Urban Planning- Public Health Link
The adverse impacts of pandemics on cities led to public health considerations being central to spatial planning or town and country planning. In fact, the rise of both public health and town planning movements was in direct response to the unhealthy conditions of cities in the aftermath of the Industrial Revolution. It emerged in the United Kingdom in the later part of the nineteenth century, following the ‘chaos’ created by rapid industrialization, manifesting in squalor, disease, dirt, destitution, congestion, pollution, noise, and slums in cities.
As in the United Kingdom, the paradigm of urban planning in the United States originated from concerns of public interest. It adopted land use zoning as the key instrument to realize planning objectives. The Standard State Zoning Enabling Act of 1926, issued by the United States Department of Commerce, justified the case for zoning as follows:
“…lessen congestion in the streets; to secure safety from fire, panic, and other dangers; to promote health and general welfare; to provide adequate light and air; to prevent the overcrowding of land; to avoid undue concentration of population; to facilitate the adequate provision of transportation, water, sewerage, schools, parks, and other public requirements.”.