Abstract

Efforts have long been made to improve public health through spatial planning. The attention devoted to this topic had decreased slightly, but is now once more on the rise. Smart spatial planning that promotes human health requires close collaboration between professionals in the fields of spatial design, the environment and public health. An exploration of the relationship between these three domains shows that professionals can make much greater use of each other's expertise and skills than they currently do. By combining and sharing knowledge and translating it into practical applications, each domain can gain greater insight into the background, motivations and interests at play in the other domains. Support can be provided by organizations that represent all domains, such as the Platform for Healthy Design.

Similar developments
For already some time, similar developments have been observed in the three aforementioned domains. For instance, a shift in emphasis may be seen in all three domains from measures that reduce risks (health protection) to measures that encourage healthy behaviour (health promotion). Another example concerns the shift from policy orchestrated at the national level ('top down') to encouraging people to adopt an active role and take more control of their health and their environment ('bottom up').

Finding out what works
It is important to establish which measures and policies are effective in practice. Despite the many inspiring examples from practice, the impact of urban structures on health and well-being has not yet been extensively studied. In addition, the three domains assess the effectiveness of measures and policies differently. The spatial planning domain, for instance, focuses mainly on the experiences of the planner rather than on 'proven effectiveness'. By contrast, the evidence-based approach is central in the public health domain. Greater insight may be gained into the effectiveness of measures by combining insights from the three domains and assessing the impact of spatial interventions as a standard procedure. The assessment system for the quality and effectiveness of lifestyle interventions developed by the Dutch Centre for Healthy Living and its partners, for example, can be helpful in this regard.

This exploratory study was commissioned by the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, and carried out by RIVM in collaboration with Eindhoven University of Technology.