk. Aggregating city stress tests yields conservative lower bounds; a Yangtze River Delta coshock shows strong amplification. Findings motivate sector- and region-specific adaptation and recovery planning. Flooding threatens urban economies via direct damages and supply-chain disruptions. Losses grow nonlinearly: wealthier cities incur larger absolute losses, while poorer cities face higher relative impacts, highlighting tailored resilience measures.
{"title":"Stress-testing the cascading economic impacts of urban flooding across 306 Chinese cities","authors":"Delin Fang, Fei Xu, Xuanyi Jin, Changqing Song, Peichao Gao, Laixiang Sun, Daoping Wang, Kuishuang Feng","doi":"10.1038/s44284-025-00372-1","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44284-025-00372-1","url":null,"abstract":"Flood research often emphasizes local, direct damages and treats cities as isolated, overlooking development heterogeneity and cascading supply-chain effects. Here we address this gap by coupling flood hazards with a risk-extended multiregional input–output model for 306 Chinese cities across 6 return periods. We quantify direct losses and trace indirect propagation, separating local-indirect losses in the flooded city from ripple losses elsewhere and introduce a spillover indicator for passive losses in nonflooded cities. Losses rise nonlinearly with severity, shifting from direct capital losses in frequent, low-intensity events to local-indirect losses in rare, high-intensity events. Spatial disparities emerge: wealthier cities incur larger absolute but lower loss-to-GDP impacts, whereas poorer cities face higher proportional losses, especially via labor. Spillovers concentrate in major hubs, amplifying systemic risk. Aggregating city stress tests yields conservative lower bounds; a Yangtze River Delta coshock shows strong amplification. Findings motivate sector- and region-specific adaptation and recovery planning. Flooding threatens urban economies via direct damages and supply-chain disruptions. Losses grow nonlinearly: wealthier cities incur larger absolute losses, while poorer cities face higher relative impacts, highlighting tailored resilience measures.","PeriodicalId":501700,"journal":{"name":"Nature Cities","volume":"3 1","pages":"89-101"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-01-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146016508","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Globalized production and the expansion of e-commerce have intensified urban road freight demand, exacerbating environmental impacts of cities and potential equity concerns across cities. These challenges have hindered progress toward Sustainable Development Goals 3, 10 and 11, yet long-term spatial trends remain understudied. Here we analyze city-level freight-related emissions (PM10, PM2.5, CO2 and NOx) across 3,107 US counties from 2011 to 2020, identifying two key sources of emissions inequity: demand-oriented and socioeconomic status-oriented. Demand-oriented inequity indicates that cities near freight corridors or terminals face disproportionately high emissions relative to their freight demand, with discrepancies increasing by 5.6–14.2%. SES-oriented inequity shows that minority communities, particularly those located near freight networks, are spatially correlated with higher emissions and greater declines in household income. These findings highlight the deep-rooted spatial disparities in the urban freight system, calling for coordinated action at national, regional and city levels to embed environmental justice into transport planning and compensation strategies. Globalized production and the rise of e-commerce have intensified urban freight activity, amplifying environmental impacts and raising equity concerns. This study examines freight-related emissions at the city level across the USA, uncovering two key factors driving disparities in emissions burdens.
{"title":"Increasing nationwide disparities in road freight emissions across cities","authors":"Chengcheng Yu, Quan Yuan, Anne Goodchild, Wentao Dong, Travis Fried, Haocheng Lin, Yeke Zou, Chao Yang, Yougeng Lu, Qianyao Duan, Zhengtao Qin","doi":"10.1038/s44284-025-00368-x","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44284-025-00368-x","url":null,"abstract":"Globalized production and the expansion of e-commerce have intensified urban road freight demand, exacerbating environmental impacts of cities and potential equity concerns across cities. These challenges have hindered progress toward Sustainable Development Goals 3, 10 and 11, yet long-term spatial trends remain understudied. Here we analyze city-level freight-related emissions (PM10, PM2.5, CO2 and NOx) across 3,107 US counties from 2011 to 2020, identifying two key sources of emissions inequity: demand-oriented and socioeconomic status-oriented. Demand-oriented inequity indicates that cities near freight corridors or terminals face disproportionately high emissions relative to their freight demand, with discrepancies increasing by 5.6–14.2%. SES-oriented inequity shows that minority communities, particularly those located near freight networks, are spatially correlated with higher emissions and greater declines in household income. These findings highlight the deep-rooted spatial disparities in the urban freight system, calling for coordinated action at national, regional and city levels to embed environmental justice into transport planning and compensation strategies. Globalized production and the rise of e-commerce have intensified urban freight activity, amplifying environmental impacts and raising equity concerns. This study examines freight-related emissions at the city level across the USA, uncovering two key factors driving disparities in emissions burdens.","PeriodicalId":501700,"journal":{"name":"Nature Cities","volume":"3 1","pages":"28-37"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-01-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146016510","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-01-12DOI: 10.1038/s44284-025-00366-z
Andrés F. Useche, María Alejandra Rubio, Diana Higuera-Mendieta, Paula Guevara-Aladino, Eliana Martínez-Herrera, Luis A. Guzman, Víctor Cantillo-Garcia, Joan Benach, Olga L. Sarmiento
Large informal settlements on city peripheries reflect deep inequalities in Latin America. Measuring social capital (SC) can help capture the social impact of transport interventions such as cable cars, aimed at better connecting these areas. Here we examine the social impact of the TransMiCable cable car, launched in Bogotá in 2018, by analyzing six dimensions of SC, identifying SC classes and evaluating the influence of TransMiCable on them. Three SC classes were identified: predominantly bonding, high tendency to form networks and trust within families; predominantly bridging, moderate tendency to trust friends and neighbors; and predominantly linking, higher trust in government institutions and stronger civic engagement. Individuals in the intervention area were 3.34 times more likely to transition from a bonding to bridging SC than those in the control group (95% confidence interval 2.43–4.62), suggesting that TransMiCable increased trust among friends and neighbors. This finding underscores community participation as a key part of urban transformation. Large informal settlements reflect inequalities in Latin America, where transport interventions can build social capital. TransMiCable increased the probability of individuals transitioning to bridging social capital networks, suggesting an increase in trust among neighbors and an improvement in bridging community networks.
{"title":"Social capital of urban infrastructure with Bogotá’s cable car","authors":"Andrés F. Useche, María Alejandra Rubio, Diana Higuera-Mendieta, Paula Guevara-Aladino, Eliana Martínez-Herrera, Luis A. Guzman, Víctor Cantillo-Garcia, Joan Benach, Olga L. Sarmiento","doi":"10.1038/s44284-025-00366-z","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44284-025-00366-z","url":null,"abstract":"Large informal settlements on city peripheries reflect deep inequalities in Latin America. Measuring social capital (SC) can help capture the social impact of transport interventions such as cable cars, aimed at better connecting these areas. Here we examine the social impact of the TransMiCable cable car, launched in Bogotá in 2018, by analyzing six dimensions of SC, identifying SC classes and evaluating the influence of TransMiCable on them. Three SC classes were identified: predominantly bonding, high tendency to form networks and trust within families; predominantly bridging, moderate tendency to trust friends and neighbors; and predominantly linking, higher trust in government institutions and stronger civic engagement. Individuals in the intervention area were 3.34 times more likely to transition from a bonding to bridging SC than those in the control group (95% confidence interval 2.43–4.62), suggesting that TransMiCable increased trust among friends and neighbors. This finding underscores community participation as a key part of urban transformation. Large informal settlements reflect inequalities in Latin America, where transport interventions can build social capital. TransMiCable increased the probability of individuals transitioning to bridging social capital networks, suggesting an increase in trust among neighbors and an improvement in bridging community networks.","PeriodicalId":501700,"journal":{"name":"Nature Cities","volume":"3 1","pages":"68-77"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-01-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146016509","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-01-07DOI: 10.1038/s44284-025-00362-3
Air connectivity is an important aspect of global business, but what makes a city ‘well connected’ is unclear. We found that, more important than the number of flights between cities, companies choose to locate their subsidiaries in locations that are well integrated within the global air traffic network.
{"title":"Global firms choose to invest in well-connected airport cities","authors":"","doi":"10.1038/s44284-025-00362-3","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44284-025-00362-3","url":null,"abstract":"Air connectivity is an important aspect of global business, but what makes a city ‘well connected’ is unclear. We found that, more important than the number of flights between cities, companies choose to locate their subsidiaries in locations that are well integrated within the global air traffic network.","PeriodicalId":501700,"journal":{"name":"Nature Cities","volume":"3 1","pages":"9-10"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-01-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146016507","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In this study, we investigated how global air connectivity shapes the geography of multinational corporations (MNCs). Using a unique dataset merging 7.5 million firms with 400,000 international flight routes (1993–2023), we analyze how air network topology influences where MNCs establish foreign subsidiaries. First, we show that reductions in layovers are associated with a greater presence of subsidiaries in destination cities. Second, we show that MNCs in face-to-face-reliant sectors—such as knowledge-based services—are more responsive to air connectivity than firms in less interaction-intensive sectors. Third, we demonstrate that eigenvector centrality, capturing a city’s embeddedness within the global air network, is the most robust predictor of subsidiary locations. These results underscore the enduring role of physical connectivity in facilitating global firm coordination and suggest that a city’s position in air networks is crucial for attracting foreign investment. Global air connectivity shapes where multinational firms locate subsidiaries, especially in knowledge-intensive sectors, by reducing coordination frictions. Eigenvector centrality emerges as the strongest predictor of a city’s attractiveness for foreign investment.
{"title":"Air connectivity boosts urban attractiveness for global firms","authors":"Ambra Amico, Fabio Duarte, Wen-Chi Liao, Siqi Zheng","doi":"10.1038/s44284-025-00361-4","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44284-025-00361-4","url":null,"abstract":"In this study, we investigated how global air connectivity shapes the geography of multinational corporations (MNCs). Using a unique dataset merging 7.5 million firms with 400,000 international flight routes (1993–2023), we analyze how air network topology influences where MNCs establish foreign subsidiaries. First, we show that reductions in layovers are associated with a greater presence of subsidiaries in destination cities. Second, we show that MNCs in face-to-face-reliant sectors—such as knowledge-based services—are more responsive to air connectivity than firms in less interaction-intensive sectors. Third, we demonstrate that eigenvector centrality, capturing a city’s embeddedness within the global air network, is the most robust predictor of subsidiary locations. These results underscore the enduring role of physical connectivity in facilitating global firm coordination and suggest that a city’s position in air networks is crucial for attracting foreign investment. Global air connectivity shapes where multinational firms locate subsidiaries, especially in knowledge-intensive sectors, by reducing coordination frictions. Eigenvector centrality emerges as the strongest predictor of a city’s attractiveness for foreign investment.","PeriodicalId":501700,"journal":{"name":"Nature Cities","volume":"3 1","pages":"78-88"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-01-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146016517","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-01-07DOI: 10.1038/s44284-025-00370-3
Yu Qian Ang, Sparsh, Tao Wang, Lup Wai Chew
Urban informal settlements face severe heat stress yet lack affordable cooling solutions. We engage two communities in Bihar, India, to test two low-cost, rapidly deployable interventions. Using over 2 million minute-level temperature observations, we find both interventions improve thermal comfort in informal dwellings: radiant foils lower indoor temperatures by 1.24 °C, whereas Mylar blankets achieve a reduction of 0.97 °C. These findings demonstrate a scalable strategy for climate adaptation in vulnerable urban communities. Participatory trials in India’s informal settlements show that low-cost interventions can lower indoor temperature by up to 1.24 °C, offering a rapid, scalable solution for heat resilience in vulnerable urban communities.
{"title":"Low-cost interventions for heat stress mitigation in urban informal settlements","authors":"Yu Qian Ang, Sparsh, Tao Wang, Lup Wai Chew","doi":"10.1038/s44284-025-00370-3","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44284-025-00370-3","url":null,"abstract":"Urban informal settlements face severe heat stress yet lack affordable cooling solutions. We engage two communities in Bihar, India, to test two low-cost, rapidly deployable interventions. Using over 2 million minute-level temperature observations, we find both interventions improve thermal comfort in informal dwellings: radiant foils lower indoor temperatures by 1.24 °C, whereas Mylar blankets achieve a reduction of 0.97 °C. These findings demonstrate a scalable strategy for climate adaptation in vulnerable urban communities. Participatory trials in India’s informal settlements show that low-cost interventions can lower indoor temperature by up to 1.24 °C, offering a rapid, scalable solution for heat resilience in vulnerable urban communities.","PeriodicalId":501700,"journal":{"name":"Nature Cities","volume":"3 1","pages":"22-27"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-01-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146016519","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-01-06DOI: 10.1038/s44284-025-00364-1
Devin O’Donnell, Benjamin K. Sovacool
Despite critical intersections between exposure to the impacts of climate change and public health, barriers to implementing health adaptation remain. A strong commitment from city governments could be a solution. We reviewed 55 city climate adaptation plans from 2016 to 2024 for health comprehensiveness, dimensions of health (physical, mental and social), equity and vulnerability, and implementation readiness. Here we found that 20% of cities did not meaningfully include health, 29% acknowledged the health impacts of climate change but did not have health-related adaptation strategies, 40% considered some level of health-related adaptation strategy and 11% had health-specific adaptation strategies, but no plans matched our definition for having a prioritized and holistic integration of health. Only six cities—Chennai, Dar es Salaam, Delhi, Salvador, Singapore and Tshwane—had comprehensive health interventions outside of heat and air pollution. Plans most commonly do not focus on mental health or social capital, and plans also tend to neglect compelling areas of equity, justice and implementation. As such, our analysis shows that the awareness of health impacts is prevalent at the city level, but the integration of holistic health strategies in adaptation plans still lags. Most cities lack comprehensive health adaptation strategies in climate planning, with no global plans achieving fully integrated holistic approaches. City climate adaptation plans show the awareness of health impacts, but only 11% have strong health strategies.
{"title":"Cities need an integrated and holistic approach to health adaptation in climate planning","authors":"Devin O’Donnell, Benjamin K. Sovacool","doi":"10.1038/s44284-025-00364-1","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44284-025-00364-1","url":null,"abstract":"Despite critical intersections between exposure to the impacts of climate change and public health, barriers to implementing health adaptation remain. A strong commitment from city governments could be a solution. We reviewed 55 city climate adaptation plans from 2016 to 2024 for health comprehensiveness, dimensions of health (physical, mental and social), equity and vulnerability, and implementation readiness. Here we found that 20% of cities did not meaningfully include health, 29% acknowledged the health impacts of climate change but did not have health-related adaptation strategies, 40% considered some level of health-related adaptation strategy and 11% had health-specific adaptation strategies, but no plans matched our definition for having a prioritized and holistic integration of health. Only six cities—Chennai, Dar es Salaam, Delhi, Salvador, Singapore and Tshwane—had comprehensive health interventions outside of heat and air pollution. Plans most commonly do not focus on mental health or social capital, and plans also tend to neglect compelling areas of equity, justice and implementation. As such, our analysis shows that the awareness of health impacts is prevalent at the city level, but the integration of holistic health strategies in adaptation plans still lags. Most cities lack comprehensive health adaptation strategies in climate planning, with no global plans achieving fully integrated holistic approaches. City climate adaptation plans show the awareness of health impacts, but only 11% have strong health strategies.","PeriodicalId":501700,"journal":{"name":"Nature Cities","volume":"3 1","pages":"38-47"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-01-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.comhttps://www.nature.com/articles/s44284-025-00364-1.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146016511","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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