THE HEALTHY CITIES movement grew out of a recognition that advances in health within European and North American cities over the last century and a half were a function not so much of efforts in the health profession as of local government action. This book builds on that recognition and focuses on the elements, beyond medical care, that make cities healthy places to live, not only physically, but socially and psychologically.

The author uses the stress-support model of health, which recognizes the significance of the many separate but interacting factors that affect a person’s capacity to maintain a high level of health. Drawing on research from a range of fields, including ecology, epidemiology, environmental psychology and engineering, he provides a framework for community planning which has as its goal reducing stressors, and maximizing supportive factors and individual control.

Stressors and supporters are divided here into four categories: physical, biochemical, socioeconomic and psychological. Sections on each of these categories tackle a number of issues. For instance, the section on physical stressors and supporters includes discussions of radiation, light, noise, high-rise living, rapid urbanization and natural disasters. The socioeconomic section discusses poverty, contracting economies, rapid growth, supportive social relationships and cultural change. Each of these discussions (nearly 100 in all) provides some background, a brief analysis of the problems and some examples of responses, as well as photographs and diagrams for illustration, and references for further reading. Each discussion closes with a checklist of prescriptions and implications for planning and design. The book includes some technical appendices and a helpful glossary.

Many of the prescriptions in this book involve approaches to design and development that are likely to be less costly than their less healthy alternatives. But they do imply a certain level of provision, and these solutions are more oriented towards conditions in the North. As the author points out, however, many cities in lower-income countries are using resource-intensive North American cities as their models for growth. This book provides an alternative and far more appropriate model and, as such, will prove useful for urban planners anywhere.