Healthy living conditions are of central importance for the sustainable development of liveable cities. On this subject a working group of the Academy for Spatial Planning and Research (ARL) on “Planning for healthy urban regions” discussed, condensed and advanced the state of knowledge on planning and urban health in research and practice. This research report addresses fundamental terms and concepts, historical lines of development and new integrative perspectives on the relations between health, space and intervention. Strategic approaches to promote public health and liveability in cities and their actual implementation through planning instruments are then discussed on this basis. The thematic focus thereby ranges from substantial questions on environmental justice, to participative and cooperative procedures, to concrete instruments like sectoral plans on health. Furthermore, health promotion is related to selected fields of action of spatial planning, such as climate adaptation and the development of urban green and blue spaces, and sports and leisure areas in cities. Different options for action are presented in order to interlink the different policy fields of health promotion, prevention and spatial planning.