Associate Professor Kathy Arthurson in conjunction with Professor Susan Thompson (University of NSW) co-edited a special issue of Urban Policy and Research Journal (Vol. 34, 1, March 2016) on the links between the Built Environment, Urban Planning and Health.

The special edition includes contributions from experts on this topic, including Southgate Institute staff.  Associate Professor Kathy Arthurson, Dr Angela Lawless, and Dr. Kirsty Hammet from SA Health, report on the evaluation of the Health in Planning Project (HiP), which aimed to embed health considerations into policy and planning documents and practices within the Department of Planning and Local Government. The authors provide a broad set of ‘lessons’ learnt from the evaluation that assisted the collaboration between the health and planning policy domains to improve health.

Dr Kathryn Browne-Yung, Associate Professor Anna Ziersch and Professor Fran Baum, explore how perceptions of neighbourhood reputation and safety are linked to low income residents’ health and well-being. The research highlights how these aspects are related to the distribution of local resources, which in turn reproduce and maintain inequities at the neighbourhood level.

The articles in the special edition are available here.