As built environment is of major importance to all societies and economies, it is essential that the discipline advances as rapidly and rigorously as possible. Only by use of appropriate methodologies and methods of research, the body of knowledge for construction can be established and advanced with confidence. Research is always executed in context and it is vital to give careful consideratio...

BACKGROUND Evidence-based metrics are needed to inform urban policy to create healthy walkable communities. Most active living research has developed metrics of the environment around residential addresses, ignoring other important walking locations. Therefore, this study examined: metrics for built environment features surrounding local shopping centres, (known in Melbourne, Australia as neigh...

Optimization of existing measurement tools is necessary to explore links between aspects of the neighborhood built environment and health behaviors or outcomes. We evaluate a scoring method for virtual neighborhood audits utilizing the Active Neighborhood Checklist (the Checklist), a neighborhood audit measure, and assess street segment representativeness in low-income neighborhoods. Eighty-two...

September 2003 can be considered the public launch of the study of built environment and physical activity. In that month both the American Journal of Public Health and American Journal of Health Promotion published special issues on built environment, physical activity, and health. A notable characteristic of the journals was the unusual diversity of academic disciplines represented, including...

Advanced digital mapping tools and technologies are enablers for effective e-planning in the built and human environment. The regeneration and transformation of cities from the industrial age to the knowledge age is essentially a ‘whole life cycle’ process consisting of; planning, development, operation, reuse and renewal. The use of the 3D laser scanner enables digital documentation of buildin...

ANOVA-ANalysis Of VAriance. ANOVA is used to determine if differences found between groups of data are statistically significant. ANOVA compares variation around the mean values of groups of measurements – for example, household VMT at different levels of land use mix near households. BMI – Body Mass Index, a height / weight ratio. A BMI of over 25 is classified as overweight, and 30 is general...

BACKGROUND In order to improve our understanding of the relationship between the built environment and physical activity, it is important to identify associations between specific geographic characteristics and physical activity behaviors. PURPOSE Examine relationships between observed physical activity behavior and measures of the built environment collected on 291 street segments in Indiana...

Editor’s note: NEHA strives to provide up­ to-date and relevant information on envi­ ronmental health and to build partnerships in the profession. In pursuit of these goals, we feature a column from the Environmen­ tal Health Services Branch (EHSB) of the Centers for Disease Control and Preven­ tion (CDC) in every issue of the Journal. In this column, EHSB and guest authors from across CDC will...

Humanity's transition from the outdoor environment to the built environment (BE) has reduced our exposure to microbial diversity. The relative importance of factors that contribute to the composition of human-dominated BE microbial communities remains largely unknown. In their article in this issue, Chase and colleagues (J. Chase, J. Fouquier, M. Zare, D. L. Sonderegger, R. Knight, S. T. Kelley...