Channelling Edwin Chadwick: beyond utopian thinking in urban planning policy and health.

Health impact assessment is advanced as a formal means to assess the direct and indirect health impacts of urban planning decisions and processes. It is, however, an intrinsically passive policy device. A more comprehensive and practical policy framework or architecture, reminiscent of that devised by Edwin Chadwick and the sanitary reform movement in 19th Century England, will be necessary to reorient the goals and practices of urban planning.