Urban design, transport and health: does Oman meet evidence-based standards?

Background: Rapid urbanization, mechanization, and motorization has brought demographic, epidemiological changes and lifestyle changes including a high prevalence of dietary risks and physical inactivity in Oman. Urban design and transport are not adequately addressed in the national physical activity plan.
Purpose: To evaluate the extent to which policies support the design and development of healthy and sustainable cities in Oman.
Methods: Using the 1000 Cities Challenge urban policy checklist, the research team coordinated with local experts at the national and city level (Barka, Nizwa and Muscat) to obtain relevant policy and regulatory documents for 13 domains: integrated transport and urban planning, air pollution, transport infrastructure investment by mode, disaster mitigation, density, diversity, demand management, destination proximity, desirability, design, destination accessibility, distribution of employment, and distance to public transport. Available policies were assessed to see if they aligned with principles of healthy and sustainable cities, include a measurable target and if available, if the measurable target is an evidence-informed threshold as described by the Global Observatory of Healthy and Sustainable Cities.
Results/conclusion: The Oman National Spatial Strategy 2024 and the National Spatial Standards published in late 2023 describe a clear vision for 5 – minute neighborhoods; additional national standards are under discussion. These two covering a good portion of the domains are complemented by older sectoral regulations covering specific domains. Preliminary results show that despite the clear policy vision for healthy sustainable cities some policies do not align with public health recommendations and few include evidence-informed measurable policy targets.
Practical implications: The results of this study will provide important insights that could help guide key stakeholders engaged in expanding available urban and transport policies and standards.
Funding: This study was funded by The Research Council, Oman.