Healthy Community Design
Updated June 2005
Environmental Health
The way we design our communities can influence our health as much as our sense of well-being. Decisions about zoning, community design, and land use affect the daily choices people make, whether it be to drive to the store, take a walk, exercise, or the type of foods to buy. Design decisions can also affect quality of the air and water in our environment.
A typical community that is designed with low population densities and large distances between work, shopping, and home (also called urban sprawl) can affect the health of its residents in may ways. This type of development creates a reliance on the automobile for transportation, longer commutes and in many cases gridlock, leading to increases in air pollution [i]. Higher levels of air pollution are linked to higher asthma rates, exacerbation of asthma symptoms [ii], respiratory disease, increased doctors visits and mortality.
These types of neighborhoods tend to lack pedestrian amenities, which discourages walking and exercise [iii] and increases pedestrian fatality rates. In addition, destinations are often so spread out there is no place residents can walk to. As a result, people in these communities may be more sedentary, experiencing higher rates of heart disease, obesity and other ailments. [iv]
Water pollution and increased temperatures may also result. Rainwater that would normally flow into the ground and be naturally filtered through the soils runs off of the of parking lots, buildings and roads, carrying pollution into streams, rivers and lakes [v]. Paved surfaces also absorb solar radiation, so cities that are highly paved at the expense of green space are hotter in the summer, increasing the risk of heat related illness such as heat stroke and heat exhaustion.
Environmental justice is an important component of any discussion about the built environment and health. Lower income neighborhoods often contain the worst elements of community design, with a greater likelihood of being located near polluting industries and waste sites [vi]; a surplus of fast food restaurants, convenience stores and liquor stores; and a lack of supermarkets where healthy food can be purchased at a reasonable price [vii].
With the knowledge that the built environment can influence health, transportation and land use planning decisions become public health issues. Planners and policymakers are responding by looking at ways to make cities more livable by creating incentives that encourage cities and developers to take health and livability into account when retrofitting old developments or building new ones.
Notes
[i] Lawrence Frank, Land Use Impacts on Household Travel Choice and Vehicle Emissions in the Atlanta Region, (Washington, DC: The Turner Foundation, January 1999).
[ii] B. Walker et al., “Environmental factors associated with asthma,” Journal of the National Medical Association, (February 2003): 152-66.
[iii] Brian E. Saelens et al., “Neighborhood-Based Differences in Physical Activity: An Environment Scale Evalutation,” American Journal of Public Health 93, 9 (September, 2003): 1552-8.
[iv] Transportation Research Board of the National Academies, Does the Built Environment Influence Physical Activity? Examining the Evidence, (Washington, D.C.: National Academy of Sciences, 2005): 7.
[v] U.S. EPA, Our Built and Natural Environments: A Technical Review of the Interactions between Land Use, Transportation, and Environmental Quality, (Washington, DC: 2001).
[vi] Marie S. O’Neill et al., “Health, Wealth, and Air Pollution: Advancing Theory and Methods,” Environmental Health Perspectives 111, 16 (December 2003): 1861.
[vii] Ernie Hood, “Dwelling Disparities: How Poor Housing Leads to Poor Health,“ Environmental Health Perspectives 113, 5, (May 2005): A310-A317.
NCSL Environmental Health Web page
The Built Environment: Is There a Connection Between Sprawl & Health?
An NCSL article from State Health Notes that reviews a controversial report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Creating a Healthy Environment: The Impact of the Built Environment on Public Health.
Growth Management and Healthy Cities
This NCSL document reviews how the growth of cities can impact human and environmental health including air quality, water resources and temperature.
Turning Brownfields into Mixed-Use Developments
This NCSL document gives informative information on how states can turn brownfields into prosperous mixed-use developments.
Published May 2005
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