PA5209: Urban Planning and Health Equity

This interdisciplinary course examines the causes and consequences of place-based health disparities in cities, explores how health disparities can be mitigated and exacerbated by urban planning decisions, and introduces best practices in urban planning for achieving community health equity. The course will involve extensive readings, guest lectures, field-based assignments, data-collection activities, and local community involvement. Twin Cities has one of the largest disparities in health outcomes in the nation and local practitioners are pioneering new urban planning solutions to reduce place-based health disparities. The course will utilize this location advantage and use the region as an immersive learning environment. Students are expected to apply knowledge and skills learned in the class locally in the Twin Cities region.At the end of the course, students will be able to: Understand the historical foundations, current trends and challenges, and international perspectives in connecting urban planning to health equity issues; investigate how various planning sectors and urban environment dimensions, including land use, transportation, open space, housing, food systems, and community social capital, interact to affect health disparities in cities; critically evaluate how existing planning processes and decisions respond to the needs of vulnerable populations and contribute to health equity; and develop skills to engage communities and identifying community-sensitive solutions for reducing place-based health disparities. Fulfills a requirement for graduate Health Equity Minor (http://www.sph.umn.edu/academics/minor/health-equity/).

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