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Why doctors want a say in city design
HEALTH professionals have long suggested there would be social and economic benefits if their profession were given a direct say in the urban planning process.
Now a group led by Margalit Younger of the US National Centre for Environmental Health has put the case for such a cross disciplinary approach as a way to maximise the returns from adapting towns and cities to climate change.
In a discussion paper (The built environment, climate change, and health: Opportunities for co-benefits) published by the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, Ms Younger and her colleagues explain that the built environment influences human choices, which in turn affect health and the global climate.
“Neighbourhood design not only influences health by affecting physical activity, respiratory and cardiac health, injury risk, chronic disease risk, social contactedness and mental health, but many current community design practices also adversely contribute to global climate change,” the discussion paper says.
It says strategies aimed at reducing atmospheric CO2 - like reducing car use and increasing the energy efficiency of buildings - can have disproportionately adverse impacts on vulnerable sections of the community, unless the health impacts are factored in. Alternatively, taking health impacts into account can pay handsome dividends.
The paper cites the case of five pedestrian and bicycle trails built in Nebraska. To construct the trails cost the community $US 235 for each person who used them. Yet it was estimated that the extra physical activity the trails produced saved each user $US 622 in annual medical costs. The paper provides many other examples, including the construction of a “green” hospital at the University of Pittsburgh, which recovered its incremental costs after one year and accrued financial benefits during subsequent years.
The paper suggests that “Health Impact Assessment” should now become part of all future decision making in the building, land-use and transportation planning processes. “By combining various built environment strategies through complimentary policies and programs, multiple co-benefits emerge,” it says.
