This article is based on a study using different approaches to examine the links between urban development on the one hand and health promotion on the other. The background and basic concepts underlying this study are briefly explained. Programmatic papers from both spheres of approach result in the basic thesis that both urban development and health promotion are aiming at improving the quality of life in city districts (objective conditions of living and subjective feeling tone, i.e. subjective well-being) in the overall sense of a health-promoting general policy. Because of these common goals cooperation between both spheres is hypothesised. However, the study as a whole shows (especially an analysis of the documents of the files of the sanitation committee) that this is not so. To understand this finding better the freedom of both parties concerned to act as they should, is analysed, namely, that of the sanitation committee and of the regional health and environmental office. It becomes evident that in both these spheres the requisite monitoring capacities, such as legal support, finances, information service and counselling activities, are fundamentally lacking or indeed limited. Hence, there are limited chances of success in the spheres of health promotion and preventive care by means of sanitation of city districts. Finally, the authors point to long-term trends and developments that would make a future approach between the two spheres mandatory and (at least partially) possible.
