Built environment, sedentary behaviour and air quality impact on asthmatic and obese children: a review of existing literature

Air born pollutants are the cause of respiratory illnesses (i.e asthma and rhinitis) and their effects on vulnerable populations, particularly obese children, are of concern for the many. Nonetheless, we needed a pandemic based on airborne virus (COVID-19) to raise the awareness and observe with more detail the effects of poor air quality. This study looks at the literature to understand the impact of the built environment, sedentary behaviour and air quality on children’s quality of life. We aim to look at the day-to-day activities, walking behaviour from school to home/home to school, as well as the environmental factors that shape these behaviours (e.g. land use, block size, building density) to understand the health implications, exposure to air pollution indoors and outdoors and effects on obesity.Finally, we discuss further work for design and architecture research to help to identify and improve children’s health and to evaluate how they interact with the built environment. The method will explore mapping these interactions (GIS) analysing the built environment and street connectivity and how we can convert them on experiences through knowledge mapping to draw the further learning opportunities.