Browsing by Subject "Built environment"
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Item Open Access Community assessment project: understanding the built environment within a neighborhood health context(2009-04-24T20:51:00Z) Kroeger, GretchenPurpose: Research shows evidence of associations between the built environment (BE)—housing, commercial buildings, community resources, and infrastructure—and health outcomes. However, there is less research describing the spatial variation of BE conditions. This master’s project demonstrates the impact of this variation with a database describing the BE within a neighborhood health context. Hypothesis: The hypothesis tested is two-fold: 1) the assessment tool enables the quantification of BE conditions, and 2) the data generated offer a comprehensive index for relating the BE to public health. Methods: Trained assessors canvassed over 17,000 tax parcels in Central Durham, NC using a standardized visual assessment of 40 distinct BE variables. Data were summed into 8 indices—housing damage, property damage, security level, tenure, vacancy, crime incidents, amenities, and nuisances. Census blocks were assigned an index based on the summary score of primarily and secondarily adjacent blocks. Results: The indices describe the spatial distribution of both community assets and BE conditions that are likely to affect the health of residents. Housing damage, property damage, security level, vacancy, crime incidents, and nuisances all contained higher scores for blocks located in areas characterized by high minority and low socioeconomic status. Similarly, a low tenure score described those same blocks, indicating that the majority of residential properties within those blocks are renter-occupied. Conclusions: The community assessment tool offers a comprehensive inventory of the BE, facilitating the generation of indices measuring neighborhood health. These resulting data are useful to community members, researchers, and government leaders.Item Open Access Correlates of changes in walking during the retirement transition: The Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis.(Preventive medicine reports, 2018-09) Jones, Sydney A; Li, Quefeng; Aiello, Allison E; O'Rand, Angela M; Evenson, Kelly RRetirement from employment involves disruption in daily routines and has been associated with positive and negative changes in physical activity. Walking is the most common physical activity among older Americans. The factors that influence changes in walking after retirement are unknown. The study objective was to identify correlates of within-person change in recreational walking (for leisure) and transport walking (to get places) during the retirement transition among a multi-ethnic cohort of adults (N = 928) from six US communities. Correlates were measured at the individual (e.g., gender), interpersonal (e.g., social support), and community (e.g., density of walking destinations) levels at study exams between 2000 and 2012. Comparing pre- and post-retirement measures (average 4.5 years apart), 50% of participants increased recreational walking by 60 min or more per week, 31% decreased by 60 min or more per week, and 19% maintained their recreational walking. Forty-one percent of participants increased transport walking by 60 min or more per week, 40% decreased by 60 min or more per week, and 19% maintained their transport walking after retirement. Correlates differed for recreational and transport walking and for increases compared to decreases in walking. Self-rated health, chronic conditions, and perceptions of the neighborhood walking environment were associated with changes in both types of walking after retirement. Further, some correlates differed by gender and retirement age. Findings can inform the targeting of interventions to promote walking during the retirement transition.Item Open Access Financially Viable Sustainability Solutions in Multifamily Residential Properties(2018-04-27) Long, Adam; Walker, ColinDrucker and Falk is a family-owned real estate company that focuses on third-party fee management of multifamily properties. Through isolated LED retrofit projects, Drucker and Falk realized the environmental and financial benefits of sustainability projects and is now seeking to implement financially viable sustainability solutions for its whole portfolio of more than 350 properties. In order to provide solutions that work for all Drucker and Falk properties, this study created a best practices guide and interactive Excel-based models that Drucker and Falk can use to identify and analyze potential sustainability strategies. This project then conducted case studies, applying the provided tools to three Drucker and Falk properties in order to demonstrate the process and benefits of increased sustainability practices. The case studies revealed potential environmental benefits and cost savings in utility bill management, lighting retrofits, pool pump alterations, and future building design. The tools provided by this project, along with the case study findings, will be used as a foundation for additional analysis and implementation of sustainability projects across the entire Drucker and Falk portfolio.Item Open Access Non-fatal Road Traffic Crashes and Near Misses among Adolescents Aged 16-18 in Galle, Sri Lanka(2015) Gong, EnyingBackground: Sri Lanka is experiencing an epidemic of road traffic crashes and injuries but little is known about the burden among adolescents and associated risk factors. The objective of this paper is to assess the prevalence of road traffic crashes and injuries among adolescents aged 16-18 years old and to estimate the effect of risk factors, including demographic characteristics, behaviors and built environment characteristics around school, on the occurrence of both crashes and near misses. Methods: First, A survey was anonymously administered to determine demographics, behavior, and experience of road traffic crashes and related injuries among adolescents from 16 public high schools in Galle, Sri Lanka. Second, a built environment observation was also conducted near school surroundings. Descriptive analysis and multivariate regression analysis was conducted to assess the relationship between built environment and road traffic crashes/near misses by using STATA. The results were displayed in the map by using ArcGIS. Results: Among 1307 students from 16 public high schools aged between 16-18 years old, 206 students self-reported road traffic crash involvement in the past 6 months with 98 students reporting minor injury and 7 students suffering severe injury. In addition, 27.8% of respondents were involved in near misses in the past 6 months. Male students, who demonstrated poor road behaviors, and students who experienced near misses are more likely to be involved in road traffic crashes. Additionally, more than half of the roads around these schools are in poor condition with little infrastructures to separate pedestrians and cyclists from vehicles. The occurrence of road traffic crashes and the severity of road traffic injuries are significantly related to some environmental characteristics, which tend to include road type and road visibility. Conclusions: Adolescents in Galle, Sri Lanka are facing a comparatively high burden of road traffic crashes. Conducting intervention programs among male students and improving built environment on the way to school are potential effective strategies to prevent adolescents from road traffic crashes and injuries.
Item Open Access Radical Decarbonization: A Guidebook for Centering Equity and Climate Justice in the Built Environment(2023-04-27) Sarveswaran, SunithaUrban centers are the intersection between climate and humanity. Home to an ever-growing portion of the world’s population, cities are at the forefront of climate change, contributing about a third of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. Urban populations face poor air quality, increased and prolonged heat waves, and infrastructural threats from rising sea levels and flooding from extreme storms. However, these impacts are not often felt equally among urban populations; inequities are embedded into the very design and structure of our built environments. While discourse often centers solutions for climate change due to greenhouse gas emissions, solutions addressing inequities in the built environment and how they are fundamental to climate solutions remain relatively unexplored. This research examines New York City as an example of an urban environment with strong policies for climate mitigation through a critical lens, analyzing the climate justice potential for the city’s goals. It aims to support practitioners in NYC’s built environment to center climate justice principles in their work, using decarbonization as an opportunity to address the embedded barriers to equity in the built environment. It incorporates qualitative data analysis through semi-structured interviews to identify the key practitioners in this work and determine the resources they require to center climate justice in decarbonization work. The result of this study is a guidebook to aid in this effort.Item Open Access Reducing Waste in the Built Environment(2022-04-22) Seyler, Meghan; Zou, AndyIn 2018, the United States generated over 600 million tons of construction and demolition waste, fueled by increasing housing demand and a lack of viable recycling markets. This problem is acute in the Triangle, where 4,700 new units of residential construction were built between Summer 2020 and Summer 2021 in Durham County alone. With support from a local design-build firm, Haven, and nonprofit, Circular Triangle, this project uses a waste assessments report and custom waste calculator to investigate the social and environmental impacts of landfilling waste, to suggest opportunities for waste diversion in the built environment, and to communicate these results to policy makers to drive government support for circularity in the Triangle. Findings from our study suggest that while untapped opportunities exist for waste diversion, a paradigm shift in legislation, attention, and financial incentives is needed to make circular systems a reality in the built environment. Using an analysis of two accessory dwelling units under construction in Durham as a lens to articulate Haven’s current waste management efforts, this study found that Haven’s waste generation at the two sites is already 7% better than what is expected from the industry benchmark. To communicate broader impact and demonstrate tangible benefits of improved waste management to Haven, it is important to translate these waste numbers into global warming potential. Our carbon emissions analysis speaks to reduced environmental impact across the board if viable alternatives to landfilling waste can be scaled up and implemented. The recommendations outlined in this report, while specifically focused on these two units are broad enough to also be applied to the wider residential construction market. Recommended next steps: -Communicate the need for alternative marketplaces for waste -Encourage waste measurement & engage suppliers -Get policy support to build out the marketplace infrastructure for diversion -Coordinate waste haulingItem Open Access There Goes the Neighborhood: The Relationship Between the Built Environment and Birth Weight in Central Durham, NC(2009-12-08) Ouyang, RebeccaThis project seeks to understand the relationship between neighborhood quality and birth weight in Central Durham, NC. Previous studies have shown that neighborhood context influences birth outcomes, even after adjusting for individual maternal characteristics and behaviors. Yet the traditional measures of neighborhood quality rely primarily on US Census socioeconomic demographic data that only reflect the aggregation of characteristics of individual residents to determine neighborhood conditions. These measures fail to account for the physical disorder (i.e. broken windows, peeling paint) present in the neighborhood’s built environment. My study employs the recently developed Neighborhood Health Indices (NHI), which measure neighborhood quality along eight separate domains: nuisances, housing damage, property characteristics, security measures, crime level, amenities, tenure status and vacancy at three different spatial resolutions. Using 2005-2007 birth data (N=2679) from the North Carolina Detailed Birth Record, I performed a multivariable regression analysis to explore the effects of neighborhood quality on birth weight after controlling for individual maternal risk factors. As predicted, the increased presence of nuisances, housing damage, property damage, renter-occupied status, and vacant houses were correlated with a decrease in birth weight. Proximity to amenities, increased security measures, and higher crime levels did not correlate significantly with birth weight. Across all indices, the magnitude and significance of the change in birth weight increased when widening the neighborhood context from individual block to primary adjacency to secondary adjacency level. This indicates that while living in a disadvantaged neighborhood can already be detrimental to birth weight, living adjacent to other poor quality neighborhoods further exacerbates these outcomes.