About Miguel Angel Vazquez

Miguel Angel Vazquez, AICP is one of the first planners hired by a public health department in the nation. His role at the Riverside University Health System-Public Health is to strengthen the integration of planning and health through collaboration with non-traditional partners. Over the past 18 years, he has provided professional planning and community development services to the private, public, and military sectors. He also serves as Chair of the American Planning Association’s Diversity Committee and is a member of the California Planning Roundtable.

3 Guidelines for Prioritizing Healthy Communities in Urban Planning

Upstream intervention, a widely known public health concept, is the idea of taking preventive actions that would steer away from potential detrimental health effects such as chronic diseases, injuries, and premature death. To put it in simple terms, all things being equal, staying physically active, eating healthy foods, drinking clean water and breathing clean air, can prevent a whole host of chronic diseases such as diabetes, asthma, heart and lung diseases and cancer. Upstream intervention can be expressed as enacting policies to ensure access to a clean and complete environment of health.