Health Impact Assessment for Urban and Land-use Planning and Policy Development: Lessons from Practice

Abstract

There is increased interest in, and awareness of, the health impacts of urban and land-use planning. At the same time, health impact assessment (HIA) has emerged internationally as an approach to strengthening the possible positive impacts of a proposed development or plan and mitigating the possible negative health impacts. This article first provides an overview of HIA, focusing on the history of HIA and its core conceptual underpinnings. The article then critically reflects on the value of undertaking HIA based on experiences from 13 HIAs on planning proposals in Australia. In doing so, the article makes the case for the use of HIA in urban and land-use planning based on practical examples of how HIA has been applied to different types of urban policies and plans to improve healthy urban places.

Public health in linkage to land use: Theoretical framework, empirical evidence, and critical implications for reconnecting health promotion to land use policy

“…Land use planning, public health governance and environmental regulation share common origins in attempt to address the challenges for dwellers' health burden (e.g., environmental pollution, infectious diseases, and urban crowding) (Ashe et al, 2003;Barton, 2009;Chapman, 2011;Harris et al, 2010). However, these disciplines have been divergent and currently operate in separate fields (Harris et al, 2016;Koohsari et al, 2013;Wernham, 2011).…”

Can we get old here? seniors' perceptions of seasonal constraints of neighbourhood built environments in a northern, winter city

“…Such work is embedded in the broader recognition that the built environment influences health (Israel et al 2006;Harris et al 2010;Renalds et al 2010;Baum et al 2011) and that 'upstream' policy interventions are critical for population health. Upstream approaches to public health emphasize the potential for prevention of injury and disease through the development and implementation of healthy public policies that benefit whole populations.…”

Emphasising enhancement in all forms of impact assessment: introduction to a special issue

“…Being able to think positively is where the fields of SEA and EIA might have a lot to learn from SIA and HIA. It is now considered best practice in SIA and HIA that they are more than processes that predict impacts in a regulatory context (see Quigley et al, 2006;Vanclay, 2003Vanclay, , 2006Esteves and Vanclay, 2009;Harris et al, 2010;Vanclay and Esteves, 2011). SIA and HIA should be informing decisionmakers about the potentialities for development and improvement.…”

“…The International Principles for Social Impact Assessment, for example, strongly encourage enhancement and positive outcomes (Vanclay, 2003(Vanclay, , 2006Vanclay and Esteves, 2011). In HIA too, the emphasis is on public health rather than on public disease, and improving health and wellbeing has always been the primary focus (Quigley et al, 2006;Harris et al, 2010).…”