Healthy Urban Planning: in-road

WHO Centre for Urban Health to local health development

WHO Healthy Cities

Geoff Green
Elisabeth Bengtsson
Agis Tsouros
 Challenges in Cities
WHO Centre for Urban Health
Growing health concerns in cities include

Poverty and social exclusion

Violence and Safety

Pollution of air, water and land

Substandard housing and unhealthy planning

Poor employment conditions

Stress and Sedentary lifestyles

Poor quality food

The unmet needs of vulnerable groups

Lack of public involvement in decisions

Growing inequalities
 How does Urban Planning
WHO Centre for Urban Health affect health?

Local Hospital?
How does Urban Planning affect health?
Physical factors Links Associated
(some examples) health issues
• Road severance • Lack of opportunity
for informal
• Lack of facilities in
neighbourhood (shops,
interaction in the Mental wellbeing
community
places to go)
• Isolation
• Lack of local informal
recreational opportunities • Air-polluted local
(allotments, play parks) walking
environments Respiratory disease
• Unattractive, poorly designed • Fuel poverty
pedestrian routes (road traffic
dominated routes)
• Lack of regular
• Poor insulation, waste of solar
exercise
insolation
• Food deserts, poor
Heart disease and
• Lack of opportunity for food diet Obesity issues
growing

WHO Collaborating Centre for

Healthy Cities and Urban Policy
 Healthy Urban Planning in Manchester
A century ago towing planning and public health were working closely together but then
they went their separate ways
“Traffic will be to 21st century public health what sewage was
to 19th century public health”
Scrofula Stress & mental
health Obesity
Cholera
Typhoid Asthma
Dysentery Heart disease
1853 2003

WHO Collaborating Centre for

Healthy Cities and Urban Policy
WHO Centre for Urban Health
The health map
 How does Urban Planning
WHO Centre for Urban Health affect health?
 WHO Centre for Urban Health

www.sponpress.com
WHO Centre for Urban Health
WHO Centre for Urban Health
Healthy Urban Planning

Key Principles:
• Equity
• Intersectoral cooperation
• Community involvement
• Sustainability
• International action
WHO Centre for Urban Health
Types of tools

• Conceptual development

• Political

• Strategic

• Technical
 Healthy Urban Planning
WHO Centre for Urban Health The twelve key health objectives
Do planning policies and proposals promote and
encourage ?
1 Personal lifestyles 7. Safety
.
2 Social cohesion 8. Equity
.
3 Housing quality 9. Air and aesthetics
.
4 Access to work 10 Water
. .
5 Accessibility 11 Land and minerals
.
6 Food 12 Climate stability
.

Barton & Tsourou 2000

 4 elements of action
WHO Centre for Urban Health
for health and sustainable
development at city level
Political Commitment to
the values and principles of Systematic action to tackle
health and sustainable the social and environmental
development; equity and determinants of health including
solidarity Integrating health considerations
Articulate a long term vision Into urban planning and design
for your city based on
these qualities

Institutional processes to Local, national and

support partnership-based international cooperation
work and participative and networking
governance
 WHO Working with European
WHO Centre for Urban Health
cities:
Themes and Tools
• Healthy Ageing
• Health Impact Assessment
• Healthy Urban Planning
• Physical Activity and Active Living

• City Health Profiles

• City Health Development Plans
WHO Centre for Urban Health
Healthy Urban Planning Priorities

• Transport and mobility

• Healthy Ageing
• Neighbourhoods
• Physical Activity
• Strategic and Master Plans
• Cross-cutting links Health Impact Assessment

• Tools-commitment-innovation
• awareness-capacity-applications-mainstreaming
 How to increase physical activity
WHO Centre for Urban Health in an urban environment
• Transport
– Cycling : Cycle paths, Cycle parks
• Walking
– Pedestrian areas
– Walking buses
– Safety of walking
• Leisure time facilities
– Parks
– Open schools
– Public or subsidised sport facilities
– Safety of playgrounds
• Building design
– Stairs
• Urban design
– Positioning of services in walking distance
• Traffic restrictions on weekends
“Obesity: an epidemic
without treatment”

Urban Design can make a huge difference

in supporting physical activity
Handy PPT Bursa, Turkey
 Open space,
WHO Centre for Urban Health Health and Urban planning

• Physical exercise & recreation

• Social and cultural aspects – community &
relationships
• Psychological effects
• Wildlife in cities
• Organic urban food production
• Air quality and noise
• Water management
WHO Centre for Urban Health
Neighbourhoods
• What does the neighbourhood mean?
• Community decision making
• Housing – social inclusion and
diversity
• Access to jobs, shopping, education
and health facilities
• Planning for movement
• Public spaces and open space
WHO Centre for Urban Health
Walking and Cycling
• City wide level – policies to promote
walking and cycling as part of a wider
transport strategy
• Neighbourhood level – a mix of uses
and maximum opportunity to walk or
cycle
• Assessing a project – a checklist
addressing localised issues of
movement and accessibility
 12 January 2007

WHO Centre for Urban Health WHO Healthy Cities Network Phase IV (2003-2008)
in the WHO European Region (Designated and Applicants)
Østfold County Council Helsingborg
Stockholm
Sandnes
Copenhagen
Kuopio
Newcastle
89 Cities
Turku
Glasgow
Stirling
76 designated
Horsens Kuressaare

Belfast
Cherepovets 13 applicants
Sunderland Pärnu
Cheboksary
Dublin Jurmala
Camden
Kaunas Novocheboksarsk
Galway
Brighton Poznan Dimitrovgrad
Liverpool Izhevsk
Lodz
Manchester Dresden BLR Brno
Sheffield Brussels Kinel-Cherkassy District
Dunkerque
Stoke-on-Trent
Vienna Györ
Liège Pecs
Rennes Koper Stavropol
Ljubljana Yevpatoria
Nancy SVN Celje Golcük Bartin
Geneva Zagreb Borjomi
Gijon Kadiköy
Sarajevo Yalova Trabzon City
Vitoria-Gasteiz Rijeka
Salamanca Turin Maltepe Eskisehir/Tepebasi
Tirana
Viana do Milan Çankaya
Castelo Bologna
Amadora Udine Istanbul Kirikkale
Barcelona
Venice Avanos
Montijo Sant Andreau Bursa Aydin
Leganés de la Barca
Seixal
San Fernando Arezzo Padua Athens Jerusalem Ürgüp
Siena
de Henares
WHO Centre for Urban Health

http://www.euro.who.int/healthy-cities/