August 7 | 2017

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Spatial Transferability of a Microresidential Mobility Model in the Integrated Land Use, Transportation, and Environment Modeling System

Fatmi, M.R. and Habib, M.A. (2015)

Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board No. 2496, pp. 29-36

https://doi.org/10.3141/2494-04

Abstract

This paper presents the spatial transferability analysis of a microbehavioral model from the residential mobility component of the integrated land use, transportation, and environment (ILUTE) modeling system developed and implemented in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area, Ontario, Canada. The study examined whether ILUTE could be spatially transferred with the current model components to a different geographic area: Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. The residential mobility component within ILUTE is a continuous-time, hazard-based duration model, developed with retrospective survey data from the Residential Mobility Survey 2 in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area. This study developed a similar continuous-time, hazard-based duration model for the residential mobility decisions of households in Halifax on the basis of retrospective survey data from a household mobility and travel survey. The model results suggested that households in Halifax and the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area exhibited profound differences in residential mobility decisions. Sociodemographic, dwelling, and neighborhood characteristics significantly affected residential mobility decisions in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area. The effects of land use and accessibility measures were noteworthy for Halifax. For instance, home-to-work distances in Halifax affected the decision to move; however, such an effect could not be confirmed in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area. Households’ first periods of residence after household formation in a residential location were shorter in Halifax than in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area. It was concluded that the direct transfer of micromodels from one spatial context to another could be difficult.

 

July 31 | 2017

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Statistical modeling of the spatial variability of environmental noise levels in Montreal, Canada, using noise measurements and land use characteristics.

Martina S Ragettli, Sophie Goudreau, Céline Plante, Michel Fournier, Marianne Hatzopoulou, Stéphane Perron and Audrey Smargiassi

Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol. 2016 Nov;26(6):597-605. doi: 10.1038/jes.2015.82. Epub 2016 Jan 6

10.1038/jes.2015.82

ABSTRACT: The availability of noise maps to assess exposure to noise is often limited, especially in North American cities. We developed land use regression (LUR) models for LAeq24h, Lnight, and Lden to assess the long-term spatial variability of environmental noise levels in Montreal, Canada, considering various transportation noise sources (road, rail, and air). To explore the effects of sampling duration, we compared our LAeq24h levels that were computed over at least five complete contiguous days of measurements to shorter sampling periods (20 min and 24 h). LUR models were built with General Additive Models using continuous 2-min noise measurements from 204 sites. Model performance (adjusted R2) was 0.68, 0.59, and 0.69 for LAeq24h, Lnight, and Lden, respectively. Main predictors of measured noise levels were road-traffic and vegetation variables. Twenty-minute non-rush hour measurements corresponded well with LAeq24h levels computed over 5 days at road-traffic sites (bias: -0.7 dB(A)), but not at rail (-2.1 dB(A)) nor at air (-2.2 dB(A)) sites. Our study provides important insights into the spatial variation of environmental noise levels in a Canadian city. To assess long-term noise levels, sampling strategies should be stratified by noise sources and preferably should include 1 week of measurements at locations exposed to rail and aircraft noise.

 

July 24 | 2017

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Regional Climate Projections of Extreme Heat Events in Nine Pilot Canadian Communities for Public Health Planning

Casati, B., Yagouti, A., Chaumont, D. (2013), JAMC, vol. 52, 2669:2698

https://doi.org/10.1175/JAMC-D-12-0341.1

ABSTRACT: Public health planning needs the support of evidence-based information on current and future climate, which could be used by health professionals and decision makers to better understand and respond to the health impacts of extreme heat. Climate models provide information regarding the expected increase in temperatures and extreme heat events with climate change and can help predict the severity of future health impacts, which can be used in the public health sector for the development of adaptation strategies to reduce heat-related morbidity and mortality. This study analyzes the evolution of extreme temperature indices specifically defined to characterize heat events associated with health risks, in the context of a changing climate. The analysis is performed by using temperature projections from the Canadian Regional Climate Model.

 

July 17 | 2017

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Large-scale physical activity data reveal worldwide activity inequality

Tim Althoff, Rok Sosič, Jennifer L. Hicks, Abby C. King, Scott L. Delp & Jure Leskovec., 2017.  Nature, Published online 10 July 2017.

https://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature23018.htmldoi:10.1038/nature23018

Using data captured from smartphones, researchers have amassed a dataset consisting of 68 million days of physical activity for 717,527 people to study activity across the globe.

As described in the abstract: “Aspects of the built environment, such as the walkability of a city, are associated with a smaller gender gap in activity and lower activity inequality. In more walkable cities, activity is greater throughout the day and throughout the week, across age, gender, and body mass index (BMI) groups, with the greatest increases in activity found for females. Our findings have implications for global public health policy and urban planning and highlight the role of activity inequality and the built environment in improving physical activity and health.”

 

 

 

July 10 | 2017

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Exploring pathways linking greenspace to health: Theoretical and methodological guidance

Markevych, I., Schoierer, J., Hartig, T., Chudnovsky, A., Hystad, P., Dzhambov, A.M., de Vries, S., Triguero-Mas, M., Brauer, M., Nieuwenhuijsen, M.J. and Lupp, G., 2017. Environmental Research, 158, pp.301-317.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2017.06.028

During an Expert Workshop held in September 2016, the evidence linking greenspace and health was reviewed from a transdisciplinary standpoint, with a particular focus on potential underlying biopsychosocial pathways and how these can be explored and organized to support policy-relevant population health research.

This Report provides guidance for further epidemiological research with the goal of creating new evidence upon which to develop policy recommendations.

 

 

July 3 | 2017

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For your reading enjoyment! Watch for our new “Paper of the Week” posts. We will be highlighting papers authored by CANUE members as well as new articles of interest. If you would like to have your own paper featured, or suggest a paper that you find especially interesting, please send us a note at info@canue.ca.

Our inaugural selection is The Lancet’s series on Urban design, transport and health. Check out the three commentaries and the three papers that make up the series, and illustrate the importance and timeliness of CANUE and the memberships’ efforts to advance research on urban form and health.

Urban design: an important future force for health and wellbeing
Sabine Kleinert, Richard Horton

Healthier neighbourhoods through healthier parks
Bill de Blasio

Urban design and transport to promote healthy lives
Shifalika Goenka, Lars Bo Andersen

City planning and population health: a global challenge
Billie Giles-Corti, Anne Vernez-Moudon, Rodrigo Reis, Gavin Turrell, Andrew L Dannenberg, Hannah Badland, Sarah Foster, Melanie Lowe, James F Sallis, Mark Stevenson, Neville Owen

Land use, transport, and population health: estimating the health benefits of compact cities
Mark Stevenson, Jason Thompson, Thiago Hérick de Sá, Reid Ewing, Dinesh Mohan, Rod McClure, Ian Roberts, Geetam Tiwari, Billie Giles-Corti, Xiaoduan Sun, Mark Wallace, James Woodcock

Use of science to guide city planning policy and practice: how to achieve healthy and sustainable future cities
James F Sallis, Fiona Bull, Ricky Burdett, Lawrence D Frank, Peter Griffiths, Billie Giles-Corti, Mark Stevenson

GREENNESS TEAM MEETING | June 2017

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ON June 20th, members of CANUE’s Greenness Team met by conference call to provide an update on current work and discuss a range of technical issues related to measuring greenness.

CANUE provided an overview – Presentation slides are available here: CANUE Green Metrics June 2017. Meeting notes are available here: CANUE Green Metrics Meeting Notes.

WEATHER AND CLIMATE UPDATE | May 2017

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CANUE’s Weather and Climate team met on May 8th | 2017 to review their research program and upcoming activities. Meeting slides are available here (CANUE Weather and Climate Meeting May 8 2017) and include:

  • a brief overview of climate, weather and health linkages (Dr. Tim Takaro)
  • a description of the PAVICS platform (pavics2016_eng) currently under development by OURANOS which aims to improve access to weather and climate data in Canada(Diane Chaumont and Blaise Gauvin St-Denis)
  • a discussion of types of metrics that may be of interest and proposed next steps (Dr. Johan Feddema)

The near-term goal of the Weather and Climate team is to develop methods for producing weather and climate metrics using NRCAN’s 10km gridded dataset that may be relevant to human health, such as:

Base data

  • daily temperature – minimum, maximum, average, range
  • daily precipitation – total millimeters

Derived data

  • weekly, monthly and annual summary metrics
  • ‘health’ degree days – number of days above or below identified thresholds of high or low temperatures
  • potential and actual evapotranspiration – indicates wetness or dryness and may indicate flood potential

The 10km downscaled dataset from BC’s Pacific Climate Impacts Consortium (PCIC) was evaluated as well, however, modelled data after 2005 are not adjusted with observed levels and so may reflect model assumptions more than actual conditions.

Mahdi Shooshtari, CANUE’s Data Scientist, will be working with Diane Chaumont (Team Co-leader) and Blaise Gauvin St-Denis at OURANOS in early June to develop methods for producing indicators from the data holdings in PAVICS.

Visit the CANUE feedback page or Message Board to add your thoughts and advice!