Handbook of Healthy Cities ― Planning for Well-being and a Sustainable Future

Urban planning is deeply implicated in both the planetary crisis of climate change and the personal crises of unhealthy lifestyles. Worldwide health issues such as obesity, mental illness, growing health inequalities and climate vulnerability cannot be solved solely by medicines but also by tackling the social, economic and environmental determinants. In a time when unhealthy and unsustainable conditions are being built into the physical fabric of cities, a new awareness and strategy is urgently needed to putting health and well-being at the heart of planning.

The Routledge Handbook of Planning for Health and Well-being authoritatively and comprehensively integrates health into planning, strengthening the hands of those who argue and plan for healthy environments. With contributions from international leaders in the field, the Handbook of Planning for Health and Well-being provides context, philosophy, research, processes, and tools of experienced practitioners through case studies from four continents.

Hugh Barton is Emeritus Professor of planning, health and sustainability at the University of the West of England, Bristol. Until 2012 he was Director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for healthy urban environments. He is a recognised international expert in the field, and lead author of key texts on sustainability and health, including Healthy Urban Planning, (for the WHO Healthy Cities programme), Sustainable Communities and Shaping Neighbourhoods. His research, teaching and consultancy work has been about building bridges between disciplines, professions, stakeholders, spatial scales and policy areas. He has made a particular study of energy-efficient urban form, neighbourhood design, inclusive decision processes, and health-integrated planning.

Susan Thompson has worked in urban planning for over 30 years focusing on cross-disciplinary research, teaching and practice. Susan is Professor of Planning and Associate Director (Healthy Built Environments), City Futures Research Centre at The University of New South Wales, Australia. Susan has qualifications in urban planning, geography and education. Her areas of expertise encompass cultural diversity in urban planning, meanings of home and the use of qualitative research methodologies in the built environment disciplines. For the last decade Susan’s work has focused on healthy urban planning. In 2012 Susan was elected Fellow of the Planning Institute of Australia and is widely published in urban planning and health.

Marcus Grant has been exploring questions at the interface of human flourishing, sustainability and land use since the mid1980s. He has working experience of the consultancy, academic and public policy worlds and is concerned with accessing their inherent, but untapped synergies, to make better places. Recently, he has been active in this field as Deputy Director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Healthy Urban Environments and Associate Professor in the Department of Planning and Architecture at the University of the West of England. Marcus holds a degree in ecology, is a Chartered Landscape Architect, a Fellow of the Faculty of Public Health and an associate fellow of the National Institute for Health Research.

Sarah Burgess is a qualified planner specialising in urban design and planning policy. She has experience in public and private practice in both Australia and the United Kingdom, working on projects and policies at local and strategic levels. Sarah is a senior lecturer in health and urban planning at the University of the West of England. Her research interests include urban form and the quality of the urban environment and the integration of health into planning policies and processes. She is a Built Environment Expert with the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment and an Academician with the Academy of Urbanism.