Includes bibliographical references and index.

Machine generated contents note: 1.Introduction -- 2.Health Impact Assessment: conceptual roots and public policy -- 3.Setting the context for HIA: health system and local government structures -- 4.HIA in the physical environment: policy development and community participation -- 5.HIA in housing: contentious and consensual -- 6.Making a difference: informing policy development.

Health Impact Assessment (HIA) is an approach that seeks to assess the impact on population health of projects, programmes and policies. It is practiced in most regions of the globe, including the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, where HIAs have been endorsed at the national level in both jurisdictions since the early 2000s, and have informed policy-making in direct and indirect ways. This book provides the first analysis of how HIA cases have influenced local policy development throughout the island of Ireland using a unique conceptual lens drawing from the disciplines of the political, social and public health sciences. It reviews the literature on HIA and its conceptual roots, and sets it within the context of the health and local government systems, along with the reform processes both countries have been undergoing. The impact of these reform programmes on the development of intersectoral action for health, and on the progress of HIA in particular, is also explored within the text. The book explores how HIA knowledge and evidence was used, or not used, in the development of local policies, based on original research involving a qualitative longitudinal study of four HIA projects conducted on traffic and transport, Traveller accommodation, urban redevelopment and air quality. This conceptually grounded guide will appeal to academics, students and practitioners in the fields of political, social and public health science, as well as policy-makers and planners at local and national government levels.