The Complex Systems project aims to support urban climate change interventions that have an impact on health and equity within the Montreal metropolitan community.

This project is being carried out in close collaboration with numerous academic, municipal, and community partners. It aims to develop a range of modeling and simulation tools based on a complex systems approach to analyze urban health dynamics related to climate change mitigation, adaptation, and resilience. The focus is on interventions related to active transportation, greening, and housing.

Ultimately, this project will result in a toolkit and knowledge transfer workshops to help decision-makers implement informed public policies and interventions to combat climate change.

The overall aim of this proposal is to support the partnered work of  municipalities, community groups and researchers in the development and  testing of novel participatory practices towards climate change  mitigation, adaptation and resilience built environment interventions.  

Specifically, this catalyst grant will serve to 1) conduct a scoping  review on participatory methods for climate change interventions, and 2)  develop collaborative and intersectoral mental models of urban  interventions towards climate change systems using participatory Concept mapping.

Partners : Conseil régional de l’environnement de Montréal, INSPQ, Nature Québec, Ville de Longueuil, Institut du Nouveau Monde, Polygon, BC2.

Our  overall goal is to catalyze the implementation of sustainable  transportation interventions to support health, mobility, and equity  outcomes in cities. We primarily focus on two pillars of sustainable  transportation interventions – All Ages and Abilities (AAA) bicycle  networks and speed reduction interventions – which serve as  implementation science case studies. Our Canadian and Australian team  will extend intersectoral partnerships, build capacity, and develop  tools to advance healthy cities implementation science.

L’équipe INTErventions urbaines, Recherche-Action, Communautés et sanTé (INTERACT) is a pan-Canadian collaboration of scientists, urban planners, and  citizens uncovering the impact of urban changes on health and equity.  Our work contributes to sustainable and equitable urban development for  generations to come.

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In  2017, INTERACT launched a multiyear cohort study and intervention  research platform to understand how built environment changes influence  health. We have since expanded INTERACT’s research program to help  cities respond effectively to today’s most pressing challenges. Our  ultimate aim is to address the need for better evidence, generated by  and for communities, that can guide local action and inform a broader  national conversation on the design of healthier and more equitable  cities in Canada.

Cities  play a decisive role in building a more resilient, fairer society that  contribute to population health, all the while facing challenges such as  climate change, economic recovery, transportation, housing and social  inequities.

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To  meet these challenges, collaboration and a relationship of trust  between local decision-makers and the research community are essential.  In practice, however, municipal officials and members of the research  community operate in environments responding to different logics, which  can create brakes and obstacles to effective collaborations. In this  context, the Governance of Urban Resilience Cité-ID LivingLab (ÉNAP) and  the SPHERELab (University of Montreal), in association with the Office  of the Chief Scientist of Quebec, invites municipal stakeholders to join  the Uni-Cité Collaboratory.

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The Uni-Cité Collaboratory promotes and optimizes the links between science and policy as part of  action research with the municipal sector and creates resources to share  lessons learned to support future collaborations.

As  we are dealing with completely altered living conditions due to the  pandemic, it is essential to understand how we are coping, today and in  the coming months.

The COHESION study, led by Yan Kestens, Kate Zinszer and Gregory Moullec, evaluates  the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on individuals like you, across the  country. Through online surveys and a smartphone app, we can understand  how daily activities, social interactions, and the mental health of  Canadians are being affected throughout, and following, the pandemic.

L’étude COHESION, dirigée par Gregory Moullec et Yan Kestens, évalue l'impact de la pandémie de la COVID-19 sur des personnes comme vous à travers le pays. A travers des questionnaires en ligne et une application mobile, nous serons en mesure de mieux comprendre comment les activités quotidiennes, les interactions sociales et la santé mentale des Canadien.nes auront été affectées pendant et après la pandémie.

This study is conducted by the Transportation Research at McGill (TRAM) and SphereLab and funded through the Collaborative Health Research Projects (CHRP) program.

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With  a predicted initial ridership of more than 167,000 passengers per day,  the REM has the potential to radically alter land-use and transport  patterns across the Island of Montreal and well beyond. The implications  for physical and mental health and social wellbeing are significant, as  public transport improvements are broadly understood to yield public  health, environmental, and economic benefits.

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The  REM study intends to provide a longitudinal insight into the  respondent’s perception of REM’s impact and therefore improve overall  understanding of such infrastructure developments on the population.

Urban design focusing on cycle paths, greenways, placottoirs and greening is a  way to redress health inequalities in disadvantaged neighborhoods.  These developments have the potential to make physical activity more  accessible, facilitate connections between neighbors and other parts of  the city, and improve our well-being. It is therefore expected that  nearby residents will derive significant health benefits. But will  everyone benefit equally? In the long term, could these interventions  primarily benefit the health of new, more affluent residents attracted  to new developments, and displace long-time residents?

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These are the questions that drive our new mandate.  In the spring of 2019, INTERACT received additional funding from CIHR  to develop our work on health inequalities, and more specifically on  gentrification processes in Montreal.

Financed by the Institut population and public health (IPPH): Building Healthy Cities – Dragons’ Den, the program INTErvention  Research and Action for CiTies and InnOvatioN (INTERACTION) leverages  current and future developments in information technology, big data, and  artificial intelligence to collect, transform and analyse data on  vision, urban change and related population health trajectories. We build evidence-based simulation tools to facilitate citizens’, planners’ and other decision makers’ choices when designing future cities for health, equity, and sustainability.

Impact  of urban interventions on active mobility, social participation and  well-being of older adults: Participatory action research on healthy  aging in Rosemont.

The PACTE-Aînés Rosemont project is  supported by the Chair in Urban Interventions and Population Health at  the School of Public Health at the University of Montreal and the Island  of Montreal Seniors Round Table (TCAÎM).

Environmental  characteristics favoring social participation: development of an  intervention tool adapted to the particularities of the aging Quebec  population.