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The role of the built and natural environments in influencing health and wellbeing is widely acknowledged in the literature from a range of disciplines, including public health, health promotion, urban studies and planning and transport planning. A recent comprehensive review by the NSW Healthy Built Environments Program examined three domains, namely the built environment and:  getting people active,  connecting and strengthening communities, and  providing healthy food options

Most publications addressing how we should plan and design our cities start from the premise that there is much wrong with our cities. They point out that the way we organise space requires an increasing reliance on the motor car, consumes more land on the edges and demands more and more energy - all part of a road to ruin. Predictions about the increasing numbers of people who will live in cities add to the growing chorus insisting on the need for new directions and innovative solutions.

Healthy by Design®. A guide to planning and designing environments for active living in Tasmania aims to assist planners, urban designers and related professionals to design a built environment that enables people to incorporate incidental physical activity-such as walking and cycling for transport-into their daily routine. This resource has wide application to the planning and design of the public realm. It contains discrete chapters on design considerations, evidence, tools and case studies that can be referred to and applied to a variety of settings. The strategies within this reference document apply to Tasmania's urban environments, but also address Tasmania's unique characteristics such as its broad open spaces and hilly topography that influence physical activity on a daily basis.

This website includes: * design principles that are the foundation stones of healthier more active communities * different development types where these principles can be applied * information about how to make planning for healthier communities happen. * Australian case studies that show what is achievable and which have potentially wider application, and * links to the health and planning research and resources that support planning for active living. Planning for healthier outcomes can be applied to all parts of Australia. It is just as applicable in metropolitan areas as it is in regional cities, towns, villages and remote communities.