Perez Oteiza, Tzirath Guadalupe (2026) A Computational Approach to Population-Level Mental Wellbeing Assessment in Smart Cities. PhD thesis, National University of Ireland Maynooth.
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Abstract
Urban mental wellbeing has emerged as a critical public health concern as more than half
of the global population now lives in cities. Environmental factors within urban settings, such
as air quality, access to greenspaces, and mobility infrastructure, directly influence residents’
psychological mental health outcomes. Cities worldwide struggle to systematically assess how
their environmental conditions affect population-level mental wellbeing risk. Without standardized
methods to measure these risks, urban planners and policymakers lack the evidence-based
tools needed to prioritize resources in environmental infrastructure that could improve urban
mental wellbeing for millions of urban residents. Current approaches to assessing urban mental
wellbeing typically rely on clinical trials, surveys, or subjective self-reporting methods that
are resource-intensive, time-consuming, and difficult to scale across different cities. Existing
smart city data infrastructure captures extensive environmental information through monitoring
stations, geographic databases, and transit records, yet this data remains underutilized for
mental wellbeing assessment purposes. This research develops a computational framework that
transforms established scientific findings about environmental exposure and urban mental wellbeing
in a systematic approach using data that smart cities already collect. The computational
framework focuses on three environmental contextual cues that research has consistently linked
to mental wellbeing outcomes: air quality measured through PM2.5 concentrations, accessibility
to greenspaces accessability, and proximity to public transit infrastructure. Each contextual
cue is evaluated using literature-derived thresholds that define risk levels, converting raw environmental
measurements into standardized risk scores. The methodology applies these risk
assessments at the adminsitrative level across entire urban populations, then aggregates scores
using population weighting to generate neighborhood-level and city-level indices. This approach
produces the Urban Mental Wellbeing Index (UMWI), which provides a quantitative measure
of environmental exposure risk to urban mental wellbeing. The computational framework was
validated through implementation in three diverse cities: Chicago, Manchester, and Portland.
These cities differ substantially in population density, geographic characteristics, climate conditions,
and data infrastructure, yet the framework successfully processed data from all three
contexts using consistent analytical procedures. Results demonstrated that greenspace accessibility
emerged as the primary driver of overall risk variation, with near-perfect correlation to
final UMWI scores. Chicago exemplified how spatial distribution matters more than aggregate
provision, providing 139.2 square meters per person yet leaving 90% of residents beyond the
protective 300-meter threshold for stress recovery benefits.
This research contributes a scalable, replicable methodology that smart cities can implement
using their existing data infrastructure without requiring new data collection or specialized
survey instruments. By converting established research findings into operational metrics, this
work bridges the gap between academic knowledge about urban mental wellbeing and practical
smart city applications. The computational framework provides cities with a diagnostic tool to
assess their current state, identify priority areas for improvement, and monitor the effectiveness
of environmental interventions over time, ultimately supporting evidence-based decisions that
could improve mental wellbeing outcomes for urban populations worldwide.
| Item Type: | Thesis (PhD) |
|---|---|
| Keywords: | Computational Approach; Population-Level; Mental Wellbeing Assessment; Smart Cities; |
| Academic Unit: | Faculty of Science & Engineering > Computer Science |
| Item ID: | 21938 |
| Depositing User: | IR eTheses |
| Date Deposited: | 05 Oct 2026 09:59 |
| Use Licence: | This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available here |
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