Abstract

Changing Climate through Healthy Community Design and Transportation

Linda Rudolph, MD, MPH
Public Health Institute, Oakland, CA

APHA 2016 Annual Meeting & Expo (Oct. 29 - Nov. 2, 2016)

Our health is increasingly impacted by climate change. Community design and the built environment influence safe and equitable access to active transportation, playing a major role in promoting and protecting health in a changing climate. As the second leading nationwide contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, transportation practices significantly influence health. Communities intentionally designed with climate and health in mind can improve community safety and population health, including reduced chronic diseases and lessened impacts of severe weather events. This presentation will describe how transportation and community design aimed at reducing climate impacts can positively influence community health and well-being and will also address health equity through exploring how and where these measures are/aren’t currently being implemented. The presenter is a professor at UCLA’s Fielding School of Public Health and works extensively on policy analyses of environmental impacts on health including sustainability, climate change, urban design and architecture to toxicology and chemical body burdens. A pediatrician, he has served in leadership positions in environmental health and infectious disease with the California Health Department, including State Health Officer. For nine years he directed the CDC’s National Center for Environmental Health and received the Presidential Distinguished Service award. He was previously chair of American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Environmental Health and is a member of the Board of Directors of the American Institute of Architects. He is a recipient of the APHA’s Sedgwick Memorial Medal, and coauthor of two books: Urban Sprawl and Public Health, and Making Healthy Places.

Environmental health sciences Other professions or practice related to public health Public health or related public policy