Land Use Planning/Design: A Key Core Competency for Environmental Health Practitioners

Environmental health practitioners protect the public’s health. This involves making sure that physical, chemical, biological and radiological stressors do not generate hazards that adversely impact public health. Sometimes this involves preventing exposure entirely, or in cases such as indoor air and air pollution, setting and enforcement of standards to ensure that public health is protected. In addition to protecting people from the environment, environmental health practitioners help ensure that ecosystems provide support clean water, clean air, open spaces, and uncontaminated food.

Land use planning recognizes that developments generate social and economic impacts, as well as positive and negative effects. Density of land uses can improve transportation options. The design of landscaping and mix of land uses can encourage walkability, and generate retail sales activity as well as attractive public spaces.

Copyright 2012, R. Steven Konkel

Development of competency and user-based curriculum in Land Use Planning has many benefits for skill-building in collaborative problem solving among colleagues with different disciplinary backgrounds. The location, nature of, and probability of realizing certain hazards are a focus in land use planning, much more than constructing a zoning map. A comprehensive plan deals with all of the elements, from housing, commercial and industrial developments, to community facilities and transportation, air quality, water quality, hazardous waste, solid waste and access to green spaces and natural resources, that are important to the quality of life in a neighborhood, city, or region. It provides a snapshot of environmental conditions and a canvas for improving the way a city works.

Land use planning deals with sharp human conflicts over management of land. Charles Haar, who wrote a casebook on Land Use Planning over 40 years ago, noted the “deep social and philosophical issues related to property interests, human rights, and the principles of the common venture” are central to understanding healthy communities and sustainable development. There is a role for governments to make strategic investments in infrastructure and public goods that produce benefits to the community as a whole, while encouraging responsible development and promoting green spaces and access to natural environments. The authors also address implications for academic programs educating environmental health practitioners.