| Land use planning and concern for improving living and built environment originated from the desire to improve public health. The Industrial Revolution of the nineteenth century in United Kingdom caused a rapid growth of coal, steel, and manufacturing industries. In turn, this brought influx of people from rural areas to the urban centers. These exploding cities lacked sanitary infrastructures to cope with the swelling masses. Improvised and often crowded housing typically lay adjacent to factories that discharged smoke and other pollutants. Planning issues remained at the root of some of the most intractable public health problems, including the declining rates of physical activity resulting from automobiledependent environments or the isolation of poor and minority communities in areas plagued by environmental pollutants, violent crime, and high rates of disease. Land use, community design, and transportation systems substantially impact local air quality, water quality and supply, traffic safety, physical activity and exposure to contaminated industries. Mental health and quality of life issues also are profoundly affected by factors ranging from the stress and difficulties of commuting to the presence or absence of natural areas and green spaces. There is a general realization that health specialists or planning departments cannot afford to operate in isolation from one another. This article intends to examine the important role that can be assumed by the members of local health department and other public health professionals in protecting local environmental health and improving the health of the communities through land use planning. After examining the historical role of public health in creating today’s system of land use regulation, some of the other forces shaping the built environment, from public investment to demographic changes will be explored. New planning tools and strategies that can help raise public health considerations in land use and planning, as well as specific strategies or actions that the health department can undertake in this area will be examined. |