Academic Citation
Corburn, Jason. “Confronting the Challenges in Reconnecting Urban Planning and Public Health.” American Journal of Public Health, vol. 94, no. 4, 2004, pp. 541–546., doi:10.2105/ajph.94.4.541.
Corburn explores the deterioration of the relationship between urban planning and public health. He argues that this disconnect has resulted in a disjointed approach to urban community well-being, particularly in poor and colored populations. He offers several possible solutions for this situation, largely based in ecosocial and environmental justice theory.
Northridge, Mary E., and Elliott Sclar. “A Joint Urban Planning and Public Health Framework: Contributions to Health Impact Assessment.” American Journal of Public Health, vol. 93, no. 1, 2003, pp. 118–121., doi:10.2105/ajph.93.1.118.
Northridge and Sclar make an argument for the need for collaboration between public health and urban planning. Growing urban populations are cited as a strong indication that community development needs to be thoughtful in order to create healthy environments in such densely population areas. In particular Northridge and Sclar claim this collaborative is essential for health impact assessments for proposed project and policies in urban areas.
Koohsari, Mohammad Javad, et al. “(Re)Designing the Built Environment to Support Physical Activity: Bringing Public Health Back into Urban Design and Planning.” Cities, vol. 35, 2013, pp. 294–298., doi:10.1016/j.cities.2013.07.001.
Koohsari et. al. focus their research on the links between urban planning and physical activity, particularly the impact of the "built environment" on how much people walk in their day-to-day life. While attempting to establish a framework for urban planners to use when creating more walk-able environments, this article also makes a larger case for greater cooperation between the two disciplines more generally.
Heather, Knizhnik L., "The Environmental Benefits of Urban Agriculture on Unused, Impermeable and Semi-Permeable Spaces in Major Cities With a Focus on Philadelphia, PA" (2012). Master of Environmental Studies Capstone Projects. 46.
This article explores the relationship between urban design and the environmental well-being of a community. Heather focuses especially on the potential of green spaces to address common urban problems. Among the benefits green spaces put forward are improvements in air and water quality, reduction of heat traps, increased local access to fresh produce, and less pollution in collected rainwater.
Popular Citation
Emily Badger Feed Emily Badger. “We Don't Know Nearly As Much About the Link Between Public Health and Urban Planning As We Think We Do.” CityLab, 17 Dec. 2013, https://www.citylab.com/equity/2013/12/much-what-we-know-about-public-health-and-urban-planning-wrong/7886/.
This article argues that much of the current rhetoric surrounding the link between public health and urban planning is oversimplified. Relying primarily on an ongoing project at MIT for evidence, the author claims that links between sprawl and obesity are not as straightforward as they seem and criticized a number of existing projects in U.S. cities to increase green space and public transport for not taking pollution impacts into account.
Owens, Cassie. “Reconnecting Urban Planning and Public Health.” Next City, 29 Jan. 2016, https://nextcity.org/daily/entry/urban-planning-public-health-collaborating.
This article relates statements from Dubuque, Iowa public health specialist Mary Rose Corrigan about cooperation between public health and urban planning in Dubuque and how it has benefited the community. However, Jason Corburn argues that this is uncommon; he claims the disconnect between professionals of the two disciplines and a tendency toward approaches focused on science rather than social issues limit current collaboration efforts.
Sen, Mandu. “At the Intersection of Urban Planning and Health in the New York Metro Region.” Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, 14 June 2019, https://www.rwjf.org/en/blog/2016/07/at_the_intersection.html.
This blog post uses New York City as a case study for the relationship between urban planning, public health, and quality of life across different communities. Life expectancy and overall measures of health between New Yorkers and residents of other nearby cities are compared, taking into consideration the green spaces and public transport available to them.