A Joint Urban Planning and Public Health Framework: Contributions to Health Impact Assessment
Mary E. Northridge, PhD, MPH and
Elliott Sclar, PhD
Mary E. Northridge is with the Harlem Health Promotion Center, Department of Sociomedical Sciences, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, NY. Elliott Sclar is with the Urban Planning Program, Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation and School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University.
Correspondence: Requests for reprints should be sent to Mary E. Northridge, PhD, MPH, Harlem Health Promotion Center, Department of Sociomedical Sciences, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, 600 W 168th St, New York, NY 10032.
A joint urban planning and public health perspective is articulatedhere for use, in health impact assessment. Absent a blueprintfor a coherent and supportive structure on which to test ourthinking, we are bound to fall flat.
Such a perspective is made necessary by the sheer number ofpeople living in cities throughout the world, the need for explicitattention to land use and transportation systems as determinantsof population health, and the dearth of useful indicators ofthe built environment for monitoring progress.
If explicit attention is not paid to the overarching goals ofequality and democracy, they have little if any chance of beingrealized in projects, programs, and policies that shape thebuilt environment and therefore the publics health.
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