Main research themes

The settlement health map provides an integrating conceptual framework for the research of the Centre, explaining the relationship between the settlement in its ecological setting and people's health and well-being.

The settlement health map

Healthy urban planning

Town planning and public health are long-term bed-fellows. Modern planning originated in reaction to the unhealthy conditions of nineteenth century cities. Yet over the past century the connection has been severed and different professions have gone their own way. Now at last there is a new recognition that the health and well-being of people is perhaps the fundamental purpose of planning. Issues of obesity, physical activity, green space and mental well-being are being highlighted by government policy. Bodies such as CABE, Natural England, the UK Public Health Association, the National Heart Forum and the DoH itself are working to bridge the gap. The new spatial planning system encouraged collaboration between health authorities and local authorities. But many professionals on both sides of the divide still have a hazy notion of what 'healthy urban planning' might mean.

The Centre has produced a series of publications on this theme, notably:

The design of healthy, sustainable neighbourhoods

Neighbourhoods are the local human habitat. They are important to the health and well-being of people who are locally based: children, teenagers, the elderly, home-workers, parents of young families, the unemployed. Yet we often allow them to develop or decline in counter-healthy ways. We have also been quite literally building unsustainability into local environments: making them car-dependent and obesogenic. Planning healthy neighbourhoods therefore also plans for a healthy planet - 'local global planning'. The centre has a long term goal to define how best to design and plan localities. This involves major research programmes and publications

Collaborative decision processes

The achievement of healthy and sustainable settlements relies on positive behavioural change by households and businesses, support from powerful decision-makers, and different agencies working together. Effective co-operation is essential. At the same time planning strategies have to be based on what actually can work, not wishful thinking. The Centre has developed tools to facilitate inclusive, rational appraisal and decision processes. It provides consultancy and training to assist private, public and voluntary sector bodies in making good decisions

  • The Spectrum approach

Children, young people, and the public realm

Linked but distinct programmes are concerned with children's healthy play and the design management of the built environment; young people and their use of public space; mental well-being, social capital and neighbourhoods; car-free development.

Knowledge interpretation and exchange

The other developing area of work is more about knowledge synthesis and exchange. A series of practice guides have put together knowledge in new ways. The Healthy Communities Research Fora have drawn together diverse academic disciplines and professional groups. Building on innovative distance learning courses the Centre is undertaking a major project for the Department of Health called Education Network for Healthier Settlements, promoting the integration of health into the education of planners, architects and engineers.