URBAN PLANNING AND ARCHITECTURE - ICUH 2014 - The 11th International Conference on Urban Health (ICUH).

The Healthy Cities Initiative of the World Health Organization in 1986 introduced a new paradigm also termed as ‘The New Public Health’, aiming to bring together environmental factors and personal preventive measures, with a focus on public policy and individual lifestyle. The recognition of the built environment as a ‘first cause’ (alongside genetics and the socio-economic environment) of chronic disease has profound implications as it brings into context the foundational importance of the built environment, urban planning and design. The Urban Planning and Architecture stream of the International Conference on Urban Health - 2014 will highlight the urgent necessity to bring together the disciplines of urban planning and design, epidemiology and public health to decipher the impact of healthy (or unhealthy) places upon health outcomes. We invite evidence-based research studies focusing on the associations between:

Sustainable design and configuration of cities and health outcomes
Accessibility in cityscape and health outcomes
Spatial planning for healthy neighbourhoods
Sustainable transport planning and health
Healthy planning policy and governance
Urban health equity

5th March
Chair: Dr Jason Corburn, Associate Professor, University of California, Berkeley
Dr John Gallacher	Reader in Healthy Ageing, Cardiff University, UK
Dr Tim Townshend	Director of Urban Planning and Design, Newcastle University, UK
Dr Michael Ni	Clinical Assistant Professor, University of Hong Kong

5th March
Chair: Professor Roderick Lawrence, Head of the Human Ecology Group, Institute of Environmental Sciences, University of Geneva
Dr Jason Corburn	University of California, Berkeley

6th March
Chair: Professor Chris Webster, Dean of the Faculty of Architecture, University of Hong Kong
Professor Anne Ellaway	Lead for Neighbourhoods and Health Programme, University of Glasgow, UK
Ms Jenny Donovan	Prinicipal of Inclusive Design, Melbourne, Australia
Dr Erik Gomez-Baggethun	WP5 Leader, URBES, Institut de Ciencia I Tecnologia Ambientals, Barcelona, Spain

6th March
PRISM APPRAISAL: a qualitative stakeholder-led Integrated/Health Impact Assessment for viable urban development planning and design. Chair: Professor Roderick Lawrence, Head of the Human Ecology Group, Institute of Environmental Sciences, University of Geneva
Evidence demonstrates increasing costs attributable to non-communicable disease, causal links between urban environment and the wider determinants of health, and that existing methods of development and plan appraisal are insufficient to address these issues. The lack of integration of health into methods such as Environmental Impact Assessment and Sustainability Appraisal is now well known and formal HIA has no capacity to support the development of better planning solutions. There remains a stark disconnect between theoretical assessment and viable delivery. A new approach, PRISM APPRAISAL, developed from successful action research, offers important lessons for the basis of an emergent solution. This innovative partnership between the WHO Centre for Healthy Urban Environments at the University West of England and multi-disciplinary consultancy, db+a, offers a service in an action learning paradigm, for the first time on a repeat basis; optimized for local authority spatial plans, large-scale development applications and neighbourhood planning. Public Health functions in England have moved back to local government giving better opportunities for tackling the wider determinants of health. The Government’s Red-Tape Challenge, National Planning Policy Framework and National Housing Standards Review are removing substantial guidance and rigid assessment methods, leaving a vacuum in quality assurance, resulting in a need for new, robust and proven qualitative appraisal methods. Since 2000, the WHO Centre at UWE have been refining an approach within a stream of live plan-making and development projects. In 2012, db+a and UWE were commissioned by South Gloucestershire Council to carry out a PRISM APPRAISAL for the urban extension of north Bristol (5,700 units, 50ha employment land). Outputs show: agreed health objectives, group and individual grading of plan performance against objectives, and agreed actions. This activity led to funding from the UK’s Technology Strategy Board to develop an online system tailored specifically to streamline this process. Outcomes are: clear demonstration, to volume developers in particular, of stakeholder demand for comprehensive development; highlighting of details of barriers to health in planning proposals; and crucially the opportunity to consider and plan issues holistically rather than symptomatically. Many challenges remain unanswered, but developers are now taking a more proactive role in developing an area master plan in partnership with local authority. This paper will assess this innovative approach to healthy development planning; to discuss strengths, limitations and lessons learned; recommending potential courses of action to improve and make the technique more widely available.
Daniel Black	Director, Daniel Black & Associates, Bristol, UK
Mr Marcus Grant	Deputy Director of WHO Collaborating Centre for Healthy Urban Environments

7th March
Making Cities Healthier Chair: Professor Larry Frank, Director of the Health and Community Design Lab, University of British Columbia, Canada
The session, brought to you by the International Federation for Housing and Planning – IFHP, will be a two component session of 1) presentation of know-how from Copenhagen followed by 2) a mini-workshop on implementation issues. The session will start with a presentation by B. M. Hermansen, Architect MAA and Urban Planner PhD, on the general urban planning approach and decision-making framework that contributes to health promotion city development in Copenhagen. Learnings and findings from actual project development within this framework will be presented next as a best practice presentation by M. Mogensen, Architect MAA, Head of Development COWI. The session will be concluded by a mini-workshop inviting participants to reflect on the challenges and benefits of implementing this type of framework within their own personal work context. The workshop will be in pairs, reflections will be shared in plenum.
Dr Mette Mogensen	Development Manager, COWI, Lyngby, Denmark
Dr Bianca Maria Hermansen	CEO of CITITEK, Denmark

7th March
Health 2020: The Spatial Determinants of Health and Healthy Equity Chair: Dr Chinmoy Sarkar, Research Associate, Cardiff University
This workshop would explore the contribution that built environment professionals can make to addressing the European health objectives as set out in Health 2020. It will take a salutogenic approach to the theme of making healthy places to support healthier populations and will review both the contribution of built environment professionals and how best the public health profession can engage with this agenda.
Professor Gabriel Scally	Director of WHO Collaborating Centre for Healthy Urban Environments
Mr Marcus Grant	Deputy Director of WHO Collaborating Centre for Healthy Urban Environments