8. Healthy urban planning PDF Print E-mail

Background

Healthy Urban Planning arose from The World Health Organisation (WHO) Healthy Cities Project, a long-term international development initiative aiming to place health high on the agenda of decision-makers in Europe. Urban planning can have a major impact on conditions in cities. The conditions in which people live and work, their access to facilities and services, their lifestyles and their ability to develop strong social networks are all influenced by the plans, policies and initiatives of urban planners and related professions. At the same time these are key determinants of the health, wellbeing and quality of life of people of cities.

Aims

  • To provide and generate evidence on the links between planning and health.
  • To raise awareness of and develop capacity in methods of incorporating a health perspective into planning.
  • To integrate attention to health into planning policy and practice.

Milestones

On-going programme of Health Impact Assesment training with next session planned for Spring 2008.

Project to model perceptions of neighbourhood, perceptions of safety, social integration and their links to physical activity, physical health and mental health - currently at an early stage.

Working with Glasgow City Council to integrate health throughout the City Plan with the result that the Plan now has health as one of its three guiding principles (May 2007)

Health Impact Assessment of the East End Local Development Strategy and continued work with East End Neighbourhoods team to integrate health and planning 

With partners at the University of York, NHS Health Scotland and the MRC Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, produced a critical review of the evidence linking physical characterstics of neighbourhoods to health (March 2007)

Update of 'A Common Health Perspective' with Glasgow and Clyde Valley Structure Plan Team, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and NHS Lanarkshire (Summer 2006)

Co-sponsor of BLOCK Architecture Festival Glasgow 2005 and Urban Summit focussing on new urbanism and the health of cities (Autumn 2005)

Completion of history of public health walk to coincide with BLOCK architecture festival (Autumn 2005)

Completion of FAB Greenspace report It's More Than Just the Park and accompanying briefing paper (Autumn 2008).

In partnership with Glasgow City Council,  the start of a Health Impact Assessment of the 2014 Commonwealth Games (Autumn 2008)

 

Links

Barton, Hugh and Tsourou, Catherine Healthy Urban Planning: a WHO guide to planning for people Spon Press, London, 2000
Centre for Disease Control, Designing and Building Healthy Places
Health and the Physical Characteristics of Urban Neighbourhoods: a Critical Literature Review (March 2007)
Healthy Urban Planning in Three UK Policy Contexts
Healthy Urban Planning in Three UK Policy Contexts Presentation March 2006
Healthy Cities and the Planning Process
Towards a New Planning ProcessGCVGreenNetworkPartnershipLogo_edit605_edit210.jpg

Phase IV of European Healthy Cities – Goals and Requirements

Greenspace Scotland website

GCV Green Network Partnership

 

Contact:

Dr Russell Jones
Public Health Programme Manager (Health Urban Planning)
Glasgow Centre for Population Health
Phone: 0141 287 6959
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