Cities and their inhabitants’ stress levels are deeply intertwined. Nonetheless, existing strategies for reducing urban dwellers’ stress are often outdated and do not rely on current scientific evidence and knowledge of human physiology in an urban environment. The global trend towards urbanization is often increasing the risk of physiological and psychological distress in the population. However, very few strategies are currently available to “de-stress” urban populations.
The project aims to translate the primary focus for assessing stress from individuals to urban populations and provide strategies for mitigating and reducing stress in urban environments using this method.
The model will employ advanced machine learning and augmented/virtual reality modelling to ultimately address three crucial questions:
i) How do urban characteristics (physical, social and functional subsystems) translate into citizens’ stress?
ii) Does entropy generated by the city dwellers affect the city’s resilience?
iii) What strategies could municipalities implement to reduce citizens’ stress-related adaptation costs and achieve more resilient cities?
Creating models of population stress based by urban dwellers will be the revolutionary approach to modelling and testing specific de-stressing scenarios. Eventually, such novel methodology can then be utilized universally by governments and municipalities worldwide to improve citizens’ health and well-being and provide guidance for urbanism, including extreme terrestrial and possibly also extra-terrestrial conditions.
The project bridges social geography, physiology and mathematics and provides a unique interdisciplinary synthesis of approaches to the issue of stress.

Sustainable Development Goals

Masaryk University is committed to the UN Sustainable Development Goals, which aim to improve the conditions and quality of life on our planet by 2030.

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