title: A planner's perspective on the health impacts of urban settings.
abstract: The profession of town planning originated out of concerns for the health and well-being of people. Progress was made as crowded and unsanitary inner city slums were replaced with suburban environments where individuals could access green open spaces and clean air. With significant increases in urban populations and the geographic spread of the city, over time these environments became increasingly unhealthy. This paper provides an overview of how modern urban environments impact on people's physical and psychological health. This understanding will assist planners and health professionals to ensure that HIA and other related impact assessment tools are effective in identifying and ameliorating potential adverse well-being outcomes of different urban policies and proposals for varying scales of development.
authors.affiliation: Planning and Urban Development Program, Faculty of the Built Environment, University of New South Wales. s.thompson@unsw.edu.au
authors.forename: Susan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Thompson
mesh_terms: D002958:City Planning; D006287:Health Planning Guidelines; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008019:Life Style; D013673:Technology Assessment, Biomedical / Q000379:methods / Q000458:organization & administration*; D014504:Urban Health; D014505:Urban Population