Ville en santé | Health for all, urban planning to the rescue

The health crisis and containment were a stark reminder of the importance of urban planning in meeting public health challenges. Modern urban planning was propelled to the forefront of community organization as early as the 18th century to address health concerns in urban cores at the height of the Industrial Revolution, and is still a key tool for community health today.

However, the interventions of urban planners to improve living conditions have sometimes generated unanticipated effects and produced additional public health challenges. The urban exodus, as opposed to the rural exodus of the industrial era, which began in the wake of the Second World War, has accelerated since the 1990s. The health crisis, although recent, has demonstrated the population’s desire for more space and access to nature, contributing to the phenomenon of urban sprawl in both metropolitan and regional contexts.

This remoteness from major centers is one of the causes of car dependency, which contributes directly to a sedentary lifestyle and obesity, as well as increasing air pollution. It is therefore clear that public health issues cannot be tackled in a one-dimensional or isolated way, and must be considered as a dynamic whole in which the quality of urban planning plays a key role.

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Image: New York City Department of Transportation, 2017.