photo by pulpolux

SPH EH 818

The Built Environment:
Design Solutions for Public Health

Prof. Russ Lopez

Wednesdays, 6:00 to 8:45, beginning September 5 (2008).

Prereq: The environmental health MPH core course required;
SPH EH807 recommended.


Recent concerns about health and the environment have prompted a reconnection of public health with urban planning. This course examines how the built environment, including blocks, neighborhoods and metropolitan areas, impacts health including obesity, physical activity and mental health. Current and past policies and programs such as zoning, urban renewal, highway construction, new urbanism and smart growth are critiqued using the frameworks of health, architecture and planning. The goal is to understand how patterns of development influence health and how urban form can be modified to promote healthier living.

• Introduction: The growth and change of cities
• History of planning and public health to 1900
• History of planning and public health since 1900
• Health Studies of the Built Environment
• Trends: Technology, Demographics, Political Change
• Equity; Sociological Studies of the Built Environment
• Sustainability
• Planning and its Tools; Modernism
• Alternatives to Automobile-Dependent Design
• Development, Zoning, New Urbanism and Open Space
  Urban Renewal and Public Health Promotions
• Developing World I: Colonialism, Globalization and Urbanization
• Developing World II: Infrastructure, Land Tenure and Other Contemporary Issues

For more information, email rptlopez at bu dot edu.