ANNUAL CONGRESS 2025

Reintroduction of health impact assessment in Bulgarian city planning – why and how?

Not scheduled

20m

Yildiz Technical University, Istanbul

Oral Track 05 | ENVIRONMENT AND CLIMATE

Speaker

Dr Angel Burov (Health and Quality of Life in a Green and Sustainable Environment Research Group, Strategic Research and Innovation Program for the Development of MU - Plovdiv, Medical University of Plovdiv, Plovdiv, Bulgaria; Environmental Health Division, Research Institute at Medical University of Plovdiv, Medical University of Plovdiv, Plovdiv, Bulgaria; Department of Urban Planning, Faculty of Architecture, University of Architecture, Civil Engineering and Geodesy, Sofia, Bulgaria.)

Description

Background: Bulgaria has established practices in Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) and Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), yet the integration of applied Health Impact Assessment (HIA) research findings is limited or absent in the practice of urban planning, governance and development. This has led to poorly informed planning and decision making in recent years. Meanwhile, keeping the low quality of the urban environment in terms of pollution and associated health risks (Dzhambov et al., 2023; Dzhambov et al, 2024; Khomenko, 2024), ultimately affects citizens’ quality of life. To overcome existing shortcomings in the process of urban planning and governance, there is a need for improved health-awareness through health-oriented planning and decision support tools at city and sub-city level.

Aim: The paper’s two major aims are to answer the questions of why there is a pressing need for reintroduction of advanced HIA in the Bulgarian spatial planning system and how this can be accomplished carefully without excessive regulatory burden to city authorities, planning and design experts, (re)developers and citizens.

Methods: Drawing on experience from one pilot and three research projects, conducted in major Bulgarian cities, this paper proposes a framework for reintroducing and improving the quality of evidence-based Health Impact Assessments (HIAs) in the country. The study offers valuable insights, combining three approaches:

1. A comparative analysis of international regulations and the current
   state of health impact assessment practices at the urban level in
   Bulgaria; An overview of urban environment - public health
   interactions and exposure patterns across Bulgaria's five largest
   cities, with a particular focus on Sofia, highlighting key exposures
   such as air, noise, and light pollution, alongside the
   characteristics of green spaces and their accessibility; A
   conceptual reframing of approaches to address urban environmental
   pressures and develop balanced strategies for creating healthier
   urban environments in Bulgaria in the near future.

Results:
The comparative analysis of regulations regarding HIA is represented by an unfolding matrix of procedural and substantive issues. As part of the broader city HIA landscape, specific gaps in application are outlined in relation to the Bulgarian urban planning and design and the parallel urban environmental and health protection systems.
The overview of the interactions between urban environment and public health as well as the mapping and modeling of exposure patterns clarifies the current data and knowledge base thus systemizing and overlaying the available evidence.
The conceptual vision for the ways of reframing and simplifying the existing policies, regulations, tools, and measures is attempting to respond to the tensions between urban development and health protection, showing a path that can safeguard wellbeing of Bulgarian city dwellers.

Conclusions: We aim to stimulate a discussion on the key principles for healthy and sustainable development of the urban living environment as well as the health support system in decision making affecting urban development, planning and design. That system can benefit from a set of tools and interlinkages including qualitative and quantitative assessment of the expected impact, from planned development and regeneration, on public health in terms of morbidity, mortality and well-being, as well as associated socio-economic burden.

References

Dzhambov, A.M., Dimitrova, D., Burov, A., Helbich, M., Iana Markevych and Nieuwenhuijsen, M.J. (2024). Physical urban environment and cardiometabolic diseases in the five largest Bulgarian cities. International Journal of Hygiene and Environmental Health, 264, pp.114512–114512. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijheh.2024.114512.
Dzhambov, A.M., Dimitrova, V., Germanova, N., Burov, A., Brezov, D., Hlebarov, I. and Dimitrova, R. (2023). Joint associations and pathways from greenspace, traffic-related air pollution, and noise to poor self-rated general health: A population-based study in Sofia, Bulgaria. Environmental Research, [online] 231, p.116087. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2023.116087.
Khomenko, S., Burov, A., Dzhambov, A., Barboza, E.P., Iungman, T., Stauffer, A. and Nieuwenhuijsen, M. (2024). Health burden and inequities of urban environmental stressors in Sofia, Bulgaria. ISEE Conference Abstracts, 2024(1). doi:https://doi.org/10.1289/isee.2024.1772.