Participation, Information, and Community Interests within Health Impact Assessments (HIA)

Dissertation Summary: Health impact assessment (HIA) has recently emerged in the US as a mechanism for potentially increasing social and environmental justice by bringing attention to health equity issues associated with project and urban plans. As a stakeholder process, this occurs in theory by expanding the information base upon which public decisions are made. The extent to which this expanded information base represents public health professional and/or community health interests remains unclear. Furthermore, little has been done to evaluate the extent to which the information provided in HIAs is influencing public decisions. By tracing health interests--both public health professional and…

Dissertation Summary: Health impact assessment (HIA) has recently emerged in the US as a mechanism for potentially increasing social and environmental justice by bringing attention to health equity issues associated with project and urban plans. As a stakeholder process, this occurs in theory by expanding the information base upon which public decisions are made. The extent to which this expanded information base represents public health professional and/or community health interests remains unclear. Furthermore, little has been done to evaluate the extent to which the information provided in HIAs is influencing public decisions. By tracing health interests—both public health professional and community oriented—in three transportation planning cases through both the HIA and planning process, this dissertation seeks to understand how HIA treats various health concerns and the effectiveness of such treatment in influencing planning processes. In doing so, transportation planners will better understand the promise and limitations of augmenting technical best practices arising from a growing ‘active living’  literature with a health-focused participation exercise such as HIA.