Measuring, Assessing, and Certifying Healthy Places

Abstract

Key Points - To know whether a community can be considered a healthy place and how it can be improved, tools are needed to measure and analyze health-risk and health-protective factors and to convey such information to decision makers. - Instruments such as walkability audits can be used to measure the health components of a community’s physical environment and to predict the potential positive and negative impacts of changes to that environment. - Tools such as health impact assessments can be used to assess the potential health outcomes of proposed projects and policies and to provide recommendations to promote healthy aspects and mitigate adverse aspects of proposals. - Criteria such as those in LEED for Neighborhood Development can be used to certify that the design of a community reaches certain standards in sustainability, energy efficiency, and health-promoting components.