Urban Planning

Abstract

This chapter discusses the symbiotic relationship between urban planning and public health, examines the features of healthy and sustainable urban environments, provides positive examples of healthy urban planning and the blocks to conducting such planning. Consideration is given to how urban planning can contain sprawl and can create cites that rely more on public transportation, cycling, and walking. Examples of good practice from New York, Zurich, and Bursa (Turkey) are provided. Issues of governance, including public participation in planning and the importance of visionary leadership, are discussed. A perspective of cities as contested ground in which developers seek to maximize profits, often at the expense of urban residents, is developed. Conflicts of interest that arise in development processes are examined.