Table 1 People and ageing

People age throughout the lifecourse resulting in different experiences, needs, abilities, health status, and desires (Sigelman and Rider 2009). At a community level, demographic ageing influences the percentage of children, teenagers, younger or older adults, or those living with illness or disabilities. This impacts household composition (e.g. single occupants, couples, families, widowed older adults) and influences population increase / decrease through birth and death rates associated with the population age structure (Bongaarts 2009).

Impact on urban environment (examples)

Impact on Ecosystems (examples)

Population change causes urban expansion or shrinkage, growth upwards (e.g. taller buildings) or downwards (e.g. underground buildings or infrastructure), increased or decreased density, or change of use (Bosselmann 2012). Childcare, education, health, transport or housing needs are also influenced by local demographics (EC 2020).

Demographic and population changes affect local ecosystems through development, resource consumption, waste production, pollution, impacts on habitats, among other things (Gaston 2010). At an individual level, different life stages result in varying impacts including increased consumption or waste associated with infants (Gibson et al. 2013), or the impacts of adults commuting to work (Roberts et al. 2018).

Example of synergy: Older population in community advocating for age-friendly city interventions, including improved green space (van Hoof et al. 2021), that ends up enhancing the neighbourhood for all ages, and improving human and ecosystem health.

Example of antagonism: Increased older population resulting in the provision of additional aged care facilities. Due to the energy and resource intensive nature of this building use (Liu et al. 2021), these facilities may contribute to local air pollution, and global climate change.