BMUN LXX UN Habitat

Living in urban spaces has advantages of walkability, access to public transportation, and access to healthcare. The consequences of higher population density during an epidemic, though, could have detrimental impacts on infection rates of all residents and death rates of specifically residents of urban slums. This post will focus on the specifically acknowledging and methods of mitigating urban heat and its impacts on urban neighborhoods to prevent disease spread in the future.  To give a brief overview, heatwaves, droughts, and wildfires causes heat-related disease spread or simply heat strokes. The heatwave in Japan resulted in "over 20,000 hospital admissions" in just 2018 alone. Diseases are also much more likely to be spread in warmer, tropical climates such as Sub-Saharan Africa. In addition, urban areas tend to form so called "urban heat islands", which is a bell curve representing the average temperature with its peak in urban centers and decreases as dista...

With diseases easily spreading between cities and nations, it is imperative that there is communication and united action on how to mitigate the spread.  From 2014-2016, the Ebola outbreak started in rural southeastern Guinea, spread through urban areas, and eventually became a global epidemic. One of the reasons why this disease spread so easily was that residents of Guinea moved through many cities and nations due to reasons of work or family. In addition, cultural beliefs and practices played a large role in the spread of Ebola. As people were dying from this disease, traditional burial and funeral practices brought families in contact with the deceased individual, continuing the spread of the disease. There was not a united action in how to address the epidemic and Ebola spread at a fast rate.  An example of an organization that places great emphasis in reshaping government communication and policies is the Resilient Cities Network. The Resilient Cities Network aims to add...