North Birmingham Community Plan Health Impact Assessment: A Case-Study of Community, Trans-disciplinary and Trans-Agency Collaboration

Background: The North Birmingham Community Plan Health Impact Assessment (NBCP-HIA) is a rapid-intermediate HIA of the first-ever community plan for an environmental justice community in Birmingham, Alabama. The plan covers the six-neighborhoods that is the seat of the 1963 civil rights events, yet today is characterized by low socioeconomic status and educational attainment, little access to healthcare and fresh food, and a torrent of potentially harmful environmental exposures from the heavy industry and heavy rail surrounding what is now the U.S. Environmental Planning Agency (EPA) declared 35^thAvenue Superfund Site.

Methods:The HIA follows the standard steps of scoping, screening, assessment, recommendation, dissemination, monitoring and evaluation. The School of City and Regional Planning at the Georgia Institute of Technology is conducting the HIA with a steering committee from the North Birmingham Citizen’s Coalition, the Regional Planning Commission of Greater Birmingham (RPCGB), the Jefferson County Health District, the City of Birmingham Planning Department, and EPA.

Results: The HIA documents existing conditions and environmental factors affecting health and recommends neighborhood planning strategies and policies to mitigate potentially harmful exposures and maximize opportunities to plan and invest in healthy communities. Residents are central to this effort and participation enhanced their ability to address built environmental influences on health.

Conclusions: Planners are mandated to protect the health and welfare of communities and are doing so through the contributions of the NBCP-HIA. The HIA provided RPCGB with additional data, resources, stakeholder input, and ultimately recommendations that are quickly adopted to plan for health more explicitly.