title: Assessing and monitoring urban resilience using COPD in Porto.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  COPD morbidity is a good example of how the urban form may interfere with a disease's severity. Then, it may play an important role as a stimulus to increase the acceptability of several policy actions that aim to upgrade urban resilience. Despite the multiple dimensions of wellbeing, health is surely a key variable attracting everyone's attention, which is thus more likely to be able to persuade people that actions that may at first seem undesirable are fundamental in improving urban sustainability and well-being.
  
  
  METHODS
  After creating a short list of socio-economic and environmental factors relating to the onset and aggravation of COPD, daily admissions distributions were compared using both a non-weighted and a weighted multi-criteria hierarchical analysis procedure.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Porto's COPD Social and Environmental Inequalities Index (SEII), calculated with a hierarchical analysis procedure, accurately illustrates a great relationship between COPD admissions and adverse urban form variables.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  COPD may be an important communication tool to stimulate the acceptability of some otherwise unpopular planning measures to improve urban resilience (sustainability and well-being).
authors.affiliation: Instituto Saúde Pública da Universidade do Porto, CITTA, Department of Geography, Porto University, Projecto FCT PTDC/SAU-ESA/73016/2006, Via Panorâmica 4050-564, Portugal. anamonteirosousa@gmail.com
authors.forename: Ana
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Monteiro
authors.forename: Vânia
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Carvalho
authors.forename: Sara
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Velho
authors.forename: Carlos
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Sousa
mesh_terms: D003710:Demography; D040362:Geographic Information Systems; D006801:Humans; D006813:Humidity; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D011174:Portugal / Q000453:epidemiology; D029424:Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D012931:Social Environment; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013696:Temperature; D014504:Urban Health / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014505:Urban Population / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*