Urban Sprawl and Public Health: Design, Planning and Building for Health Communities

AT THE HEART of this book is the notion that an urgent change is needed in America to realign concepts of urban planning and public health. The authors explore in great depth the correlation between urban planning, transportation, community design and the associated implications for public health. Chapter one provides a brief overview of sprawl, its various manifestations, and issues relating to its measurement. It places the discussion of sprawl in the varying contexts of land use, density levels, connectivity and automobile dependence.
Looking retrospectively at the American city, Chapter two explores the history of urban sprawl and elucidates the drastic transformation witnessed in urban areas over the last century. It explores the linkages between transportation and the increasing popularity of suburban living, the emergence of the automobile age, housing policy and the growth of sprawl during the post-war years.
Chapter three turns to issues of urban health and the epidemiological transition in relation to the physical and demographic changes experienced in American cities. Highlighting the multitude of unsanitary conditions experienced by urban dwellers, the chapter traces the emergence of various diseases and infections up to the industrial era. Chapter four addresses air quality, and offers a model that presents the relationship between urban sprawl, land use, driving, vehicle emissions and public health. It specifically examines issues pertaining to respiratory health, air quality and mortality.
Chapter five discusses the benefits of physical activity, highlighting issues of obesity and the manner in which the built environment and community design influence the individual choice to exercise. Topics including neighbourhood density, land use, recreational areas and safety are explored. Within this same context, Chapter six then looks at the correlation between injuries and death caused by a reliance on vehicle transportation. Focusing on issues of motor accidents and pedestrian injury and fatality rates, the chapter argues for city designs that promote a decreasing dependence on motor vehicles.
Chapter seven examines the quantity and quality of clean water supplied to cities, and the manner in which it is threatened by sprawl, through siltation, non-point source water pollution and microbial contamination. The hydrology of urban sprawl is explored in relation to water scarcity and quality. Connections between mental illness and urban sprawl in relation to stress levels are then discussed in Chapter eight. While the mental benefits of sprawl are presented, the chapter underscores the severe stresses associated with driving and commuting, in the forms of aggressive driving and road rage.
The disproportionate manner in which urban sprawl affects specific groups, including women, children, the elderly, the poor, disabled persons and minorities is explored in Chapter ten. Chapter eleven offers concluding remarks and some solutions to the multiple issues presented in previous chapters, using the “smart growth” paradigm inclusive of design, development regulations, growth management, land conservation, infrastructure, financing and the links between sustainable transportation, tax and environmental policy.