Health Impact Assessments

• View the National Collaborating Centre for Healthy Public Policy’s website on health impact assessments—a general overview and introduction to the concept.

• The BC Healthy Built Environment Alliance has collated a number of built environment indicators that might be of interest as well. Click here to read more.

• Peel Public Health:

• Peel Region’s Healthy Development Index is a tool for assessing the urban form of existing and proposed communities along standards that support active living and thereby positive health outcomes.

• Through the Healthy Canada by Design CLASP initiative, the Index was pilot-tested in three municipalities: Brampton, Mississauga and the Town of Caledon. The pilot tests findings were discussed at a workshop to solicit further feedback from local community planners. The resulting report provides recommendations for Healthy Development Index refinement and implementation.

• A Health Background Studies Framework Toolkit was developed using key elements of the Healthy Development Index. The Framework provides a rationale as well as specific recommendations for integrating health considerations into the land development processes—both at the development application stage as well as at prior policy stages.

• View a webinar presentation on the Health Background Studies Framework.

• View a presentation about complementary, built environment policy development work undertaken by Peel Public Health in 2011.

• Toronto Public Health:
   
• View a report detailing methods, analysis, results and a discussion related to development of a Software Tool to model the health impacts of various land use and transportation planning scenarios. Health impacts modeled by the tool include: daily energy expenditure, odds of being obese, blood pressure, and others. The report includes an account of Software Tool pilot tests in Toronto, ON, and Surrey, British Columbia.
• View a demonstration of the Software Tool. << Coming Soon >>
   
• The basic requirements for using the tool are:
  • ArcGIS software and network analyst extension74, and a proficient user
  • CViz software75
  • The Analysis template developed as part of this project
  • Census dissemination area level demographic and parcel polygon (with attributes, e.g. land use type, building floor area, residential unit counts) data
  • Data availability and staff time to acquire and format/use it to create files in the format/structure required by CViz. Estimated staff time to create this (not counting time to acquire data) is 120 to 160 hours. Once this work is completed for an area, e.g. within a city, it does not need to be redone each time a new study area (within that larger area) is evaluated. Each new study area will, however, require time to acquire and input into CViz future conditions.
  • A study area with enough details about future changes to represent it in CViz

As with any professional planning exercise results should be reviewed carefully–  especially in smaller regions that differ substantially in urban form from Toronto, or in studies testing urban form changes well outside the spectrum of that present in Toronto. Place Type assumptions for people per residential dwelling type, square feet per residential dwelling type, and vehicles per residential dwelling type currently contain City of Toronto-based assumptions. These would ideally be replaced with locally available data if they are found to be substantially different from the Toronto assumptions.

 

Health Facilities

• Vancouver Island Health Authority has produced a report sharing observations and insights, and recommendations about how health facilities can be designed to benefit health outcomes.

Links and Synergies with Environmental Sustainability

• Vancouver Coastal Health has developed a paper outlining synergies and areas of overlap between local government’s policies and practices to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and those that promote healthy living. The paper is titled, “Cool Neighbourhoods Are Healthy Neighbourhoods: How local government actions on climate change help to create healthier communities.”
  

  To download the original In Design files and adapt your paper to your context and needs, click here.

  Visit BC Healthy Communities Climate Change page.

   

Planning Policy Development

• Health Equity and Community Design Research Fact Sheet

• View Vancouver Coastal Health’s folder of tools and presentations used for built environment policy development work.
  
  Here’s the recording of a webinar presented March 29, 2012, describing this work in detail. Duration of the webinar: 1.5 hours.
  
  Download 2-page instructions on how to view the webinar recording.