Health Planning Tools

This page describes tools created by CDC and partners to help planners, decision-makers, the public, and other stakeholders with health planning.

The CDC/DOT Transportation and Health Tool gives transportation decision-makers, health officials, and the public easy access to data to understand the health impact of an existing transportation system or proposed transportation project.

The Healthy Community Design Checklist can help planners, public health professionals, and the general public include health in the community planning process.

The Built Environment Assessment Tool measures the core features and qualities of the built environment that affect health, especially walking, biking, and other types of physical activity.

The Transportation Health Impact Assessment Toolkit provides a framework for public health departments, city planners, project managers, and other stakeholders to conduct HIAs on proposed transportation projects, plans, and policies.

The Parks and Trails Health Impact Assessment Toolkit can assist in the development of HIAs with park and trail components. It provides a framework for public health departments, city planners, project managers, and other stakeholders to work together.

The Parks, Trails, and Health Workbook helps communities in designing parks and trails that promote physical activity, reduce stress, and provide environmental benefits.

Partner Tools

The Healthy Community Design Toolkit—Leveraging Positive Change (Pioneer Valley Planning Commission) identifies key leverage points in local community design, planning, and development to help make communities healthier.

The Healthy Community Planning Toolbox (Tacoma-Pierce County) helps planners create healthy communities by integrating health in planning documents.

The Health Impact Assessment Tools and Resources (Design for Health) help focus attention on human health in the planning process.

The Planning Information Sheet: Integrating Health into Comprehensive Planning[PDF - 1.1 MB] (University of Minnesota Design for Health) helps communities begin thinking about how to integrate health into their planning and design decisions.

The Healthy Community Checklist[PDF - 172 KB] (Michigan Department of Community Health) is a 40-item questionnaire that provides a quick assessment of a community's health environment with regard to promoting physical activity; healthy eating and healthy weight; and smoke-free environments and tobacco-free lifestyles.