An Analysis and Assessment of Health Index in Mashad Metropolis with Focus of Urban Planning Approach

Population growth in urban areas is a world-wide phenomenon, particularly in developing countries, urbanization has been rapid in the past two decades, and such rapid urbanization is expected to continue in the coming years. While urbanization has provided opportunities for employment, education and socio-economic development, it has also brought about a number of adverse health problems. These urban health problems are caused by different factors called health determinants. These are related, to a certain extent, to the adequacy of medical and health services, but perhaps more so to the physical, social and economic environments of the urban areas, as well as people’s lifestyles and behaviours. The Healthy Cities initiatives address priority urban health determinants, many of which are not under the direct control of medical and health services. Solutions to urban health problems require the effective involvement of non-health sectors (e.g. industry, transport, labour, education, commerce/trade, municipal utilities and services, urban planning, etc.), as well as nongovernmental organizations, the private sector, and the community. The overall strategy employed by the Healthy Cities initiatives is to generate intersectoral action and community participation to integrate health protection and health promotion activities and transform health determinants for the better.“A healthy city is one that is continually creating and improving those physical and social environments and expanding those community resources which enable people to mutually support each other in performing all the functions of life and in developing to their maximum potential.” A Healthy City commits to a process of trying to achieve better physical and social environments. Any city can start the process of becoming a Healthy City if it is committed to the development and maintenance of physical and social environments which support and promote better health and quality of life for residents. Building health considerations into urban development and management is crucial for Healthy Cities. In this case new philosophy of the health, defined the health as a significant factor which contains many parts of human life in relevance with peripheral environment elements (i.e. environmental, physical, social and economic), and give attention to health as a vital aim in different domains of development planning. Neglecting the close relation between health and urban planning, in case of citizens health improving, made the importance of scrutiny of health in urban planning double. The main purpose of this research is to find out the heath indicators and use them in the process of analyzing the data through AHP method to be able to classify the results.GIS has also been used in the research. The spatial and analytical conclusions show that more than 12.5 percent of Mashhad district is in condition of maximum and relatively maximum menace, 16.5 percent of this district is in condition of medium menace, in excess of 29 percent is in relatively low menace and approximately 41 percent is in minimum menace condition. What is more the maximum relative rate of health menace is placed in north east field of the city.