Healthy Waterways: Health Impacts of Rochester's Local Waterfront Revitalization Program

Health Impact Assessment (HIA) is a tool for providing decision-makers in non-health related sectors—such as transportation, natural resources, and education—with information and recommendations on how their proposed plans and policies will likely impact the health of the communities they serve. The overall goal of HIA is to maximize positive health impacts and minimize negative health impacts of policies, particularly for populations that are already at higher risk for health problems. Although HIA is most often associated with built environment decisions, it has been applied to policies ranging from education to labor laws to climate change. However, HIA has not been widely used in waterfront and coastal zones. We will present an HIA focused on informing Rochester's Local Waterfront Revitalization Program (LWRP). The LWRP, conducted as part of the New York State Division of Coastal Resource's (NYSDCR) statewide coastal management program, will guide city, private, and state/federal decisions affecting Rochester's waterways into the next decade. This HIA will promote policies that enhance community health through activities on, near, and affecting water resources, including stormwater and runoff management, water-based recreation, and subsistence fishing. In this presentation, we will focus on the health issues, analytic tools, and recommendations related to surface water quality and uses. We will highlight lessons learned for incorporating water-based uses in the practice of HIA and a model for health impacts assessment in the coastal zone.