Designing Healthy Communities

Designing Healthy Communities: Background and Resources

The design of our communities has a profound effect on the public health.

The statistics on the state of Americans’ health are not encouraging. According to a Surgeon General’s report, over 60 percent of the U.S. population is inactive or underactive, conditions which have fueled the growing epidemic of obesity, diabetes, and related disorders. And a growing body of evidence is pointing to the critical role that community design plays in fostering—or inhibiting—an active lifestyle. A few of the elements that have been identified as creating healthy, “walkable” communities include:

Safe and accessible sidewalks, crosswalks, and bike paths;
Transportation alternatives, with pedestrian access to buses and transit systems;
Safe, attractive, and convenient parks and recreation facilities;
Shopping and services that can be accessed without automobiles.

All of these are aspects of community design on which landscape architects have special expertise and that the profession is uniquely qualified to address.

Active Living by Design, an initiative of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

ASLA has signed on as a member of Active Living by Design, an initiative of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), the largest philanthropic foundation devoted exclusively to health and health care in the United States. The mission of Active Living by Design [www.activelivingbydesign.com] is: “to provide leadership in promoting environments that offer choices for Active Living, a lifestyle that easily integrates physical activity into daily routines.“ Additional research documenting the impact of community design on healthy lifestyles is underway and planned, as is development of best practices and case studies on the design of walkable communities.

On May 7, 2003, Jamie Bussell, MPH, Program Associate, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, addressed the ASLA Board of Trustees and Chapter Presidents’ Council. Bussell’s talk covered the growing problems related to Americans’ sedentary lifestyles and challenged ASLA and its members to promote healthy community design. Download Bussell’s presentation.

Designing and Building Healthy Places, an initiative of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recognized several significant health issues related to land use, including physical activity, respiratory health and air pollution, children’s health and the built environment, and accessibility. The CDC website, Healthy Places [http://www.cdc.gov/healthyplaces], outlines and discusses the issues and provides links and other resources. A CDC Livability Listserv [http://www.cdc.gov/healthyplaces/contact.htm] has been established to foster information exchange and dialogue on the issue of health and community design.

“We must be alert to the health benefits, including less stress, lower blood pressure, and overall improved physical and mental health, that can result when people live and work in accessible, safe, well-designed, thoughtful structures and landscapes.”
Dr. Richard Jackson, M.D., M.P.H.

Dr. Richard Jackson, MD, MPH, Director, National Center for Environmental Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has identified the built environment as a critically important and under-appreciated environmental health issue. View Dr. Jackson’s paper “What Olmsted Knew.” Jackson presented a keynote address at the 2003 ASLA Annual Meeting in New Orleans.