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.”.