Urban planning for healthy cities. A review of the progress of the European Healthy Cities Programme.
The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the progress made by European cities in relation to Healthy Urban Planning (HUP) during Phase IV of the World Health Organization's Healthy Cities programme (2003-2008). The introduction sets out the general principle of HUP, identifying three levels or phases of health and planning integration. This leads on to a more specific analysis of the processes and substance of HUP, which provide criteria for assessment of progress. The assessment itself relies on two sources of data provided by the municipalities: the Annual Review Templates (ARTs) 2008 and the response to the Phase IV General Evaluation Questionnaire. The findings indicate that the evidence from different sources and questions in different sections are encouragingly consistent. The number of cities achieving a good level of understanding and activity in HUP has risen very substantially over the period. In particular, those achieving effective strategic integration of health and planning have increased. A key challenge for the future will be to develop planning frameworks which advance public health concerns in a spatial policy context driven often by market forces. A health in all policies approach could be valuable.
WHO Collaborating Centre for Healthy Urban Environments at the University of the West of England, Bristol, UK, Hugh.Barton@uwe.ac.uk.
Hugh
H
Barton
Marcus
M
Grant
D000375:Aging; D002947:Cities; D002958:City Planning / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000592:standards; D003159:Community-Institutional Relations; D004782:Environmental Health; D005060:Europe; D006285:Health Planning / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000592:standards; D006297:Health Services Accessibility; D040361:Healthy People Programs / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000592:standards; D006801:Humans; D008019:Life Style; D015397:Program Evaluation; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D064890:Social Determinants of Health; D012944:Social Support; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014504:Urban Health; D014944:World Health Organization