Developing a Sustainable Community Health Framework for Divergent Urban Landscapes – Probing the Public Health/Urban Planning Interface

The Healthy Cities modela multi-faceted, multidimensional approach to health -places the community at its epicenter. This model has been replicated in cities across the globe and has largely been successful. However, little attention has been paid to understanding the causes of success and failure of such initiatives, and the challenges to successful implementation.Using a mixed methods approach and based on the analysis of data collected through quantitative and qualitative data including observational data and semi-structured key informant interviews with programmatic leaders and stakeholders in the municipality of Miami-Dade County, this study identifies the challenges to successful implementation of this model and devises strategies to address these challenges. This study proposes an emergentnovel paradigm for successful implementation of a Healthy Cities model in diverse urban landscapes. The results presented herein can be broadly applied to distinctiveurban environments to craftsuccessful and sustainable community health initiatives.