Integrating Health into Comprehensive Planning
There is growing interest in the link between the built environment and health. Comprehensive planning is one approach to linking the traditional notions of planning (land use, transportation, community facilities, housing, and parks and open space) with health themes (physical activity, the nature environment, public safety, healthy eating, mental health, social capital, pollutants, and epidemiological issues). Comprehensive plans can help facilitate decisions about health and the built environment. To do so, it is important to understand state and regional regulations that often require a consistent set of elements where health topics can be interwoven.
Design for Health Materials:
- Planning Information Sheet: Integrating Health into Comprehensive Planning (1.10 MB)
- Key Question Research Summaries
- Introduction to key questions linking urban planning and health (293 KB)
- Case Studies: King County, Washington and Fremantle, Western Australia
- Image Resources
- Event Presentations
- Topical planning guides
- Comprehensive Plan Review Checklists
- Example Plans
Other Resources:
- The Role of the Built Environment in Supporting Active Living and Health: A Review of Research Findings (File is 13 MB. May take a few moments to open) This presentation from Active Living By Design covers the findings from a variety of researchers. It is divided into three main sections: What is the built environment?; Effects of the built environment on behavior, natural environment, health, and society; and Active community environments and their impact on health.
- Environment and Physical Activity GIS Protocols Manual
Developed in conjunction with the Twin Cities Walking Study, this manual provides protocols for measuring environmental variables associated with walking. It is periodically updated.
- Health in All Policies: Prospects and Potentials (full text of book)
This book on health and public policy was co-produced by the Finnish Ministry of Social Affairs and Health and the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies. It highlights how health can and should be taken into account in all levels of government and public policy. Though its focus is often on the European Union, featured topics such as Health Impact Assessment (HIA), the environment, and food are all relevant in the United States as well.
- Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) GIS Tool
Maintained by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, this interactive web site allows users to generate maps displaying the prevalence of behavioral health risk factors by state and metropolitan/micropolitan statistical areas. Maps are available for 2002-2005.
- Environmental Public Health Indicators Project
This Centers for Disease Control-sponsored project creates a set of very important public health indicators. A work in progress the link above is to the lists of specific indicators in a number of topics. This link is actually quite hard to find on the web site. Indicators include potential sources for data. For a more general overview see: http://www.cdc.gov/nceh/indicators/default.htm
- Publications Library of the U.K. Department of Health
This publications library is searchable via key word and covers a number of useful topics from air quality to food in schools.
- The Stanford Health Library
This library is a well organized site full of links to information. While focusing on broad health issues there is much of interest for those dealing with planning and health.
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