Abstract

How human health is framed provides boundaries for choices in practice and bias for certain actions in health assessments in Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). This study examines health frames in legislation and policies of importance for EIA in Swedish road planning and their implications for practice. The emphasis is on different approaches, such as promotion of health and prevention of ill-health. Indicators of the choices in practice for which the health frames exert bias are further analysed through a review of Environmental Impact Statements (EIS) for road planning and comparison with a similar study conducted about 10 years ago. The indicators studied are: health determinants included, health impacts assessed, and aspects of the affected population concerned in the EISs. There are fundamentally different health frames in Swedish legislation and policies, but this range is not yet reflected in EISs, which mainly focus on environmental health rather than on broader health determinants and health equity. The results indicate that this situation becomes a dilemma for EIA practitioners and a challenge for the field.

Keywords

Human health; EIA; road; traffic; frames; framing

Published in

Impact Assessment and Project Appraisal
2013, Volume: 31, number: 3, pages: 198-207
Publisher: Taylor & Francis

SLU Authors

• Kågström, Mari

  • Department of Urban and Rural Development, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

• Hilding Rydevik, Tuija

  • Department of Urban and Rural Development, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

Associated SLU-program

SLU Swedish Biodiversity Centre


Sustainable Development Goals

Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation


UKÄ Subject classification

Other Social Sciences not elsewhere specified


Publication identifier

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14615517.2013.772708

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/44095