While the developed world boasts planned cities, the developing world’s urban planning is a mess.
Apart from a few renowned cities, there are irregularities everywhere. It makes it a hassle to maintain a consistent flow of traffic in urban areas, but it harms the environment too.
This is probably anyone’s first impression when comparing cities in the west and the east, excluding a few countries. However, urban planning goes deeper than that.
The fact that a city looks neat on the surface, with houses and buildings lined up properly, does not constitute good urban planning.
There are many aspects to urban planning.
This includes how well the master plan accommodates the city’s residents, leaves space for future growth, renews areas on changing requirements, and creates space for seamless commute within the city.
But there’s another side to urban planning, and this mainly depends on how much consideration it gives to public health.
Cities are not merely spaces for people to exist; instead, they should be planned per the requirements of people to allow them to live healthy lives within their boundaries.
There is a significant amount of planning that goes into ensuring residents feel at home in their community.
Therefore, one does not need to be a graduate of an online MPH program to see the correlation between the way cities are planned and the health of the public that inhabits them.
However, to illustrate it, we have compiled a list of ways urban planning affects public health. This list will help you gain more clarity on the matter.
- Environment:
Urban planning has a massive impact on an area’s environment. It paves the way for irregular constructions if planned poorly, especially in environmentally vulnerable areas.
This significantly damages the environment and can lead to multiple problems.
On the contrary, if a city’s planned correctly, it would consider environmental preservation. This means that the green cover is protected.
The concrete jungle would thus be limited to strike a balance between environment and development.
Having a healthy environment is essential for any urban area. The green cover provides clean air for people to breathe in, enabling them to live a healthy life.
This is important because urban areas are likely to have vehicular emissions, which can be toxic to human health and the environment.
- Industries:
Any properly planned city would try to stay away from industrial zones.
Unless this is done, it poses grave threats to public health as the people would be vulnerable to various diseases caused by pollution and toxic emissions.
Therefore, an essential component in urban planning is to keep a safe distance from industrial areas.
This could mean that the industrial zone could lie on the city’s outskirts, and if a proper emission-cutting mechanism accompanies it, it may not pose the same threats to public health.
Moreover, when it comes to industries, workers from the city may have to travel to them for work.
Therefore, a good master plan of a city would take stock of these needs to ensure that people are safe from harmful emissions, but the industries are within their reach if they have to commute for work.
- Transport:
A properly planned city takes stock of seamless transport infrastructure. Many urban plans have sidewalks to allow people to walk to the nearest metro station if they need to travel far.
Alternatively, if there’s a need to go to a nearby place, the sidewalks would enable them to walk to that spot.
Another dimension to this is the way traffic is regulated in urban areas. This is important because of the way it impacts public health.
If traffic is not allowed to flow seamlessly, it might lead to gridlocks and traffic jams. If this happens, you are looking at a rise in vehicular emission in one particular area.
Moreover, if the city isn’t planned correctly, there may not be any space to change the traffic plan.
This means that some city areas would be vulnerable to traffic jams, and the air quality within those areas would not be suitable for residents to breathe.
- Hospitals:
Hospitals and clinics are essential for every city. Moreover, they must be within the public’s reach in case of emergency. So, this has a lot to do with planning a city.
Urban planning often tends to make the best use of areas and allocates certain parts for specific purposes.
One of these is hospitals and health centers. These spaces must be allocated in line with the requirements of the city’s residents.
Here future planning is helpful as it allows planners to anticipate how a city could grow and how many hospitals and clinics would be needed to cater to the city’s population.
Moreover, suppose the hospitals are at a specific distance. In that case, the city needs a regulated traffic system to ensure that ambulances or even civilian cars are not stuck in traffic in case of an emergency.
Regulated traffic would keep moving; therefore, if the city’s plan takes stock of its traffic needs, it can also enable the health system to function correctly.
This is to say that the right roads and traffic infrastructure would allow responders to take patients to the hospital without any hindrances.
- Parks:
Parks and playgrounds are crucial for any community space because they help people remain healthy and active. For every urban plan, adjusting parks and gardens close to residences is essential to promote outdoor activities.
To illustrate this further, let us consider the example of a family that lives far away from a park.
They would have to commute to the park every day, which means they would take their car if they were not walking. This would lead to an increase in vehicular emissions.
A good urban plan makes this seem like a natural and instinctive move, whereby people would go to parks to walk or read.
This has multiple health benefits and also helps provide more green cover to urban spaces. Moreover, it would also lead to a loss of motivation for someone to pursue outdoor activities.
Final thoughts:
There are many more ways in which urban planning impacts public health, but we have attempted to list down a few to help you see the patterns.
Therefore, if you are an urban planner yourself, consider these elements while working on your design.
It would make life enjoyable for the citizens of that particular area, but it would also have numerous health benefits.