URBAN PLANNING AND PUBLIC HEALTH IN LATIN AMERICA:
STRENGTHENING THE "MISSING LINK"

(PLANIFICACIÓN URBANA Y SALUD PÚBLICA EN AMÉRICA LATINA:
FORTALECIENDO EL ESLABÓN PERDIDO)

This presentation situates atmospheric pollution within the context of urban planning concerns and advocates for greater integration of planning into the efforts to improve air quality and public health in Latin America.

In the world today, more than half of the population lives in cities and the percentage of urban population continues to steadily grow. Latin America is the most urbanized continent in the world, and their cities continue to grow. Not only are large, traditional cities still growing, but secondary cities are also expanding very rapidly, and in some areas, megalopolis are shaping up and/or expanding. Urban planning both analyzes these trends of development and makes proposals for guiding them in manners that are most beneficial to communities, while preserving the quality of the environment. Yet, Latin American countries have too few urban planning programs and many of the ones in place are disproportionately focused on physical planning. Likewise, many Latin American cities do not have urban planning offices and the ones in existence often lack the technical or financial resources to carry on their mission.

This presentation discusses qualitative and quantitative aspects of urban planning education in Latin America and makes the case for the discipline to become more prominent in academic and political settings to tackle the urban planning and public health challenges of cities in the continent. Most particularly, it offers urban planning as the umbrella under which other technical and social science experts can gather to synergistically combine their contributions to make them become more than the sum of their parts in effectively devising and implementing strategies to curb air pollution and its resulting health implications. Because planning is about interconnectedness and complexity, the discipline is strategically positioned to systemically understand and give response to the impacts of land use, transportation, industry, building emissions, noise, and environmental factors on atmospheric pollution and public health.

Adopting a sustainability paradigm, planning is also centrally concerned with social and environmental equity. This preoccupation is expressed both in terms of processes (paying attention to issues of democracy, representation, and participation) and outcomes (paying attention to issues of efficiency and equity). Since Latin America is the most inequitable continent in the world, efforts to redress this condition have to be emphasized. This is particularly critical in the area of atmospheric pollution and public health.

After introducing the aforementioned conceptual notions, the presentation critically discusses a few examples where air quality, public health, and planning have converged and distills lessons to improve planning for air quality and public health in Latin America.


Dr. Clara Irázabal.