Acknowledgements

This report is the collaborative outcome of the members of and advisors to the scientific committee and co-sponsors of the ICSU programme on“Health and Wellbeing in the Changing Urban Environment: a Systems Analysis Approach”: Indira Nath, Ana V. Diez Roux, Anthony Capon, Carlos Dora, Christl Donnelly, Gérard Salem, Hany M Ayad, Ilene Speizer, Jo Ivey Boufford, Keisuke Hanaki, Luuk Rietveld, Pierre Ritchie, Saroj Jayasinghe, Susan Parnell, and Yong-Guan Zhu. The book builds on inspiring discussions and exchanges with Trevor Hancock, José Gabriel Siri, Uta Dietrich, Barry Newell, Katrina Proust, Roderick Lawrence, Peter Head, Fabien Pfaender, Stefan Reis, Feng Feng, Yi Zhang, Armin Bobsien, Christoph Graf von Waldersee, Denise Young, Muhammad H. Zamman, De-Yu Zhao, Basile Chaix, Vittoria Colizza, Martin O'Connor, Gabriele Harrer-Puchner and all participants of the science-policy dialogue on“Modelling Urban Health and Wellbeing”which took place on the island of Gulangyu, Xiamen Apr. 28-29, 2016. Contributions from Lucilla Spini, Xiao-Xia Ruan and David Marc Jones are highly appreciated.

This book has further greatly benefited from discussions with colleagues at ICSU's headquarters in Paris, ICSU's Future Earth programme, ICSU's Regional Office for Asia-Pacific, the United Nations University International Institute of Global Health（UNU-IIGH）in Kuala Lumpur, the United Nations University Institute for Environment and Human Security （UNU-EHS）in Bonn, the United Nations University Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability（UNU-IAS）in Tokyo, the Center for Development Research（ZEF）at the University of Bonn, the School of Public Affairs at Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, the Complex City Lab at Shanghai University, and from the insights gained from discussions with the World Social Science fellows, who held a seminar on“Big Data in the Urban Context”, hosted and co-organized by the Urban Health and Wellbeing programme in Xiamen, Dec.2015.

As noted in the background chapter, hundreds of colleagues contributed to the development of the Urban Health and Wellbeing（UHWB） Programme. Marvalee Wake and Thomas Roswall are identified in the background chapter. Carthage Smith, ICSU Deputy Executive Director from 2002 to 2014, provided high-level substantive and technical support to the UHWB initiative throughout his tenure. José Siri‘s work as Research Associate in the several years that spanned the Planning Group and establishment of the Scientific Committee（SC）was appreciated by both entities. Dov Jaron co-chaired the 2008 Vienna workshop that demonstrated the scope of support and the potential for an interdisciplinary programme dedicated to urban health and wellbeing using a systems approach. Gérard Salem was instrumental in organizing the 2013 Paris Conference that confirmed the Program's potential at a critical moment and continued on the SC. Jo Ivey Boufford played a key role in facilitating the partnership with the InterAcademy Medical Panel, now the InterAcademy Partnership（IAP）; Anthony Capon has played a similar role with the United Nations University as well as participating at earlier stages. Both are now members of the SC. Pierre Ritchie has contributed to each of the bodies created to further the UHWB initiative, from the initial meeting of Unions in 2002, to current service on the SC. Indira Nath participated at multiple stages and has provided essential direction as the initial Chair of the Scientific Committee.

We are particularly thankful for the igniting thoughts presented by all the participants of the first Xiamen Expert Workshop and inauguration ceremony of the International Programme Office in Xiamen, China, Oct. 2014. We acknowledge the generous support of the Institute of Urban Environment（IUE）, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Chinese Academy of Science and Technology and the municipality of Xiamen, without which the publication of this book would not have been possible.