Quantitative Health Impact Assessment for Urban Planning Schemes.

Health impact assessment (HIA) is an approach to identification of potential health benefits or hazards in urban planning schemes. Quantitative HIA provides uniform and comparable health outcomes (e.g., the morbidity of a specific disease), which could effectively assist planning decisions. However, there are currently few quantitative HIA methods specifically for urban planning applications. Based on a review of existing HIA methods, this paper has developed a quantitative HIA system for urban planning schemes in China, and specifically evaluates health risks, health behaviors, and health outcomes. Taking the Territorial and Spatial Master Plan of the Gucun Township of Shanghai as an example, we have illustrated how to evaluate the reduced health risks and increased health behaviors, as well as how to calculate changes in potential health outcomes in order to provide a reference for relevant HIA practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]