Urban Sprawl and Public Health: Designing, Planning, and Building for Healthy Communities
Posted on: Wednesday, 6 April 2005, 03:00 CDT
URBAN SPRAWL AND PUBLIC HEALTH: DESIGNING, PLANNING, AND BUILDING FOR HEALTHY COMMUNITIES by Howard Frumkin, Lawrence Frank, and Richard Jackson; Island Press, Washington, DC, 2004; 288 pp., $60.00 cloth (ISBN 1-55963-912-1), $30.00 paper (ISBN 1-55963-305-0).
Written by two public health specialists and an urban planner, this book explores in detail how urban sprawl affects human health and well-being, as well as the possibilities for improving public health through alternative approaches to design, land use, and transportation. This material will pique the interest of a variety of people, from designers, planners, and architects to health care providers and public health professionals, as well as anyone concerned about the links between our well-being and the places where we live, work, and play. With extensive notes for each chapter, a long bibliography, and a comprehensive index, this book will be accessible to a very broad audience.
Definitions of sprawl are followed by a review of the history of sprawl in the United States, which shows that sprawl is a highly ordered form of development reinforced by numerous institutional incentives. The evolution of urban health includes a dismal picture of urban areas more than 200 years ago, with problems caused by garbage, industrial waste, sewage, water pollution, poor air quality, inadequate housing, and the resulting spread of infectious diseases. These problems helped fuel the exodus from central cities, but, as the authors later examine in depth, the resulting sprawl also had negative impacts on health.
Sprawl leads to increased driving with resulting increased emissions of atmospheric pollution and other public health threats. Obesity has emerged in tandem with urban sprawl, which discourages physical activity. The authors contrast the walkable environments of Europe with the driving-intensive environments of the United States to indicate possibilities for improvements.
This book also raises interesting questions about the mental health consequences of sprawl, as well as its role in undermining social capital. Further, because urban sprawl is a social arrangement, the authors consider its implications for particular societal groups, such as children, women, and the elderly.
Finally, the book explores the potential of smart growth planning efforts as a solution to many of the health problems that are linked to existing urban sprawl.
Jill Jger
Independent Scholar
Vienna, Austria
Copyright HELDREF PUBLICATIONS Apr 2005
Source: Environment
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