This project delivers actionable guidance for modifying the environment to improve health. While traditional interventions usually occur at a city-wide scale, overlooking the significant micro-scale heterogeneity of street-level environments. We assess how micro-scale urban interventions impact adult health behaviours.
We begin by using computer vision techniques to characterize micro-scale built environments and identify their associations with mood and health based on real-world observations. We then test the psychological pathways linking environmental features, subjective experience, and health-relevant behaviour through controlled experiments. We collect preferences from diverse population segments regarding 'what-if' streetscape scenarios via smartphone tools. By triangulating multiple data sources (e.g., observational and experimental data), we identify robust mechanisms and translate them into actionable micro-scale planning interventions through stakeholder engagement.
The environment we live in has a dominant impact on our health. It explains an estimated seventy percent of the chronic disease burden. Where we live, what we eat, how much we exercise, the air we breathe and whom we associate with; all of these environmental factors play a role. The combination of these factors over the life course is called the exposome. There is general (scientific) consensus that understanding more about the exposome will help explain the current burden of disease and that it provides entry points for prevention and ...
Read More
