PhD Healthy and Sustainable Urban Regions: Exploring Evidence-Based Planning Approaches

Are you interested in planning healthier urban regions through research? The Faculty of Spatial Sciences is seeking a PhD researcher with a particular interest in linking spatial planning and design with health and environmental considerations.

What are you going to do?

The PhD candidate will be required to:

• Produce a PhD thesis, written in English, consisting of four chapters/academic papers, an introduction, and a discussion at the level of international scientific journals.
• Disseminate the research through publication in (leading) peer-reviewed journals, presentations at international conferences, outreach, social media, but also via popular-scientific reports and other means, well-accessible to the general public.
• Contribute to teaching in bachelor’s and/or master’s programmes (15%).

Contemporary metropolitan regions face environmental challenges—including climate change, loss of green spaces, and degrading air and water quality—as well as rapid and irregular population growth, and accordingly, healthcare service provision challenges that risk public health. Nowadays, there is a pressing need to combat these challenges via planning and design frameworks that integrate health, sustainability, and resilience across urban regions. The Healthy City concept holds considerable potential for such a framework. However, Healthy City solutions are often limited to the city scale and lack adaptable mechanisms for broader implementation. This project addresses this gap by examining how Healthy City principles, integrated with community resilience and sustainability indicators, can guide regional spatial planning to foster healthier and more resilient communities. In doing so, the project identifies two major domains: interventions on the spatial organization and accessibility of regional health infrastructure, and spatial planning and design interventions that shape health-supportive environments across the region.

In this context, fundamental topics to be addressed as part of the research include:

1.  Conceptualizing the healthy region: develop an integrated healthy region framework that integrates resilience and sustainability indicators with healthy city principles.
2. Accessibility and equity of regional health infrastructure: analyze availability, spatial distribution, and accessibility of health infrastructure at the regional scale.
3. Health-supportive spatial environments: examine how regional land-use patterns, green-blue infrastructure, and environmental exposure shape public health outcomes (e.g., spatial interventions to mitigate exposure to environmental health risks, including buffer public spaces between industrial zones and residential zones; integrated redevelopment of brownfields at the regional scale; and regional recreational networks).
4. Scenario-based regional planning strategies: develop spatial planning scenarios for regional landscapes under uneven urbanization pressure (e.g., peri-urban areas, urban–rural interfaces, ecologically sensitive regional landscapes) to support public health.

Expected outcomes will include:

•       Conceptual “Healthy Region” framework with design strategies and an indicator toolkit.
•       Geospatial datasets and maps highlighting vulnerabilities and opportunities.
•       Scenario prototypes for interventions enhancing health, spatial transformation, and resilience. Policy and guidance documents for regional authorities.
•       Evidence-based design strategies to advance sustainable and healthy regions.

We are looking for a PhD candidate who:

•       Holds a relevant master’s degree in spatial planning, spatial design, (human) geography, or a related field.
•       Is curiosity-driven and can work independently, with strong analytical and research skills, able to express (own) ideas and arguments at an academic level.
•       Has experience in and affinity with quantitative and qualitative spatial planning and design methods.
•       Has excellent communication and teamwork skills and is willing to work with an interdisciplinary group of researchers.
•       Experience with GIS and foundational spatial data analysis methods is an asset; candidates with a strong interest in developing these competencies are equally encouraged to apply.
•       Is proficient in English and meets the university’s English language requirements.
•       Dutch language skills are considered a plus.

• 232 vacation hours per year, based on a 38-hour workweek (1.0 FTE). You can also work more or fewer hours in exchange for more or fewer free hours. For example, with a 40-hour workweek, you save 96 extra free hours, and with a 36-hour workweek, you lose 96 hours.
• End-of-year bonus of 8.3% and 8% holiday allowance.
• Extensive opportunities for personal and professional development.

At the University of Groningen (UG), researchers from all fields of academia and technology are working on academic challenges and societal questions. Lecturers prepare their students for meaningful careers within or outside the academic world. Interdisciplinary research and teaching, sharing of knowledge, collaboration with businesses, government institutions, and societal organizations are aspects that are of the utmost importance to this European top university. The UG aims to be an open academic community with an inclusive and safe working climate that invites you to add your value.

The Faculty of Spatial Sciences (FRW) is an interdisciplinary faculty that makes a significant impact on societal issues such as climate, broad prosperity, population decline, healthy ageing, and sustainable energy. With approximately 100 staff and over 100 PhD students, we engage daily in up-to-date and relevant teaching and research in the fields of planning, demography, and geography. Through our research programme TRACE (Transformations, Communities, and Environments), we are committed to internationally oriented, interdisciplinary research. With two Bachelor's and seven Master's programmes, the Faculty offers broad educational opportunities to about 1,100 students from around the world. The Faculty of Spatial Sciences plays a crucial role in understanding and shaping the living environment of the future. We work for and with society. Our motto is: we are making places better together. If you would like to learn more, visit rug.nl/frw. 

Our research programme TRACE(Transformations, Communities and Environments) seeks scientific and societal impact through cutting-edge research at the interface of people, places, and planning in rural, and urban settings, especially on local and regional scales. Our motto: we are making places better together.

Do you have any questions or need more information?

Questions about the content of the job?
Özlem Altınkaya - Genel (Assistant Professor): o.altinkaya@rug.nl

Questions about your application process?
Özlem Altınkaya - Genel (Assistant Professor): o.altinkaya@rug.nl