Health, food systems, parks, and regional planning

Learning objectives

• Explain how the built environment affects health and walk through the steps of a health impact assessment.
• Describe the food system, define food deserts, and identify planning tools for food access.
• Classify parks and measure park access with both acreage and walk-access standards, and use joint use agreements to add park space.
• Plan for residents of all ages, including aging in place, universal design, and visitability.
• Describe regional and multijurisdictional planning bodies and tools.
• Identify the privacy and equity questions raised by smart-city data.

Key concepts

Planning and public health

Modern planning began as a public health reform (see A history of American planning), and the two fields are reconnecting. Health outcomes are shaped by social determinants of health, the conditions where people live, work, learn, and play. Many of those are planning topics:

• Active living: walkable streets, bike networks, and nearby parks encourage physical activity.
• Air quality: proximity to highways and industry affects asthma and heart disease.
• Safety: traffic design (see Transportation planning) and safe public spaces.
• Healthy housing: condition, affordability, overcrowding, and stability.
• Food access: where healthy, affordable food is available.
• Heat: tree canopy and paving affect urban heat islands, a growing health threat.

Typical public health topics in a comprehensive plan include active transportation, food access, air quality, housing quality, and access to parks and health care. A Health in All Policies approach asks every department to consider health effects in its decisions.

6 more sections follow in the full lesson.

Key terms

• Social determinants of health: The conditions in which people live, work, and play that shape health.
• Health in All Policies: An approach that integrates health considerations into every sector's decisions.
• Health impact assessment (HIA): A structured process to evaluate a proposal's health effects before a decision.
• Food system: The chain from food production through consumption and waste.
• Food desert: An area with limited access to affordable, nutritious food.
• Food policy council: A body that advises on and coordinates local food policy.
• Neighborhood park: A park for everyday recreation within walking distance of homes.
• Park level of service: A standard for park provision, such as acres per 1,000 residents or walk access.
• Cap (deck) park: A park built over a sunken highway.
• Council of governments (COG): A voluntary regional association of local governments.
• Interlocal agreement: A contract between local governments to share services or coordinate.
• Tax-base sharing: Pooling part of regional tax-base growth among jurisdictions.
• Joint use agreement: An agreement opening facilities such as school grounds to public use, with shared costs and responsibilities.
• Aging in place: Living safely and independently in one's own home and community as one ages.
• Universal design: Design usable by people of all ages and abilities without special adaptation.
• Visitability: Basic access features in new homes: a zero-step entrance, wide doors, and a main-floor accessible bathroom.