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Interdisciplinary program with an exploratory project: HEALTHYRISK (2025 - 2026)
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Interdisciplinary program with an exploratory project: HEALTHYRISK (2025 - 2026)

Holistic Tool for assessment of Health Vulnerability and Risks linked to Nature-based Solutions in urban areas

Based on a "One Health” approach, this project examines the implementation of nature-based solutions (NBS) in urban areas. However, adopting such solutions poses certain constraints with regard to pathogen reservoirs (ticks, mosquitoes, rodents, etc.). The approach will be applied to two pilot sites, in Lyon and Marseille, to assess vectors and pathogens such as ticks, rodents, and mosquitoes, and may subsequently be expanded to other sites.

Context and challenges

Many cities are adopting nature-based solutions (NBS) as a way to adapt to climate change. While their benefits are recognized, side effects (or even undesirable effects) such as increased health risks due to the proliferation of vectors or pathogen reservoirs remain understudied. Consideration of the full range of NBS effects on environmental, animal, and human health thus remains a key issue and a major challenge for decision-makers.

Goals

Based on a One Health approach, this project focuses on implementing NBS in urban areas with the goal of developing a methodology to:

  1. analyze health risks (i.e., presence of the hazard, transmission scenarios, severity of consequences)
  2. and then evaluate and provide multiple-criteria decision analysis support for decision-makers (i.e., risk reduction strategies, effectiveness of measures, co-benefits). This method will be developed and applied to two case studies: the Sergent Blandan park in Lyon, and the Saint Jérôme and Saint Charles campuses in Marseille. Regarding the risk to public health, the vectors, hosts, and pathogens studied at the selected NBS sites will include ticks and tick-borne diseases (particularly Lyme disease), rodents and leptospirosis, and mosquitoes and mosquito-borne arboviruses. In collaboration with the metropolitan areas of Lyon and Marseille, the developed methodology can then be applied to other NBS sites that have not been subject to health risk assessment protocols (of a generic nature).

This will be carried out in two phases:

1. Identify the monitoring criteria and indicators, analyze their significance, and consolidate them to assess the level of health risk at the study sites.
2. Develop a methodology to evaluate and support multiple-criteria decisions that decision-makers can use as part of a comprehensive approach:

  • Establish the conditions for regional dialogue and a generic decision-support process
  • Identify decision-making contexts, map out the key players, and conduct interviews with experts, decision-makers, and stakeholders to define the criteria related to planning and development issues (economic, environmental, health, sociocultural aspects, etc.), indicators, and preferences
  • Test and validate

 

Coordination

INRAE structures

 INRAE divisionLabExpertises
SAEPIA,
RS2GP,
IVPC,
BIPAR		Companion animal internal medicine, diagnosis of infectious and zoonotic diseases, surveillance and early-warning systems for infectious diseases, Evaluation and management of risks associated with rodents and their control; Epidemiology and risk analysis; diagnosis of leptospirosis and a database of its outcomes in companion animals, Entomology, virology, entomological and virological surveillance, vector biology, emergence and transmission of zoonotic arboviruses; Parasitology and parasitic zoonoses in companion animals; Ticks and tick-borne diseases, surveillance, habitats favorable to the tick Ixodes ricinus, field collections, management of tick datasets and databases, citizen science, Medical entomology, Parasitology, Ticks, Vectors, Surveillance of vector-borne pathogens using microfluidic real-time PCR tools (bacteria, parasites, and viruses)
AQUAIGEIntegrated management and engineering of natural and technological risks, Decision-making support that takes into account imperfect information, Modeling of complex systems (operational reliability), Analysis of the effectiveness of risk reduction measures and strategies, regional approach to risks and resilience, Study of the relationship between humans and nature and transitional processes toward sustainability in order to preserve biodiversity and mitigate climate change (spatial analysis of ecosystem services, prioritization of conservation areas and nature-based solutions for climate change adaptation)
ACTTERRITOIRESPolitical Science. Public policy analysis, sociology of organizations, governance and urban policy, sociology of political work.

 

Non-INRAE partners

PartnerExpertise
Grenoble INPOperational reliability, modeling of complex systems, decision-making support for infrastructure management
Lumière Lyon 2 UniversityEnvironmental psychology – Psychosocial and multi-methodological approaches for understanding perceptions and practices related to various issues of significant societal importance (such as NBS), as well as relationships to space and the environment (uses of green spaces, attitudes toward nuisances, etc.).
Aix Marseille UniversityGeography, geomatics, spatial analysis – Analysis of environmental and remote sensing data, Entomo-virology, entomological surveillance, vector biology, emergence and transmission of zoonotic arboviruses, West Nile virus

Modification date: 11 September 2026 | Publication date: 02 December 2025 | By: Com