Academic-Community Partnerships: Effectiveness Evaluated Beyond the Ivory Walls

Community-based participatory research (CBPR) has furthered our understanding of the working principles required for academic-community partnerships to address persistent public health problems. However, little is known about how effective these partnerships have been in eliminating or reducing community-based public health issues. To contribute to the literature in this area, the authors conducted a survey of U.S. schools and programs in public health and community groups working with these academic partners to: (1) identify the most common local public health issues addressed; (2) examine the characteristics of the partnership and the actual or perceived benefits and challenges for each partner; (3) assess the perceived effectiveness of the partnership and their evaluation techniques; and (4) analyze the intent to continue or dissolve the partnership and the associated factors that influence this decision. The authors provide recommendations that can improve the development, functioning, and effectiveness of academic-community collaborations aimed at addressing a variety of public health concerns

The Road to School. The Barcelona case

Mobility of the young population between 6 and 10-year-old has been continuously decreasing the last decades causing problems of health (obesity) and decreasing the development of spatial skills along with the sense of community. The paper focuses on the road between school and home and deals with a specific project called “Camino Escolar” (School Road) which supports parents in the decision to authorize their children to go and walk alone. The empirical case is developed in Barcelona where 136 School Road projects exist but more precisely analyses two specific districts. The methodology is divided into two phases. In the first phase, we conduct an exploratory study based on interviews with the different stakeholders of the education system and conclude on a list of barriers against the development of the School Road project. In the second one, we ask for the parents to prioritize these barriers according to their grade of importance. The results show the different barriers can be classified into four clusters which are physical insecurities, emotional insecurities, the city infrastructure quality and the project management quality. These findings help public managers to better manage such kind of project in order to prepare future cities.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

ENHANCING PEDESTRIAN SAFETY TO IMPROVE URBANHEALTH

Walking is such an essential human activity and it is a part of every trip. Whatever the main purpose for travel, walking will remain the first and last mode used; no doubt there is a link between walking, urban health, and pedestrian safety. Unfortunately, safe walking has been ignored in the mission of planning for many transportation systems in the cities. The number of individuals killed or seriously injured on Arab cities’ road’s network has significantly increased the late decades. Nonetheless, there has been no meaningful change in the pedestrian facilities throughout the most recent ten years. There are numerous factors that affect and cause this numbers. And the main problem is the Lack of an initiative to decrease pedestrian risks and improve their safety. This research paper will discuss briefly the factors affecting pedestrian’s safety in order to attempt to set some guidelines that will assist in risk reduction, increase the pedestrian safety rates and consequently will improve urban health in Arab communities

The scale of sense : spatial extent and multimodal urban design

This paper is derived from the work of the UK AHRC/EPSRC 'Designing for the 21st Century' research project Multimodal Representation of Urban Space. This research group seeks to establish a new form of notation for urban design which pays attention to our entire sensory experience of place. This paper addresses one of the most important aspects of this endeavour: scale. Scale is of course a familiar abstraction to all architects and urban designers, allowing for representations tailored to different levels of detail and allowing drawings to be translated into build structures. Scale is also a factor in human experience: the spatial extent of each of our senses is different. Many forms of architectonic representation are founded upon the extension of the visual modality, and designs are accordingly tuned towards this sense. We can all speak from our own experience, however, that urban environments are a feast for all the senses. The visceral quality of walking down a wide tree-lined boulevard differs greatly from the subterranean crowds of the subway, or the meandering pause invited by the city square. Similarly, our experience of hearing and listening is more than just a passive observation by virtue of our own power of voice and the feedback created by our percussive movements across a surface or through a medium. Taste and smell are also excited by the urban environment, the social importance of food preparation and the associations between smell and public health are issues of sensory experience. The tactile experience of space, felt with the entire body as well as our more sensitive hands, allowing for direct manipulation and interactions as well as sensations of mass, heat, proximity and texture. Our project team shall present a series of tools for designers which explore the variety of sensory modalities and their associated scales. This suite of notations and analytical frameworks turn our attention to the sensory experience of places, and offers a method and pattern book for more holistic multi-sensory and multi-modal urban design

Noise Pollution? What\u27s the solution?: Understanding Traffic Noise Pollution in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania

Noise pollution can be damaging to a community by impacting its atmosphere as well as the health of its residents, local quality of life, and local economy. Our study sought to gain insight into the level of noise pollution in Gettysburg, both in-town and on the Gettysburg College campus, and how noise pollution may be affecting the local residents and students. We selected 9 sampling sites, 6 in-town and 3 on the college campus, and measured the noise pollution in dBA with portable sound meters three days a week and three times a day over a three week period. Our data showed no major trends in terms of time of day or day of the week, but there were clear differences in noise pollution levels between the different sites in that town sites were generally louder than on campus sites. Noise pollution in town was often louder than 70 dBA, the noise threshold that indicates possible hearing damage overtime set by the World Health Organization. Gettysburg has recently enacted a noise ordinance; our study suggests the Borough possibly could do more to mitigate traffic noise by repairing roads and manipulating road design

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Physical Activity Environment and Japanese Adults’ Body Mass Index

Evidence about the impacts of the physical activity environment on adults’ weight in the context of Asian countries is scarce. Likewise, no study exists in Asia examining whether Walk Score®—a free online walkability tool—is related to obesity. This study aimed to examine associations between multiple physical activity environment measures and Walk Score® ratings with Japanese adults’ body mass index (BMI). Data from 1073 adults in the Healthy Built Environment in Japan study were used. In 2011, participants reported their height and weight. Environmental attributes, including population density, intersection density, density of physical activity facilities, access to public transportation, and availability of sidewalks, were calculated using Geographic Information Systems. Walk Scores® ratings were obtained from the website. Multiple linear regression analysis was conducted to examine the association between each environmental attribute and BMI. Adjusting for covariates, all physical activity environmental attributes were negatively associated with BMI. Similarly, an increase of one standard deviation of Walk Score® was associated with a 0.29 (95% confidence interval (CI) of −0.49–−0.09) decrease in BMI. An activity-friendly built environment was associated with lower adults’ BMI in Japan. Investing in healthy community design may positively impact weight status in non-Western contexts

Insights and Lessons: Community Arts and College Arts - A Report to The Kresge Foundation

This report examines two pilot initiatives, Community Arts and College Arts, launched during the 2008 economic downturn. After the completion of the multiyear initiatives, the Kresge Foundation commissioned a report on the effort. The qualitative analysis offers lessons and insights on the theme of art-based civic dialogue and community revitalization

Paolo Soleri and Arcology: An Analytical Comparison to Frank Lloyd Wright and Louis Kahn

The city proposals of Paolo Soleri, he called them arcologies, are monumental and complex geometric megastructures intended to project great heights above desert horizons. These proposals purposefully abandon conventional notions of the city. Soleri was physically isolated in his remote Arizona urban laboratory, Arcosanti, and philosophically detached from the professional urban design community. His proposals were often too easily understood as foreign and radical dystopian architectural metaphors meant to provoke thought more than to project an actual future. There is limited discourse on Soleri and this tends to isolate him in a vacuum, ignoring possible connections or parallels in his work and that of his contemporaries or predecessors. Contextualizing Soleri in history and with other more prominent architects makes his work more accessible, allowing for a more complete evaluation of the merits of compact three-dimensional cities of great density. With the ecological future of the planet in a state of crisis due to rapid climate change and explosive population growth in developing countries, there is an imperative to explore possible urban living solutions that in the past may have been deemed “too radical”. Two preeminent architects are needed to understand Paolo Soleri. Frank Lloyd Wright and Louis Kahn. Wright served as a mentor that Soleri could react strongly against conceptually. Kahn was a peer whose heralded built work has strong similarities to the limited architectural oeuvre of Soleri. Therefore, Kahn’s work provides one the best simulations of the potential architectural qualities of arcologies