Session: Built Environment: Creating Healthy Communities

4088.0: Tuesday, November 9, 2004: 10:30 AM-12:00 PM

Oral

Built Environment: Creating Healthy Communities

This special session addresses the intersection of community design and public health. An increasing body of evidence demonstrates that the places in which we live and work affect our health. The built environment encompasses those aspects of our environment that are human-modified, such as homes, schools, workplaces, parks, industrial areas, farms, and highways. Public health challenges related to the built environment include access to medical and other health care, quality of and access to schools, economic opportunities, social capital, air and water quality, and opportunities for physical activity. For example, availability and accessibility of bicycle and walking paths, exercise facilities, and overall safety and aesthetics of an environment may play a role in determining the type and amount of physical activity in which people engage. Moreover, the way in which we plan the physical layout, or land use, of our communities is fundamental to sustainability. Two main features of land use practices have converged to generate haphazard growth: zoning ordinances that isolate employment, shopping, and housing locations from each other; and low-density growth planning aimed at creating automobile access to increasing expanses of land. Community sustainability requires a transition to land use planning practices that create and maintain efficient infrastructure, ensure close-knit neighborhoods, and preserve natural systems. Public health benefits that emanate from living in such sustainable communities may include lower rates of obesity, cardiovascular disease, asthma, and psychological stress. This session will highlight research and practices that partner health practitioners with planners and developers to improve community design and public health.

Learning Objectives: 1) Understand connections between the built environment and public health. 2) Recognize how the built environment impacts health conditions such as obesity. 3) Realize the need for building partnerships among public health practitioners and local planners, designers, and transportation experts.

Moderator(s):

Allen Dearry, PhD

10:30 AM

Introduction