ABSTRACT
Urban planning and public health share a belief that humanity can be improved through public policy and preventative action. Both professions emerged at a time of increasing prosperity and wrenching social and economic change, and each evolved in response to successes and failures in shaping the built environment. Public health professionals used epidemiological and statistical methods to test the nature and parameters of the links between the built environment and health. The collaboration between planning and health occurred during the nineteenth century as both disciplines developed in response to the health and environmental conditions caused by the industrial revolution and the large-scale growth of cities in Europe and the United States. Through collaboration, public health and urban planning have helped provide clean water, build parks, and create walkable communities. These partnerships provide encouragement that these two disciplines can make a positive impact on humanity.
