What’s this about?

The Built Environment & Health (BEH) project is an interdisciplinary program of research at Columbia University. Led by epidemiologist Andrew Rundle, BEH uses spatial data to examine the implications of the built environment, including land use, public transit, and housing, for physical activity, diet, obesity, and other aspects of health. With a focus on New York City, BEH research will inform public policy to promote health in the city and metropolitan area. BEH is affiliated with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health & Society Scholars program at Columbia.

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Announcements

Announcements, Notices, and Reminders

For reference, a comprehensive archive of the announcements, notices, and reminders posted to the BEH website is listed below in reverse chronological order.

• NIEHS Partnerships for Public Environmental Health Program Supports BEH Work with NYC Food & Fitness Partnership

  The National Institute of Environmental Health Science (NIEHS) recently awarded funding to BEH for a new project that combines research, education, and collaboration with city and community agencies. Under the new grant, BEH will develop detailed GIS measures of New York City’s resources for physical activity. In addition, BEH will work with the New York City Food & Fitness Partnership, a broad coalition of city agencies and community groups joining together to promote healthy eating and physical activity.

• Collaboration with PPS to Study Farmers’ Markets

  The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Healthy Eating Research program recently awarded funding to a collaboration between BEH and the Project for Public Spaces (PPS), a New York City-based nonprofit. The project, “Farmers Markets as a Strategy to Improve Access to Healthy Food for Low-Income Families and Communities,” builds on a national PPS program to support farmers’ markets.

• Race, Poverty, and Spatial Accessibility in New York City

  With new funding from the National Science Foundation, the BEH group will use data for New York City to describe how neighborhood access to everyday retail and services is patterned by race and poverty, and to examine change in these patterns over the past decade. The research will consider how gentrification, immigration, and public policy have affected spatial accessibility.

• Spatial Equity in New York City

  Marnie Purciel, now a Research Associate at BEH, graduated in May 2007 from Columbia University with dual master’s degrees in Urban Planning and Public Health. Her thesis, “Spatial Equity in New York City Neighborhoods” received the Charles Abrams award for the best quantitative thesis in the Urban Planning program this year.

• There Goes the ’Hood

  There Goes the ’Hood, a new book by BEH investigator Lance Freeman, examines the process of gentrification in two New York City neighborhoods. The book is based on interviews with residents of Harlem and of Clinton Hill, Brooklyn.

• Measuring Urban Design in New York City

  With funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Active Living Research program, the BEH group is developing digital measures of urban design for New York City. The measures will be validated using fieldwork conducted in summer 2006.