Health impact assessment (HIA) provides decision-makers with information about how any policy, program, or project may affect the health of people. The Climate Smart Scenarios HIA (CSS HIA) will describe the health impacts of proposed carbon-reduction strategies to decision-makers, and ensure that the best health-promoting elements are included in the preferred scenario.

Transportation and health

Transportation produces 25% of our region’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, contributing to a warming climate that could severely impact our health and quality of life. Our climate is already changing, and the way we work together to prevent future changes will have both immediate and long-term impacts on our well being. Changes in policies and infrastructure could limit exposure to air and noise pollution, encourage us to be more physically active, and reduce traffic-related injuries and deaths. By understanding impacts, tradeoffs and unintended consequences, we can both reduce our greenhouse gas emissions and improve the health of everyone in our region.

Advisory group

The CSS HIA will bring together public health experts; land use, planning and transportation experts; and community health, environmental and community-development advocates. The advisory group will help determine the scope of the HIA, ensure that equity issues are considered, and offer available resources and expertise for consideration. 

Assessment

In the assessment, we will describe the direction and magnitude of health impacts for the CSS policy strategies that have been prioritized by the advisory group. We may use the following analytic methods, depending on our scope and resources and what will best answer the research questions:  literature review, meta-analysis, stakeholder interviews, risk analysis, and health effects modeling.

Timeline

The Climate Smart Community Scenario Planning is taking place in three phases from 2011 to 2014. The CSS HIA will take place during phase 2 of the Climate Smart Communities Scenario Planning. During phase 1, Metro developed tools to determine which scenarios will help our region meet its GHG reduction goals. In phase 2, Metro will narrow the range of alternatives, and prioritize strategies to be included in a draft preferred scenario, put forward to Metro Council at the end of 2012. Throughout 2012, OHA will engage our partners, including decision-makers, at all stages of the assessment. Prior to the selection of a draft preferred scenario, we will collaborate with our partners to develop relevant communication materials for all decision-making bodies, with an eye to assisting decision-makers in understanding alternatives, tradeoffs and mitigations when deciding between scenarios. Visit Metro’s website for more information.