Background: Obesity and physical inactivity rates have reached epidemic levels in Canada, but differ based on whether they are self-reported or directly measured. Canadian research examining the combined and independent effects of social and built environments on adult physical activity (PA) and body mass index (BMI) is limited. Furthermore there is a lack of Canadian studies to assess these relationships using directly measured PA and BMI. Objectives: The objectives of this thesis were to systematically compare self-reported and directly measured PA and to examine associations between neighbourhood built and social environmental factors with both self-reported and directly measured PA and overweight/obesity in adults living in Ottawa, Canada. Methods: A systematic review was conducted to identify observational and experimental studies of adult populations that used both self-report and direct measures of PA and to assess the agreement between the measures. Associations between objectively measured neighbourhood-level built recreation and social environmental factors and self-reported individual-level data including total and leisure-time PA (LTPA) and overweight/obesity were examined in the adult population of Ottawa, Canada using multilevel models. Neighbourhood differences in directly measured BMI and PA (using accelerometry) were evaluated in a convenience sample of adults from four City of Ottawa neighbourhoods with contrasting socioeconomic (SES) and built recreation (REC) environments. Results: Results from the review generally indicate a poor level of agreement between self-report and direct measures of PA, with trends differing based on the measures of PA, the level of PA examined and the sex of the participants. Results of the multilevel analyses identified that very few of the built and social environmental variables were ii significantly associated with PA or overweight/obesity. Greater park area was significantly associated with total PA in females. Greater green space was shown to be associated with lower odds of male LTPA. Factors from the social environment were generally more strongly related to male outcomes. Further to the recreation and social environment, factors in the food landscape were significantly associated with male and female PA and overweight/obesity. Results of the directly measured PA and BMI investigation showed significant neighbourhood-group effects for light intensity PA and sedentary time. Post-hoc tests identified that the low REC/high SES neighbourhood had significantly more minutes of light PA than the low REC/low SES. BMI differed between the four neighbourhoods, but the differences were not significant after controlling for age, sex and household income. Conclusions: Results of this dissertation show that the quantity of PA can differ based on its method of measurement (i.e. between self-report and direct methods) with implications for the interpretation of study findings. It also identifies that PA and BMI can differ by neighbourhood and recognizes that the relationships between neighbourhood environments and PA and body composition are complex, may be differ between males and females, and may not always follow intuitive relationships. Furthermore it suggests that other factors in the environment not examined in this dissertation may influence adult PA and BMI and that longitudinal and intervention studies are needed.

Interest in school transportation has emerged in response to concern over the reduced levels of physical activity among children and youth. Recent Canadian policies emphasize population health intervention to encourage active travel among this younger population; urban planners and public health professionals have also highlighted the importance of the neighbourhood built environment. However, this “child-youth friendly” turn in policy and planning practice, particularly in Canada, has arguably occurred in advance of conclusive and generalizable knowledge about the relationship between the built environment and children’s travel. Within this context, this thesis is the first quantitative research that examines school transportation mode choice behaviour in the largest Canadian city, the City of Toronto. At first, a Behavioural Model of School Transportation was outlined. This exercise was followed by three empirical studies that explored school travel by children and youth, using travel data from Transportation Tomorrow Survey. The first of these three studies investigated the association between the built environment and the likelihood of walking or being driven, for journeys to and from school. The next study focused on a measurement issue; the potential influence of the modifiable areal unit problem on statistical modelling of the built environment - mode choice relationship was examined. Lastly, the potential influence of travel interactions among household members, the built environment, and unobservable spatial dependency (i.e., spatial auto-correlation), on school travel outcome of children and youth, were examined. The results indicated that caregiver availability may influence travel mode choice. The built environment near both home and school locations was associated with the likelihood of walking. In addition, the correlates of mode choice were different between children and youth, which perhaps, reflects a child’s cognitive development with age as an independent traveller. These findings suggest the need for neighbourhood-wide improvement in the built environment, and age-specific population health interventions at schools and in the communities.

Background: Obesity and physical inactivity rates have reached epidemic levels in Canada, but differ based on whether they are self-reported or directly measured. Canadian research examining the combined and independent effects of social and built environments on adult physical activity (PA) and body mass index (BMI) is limited. Furthermore there is a lack of Canadian studies to assess these relationships using directly measured PA and BMI. Objectives: The objectives of this thesis were to systematically compare self-reported and directly measured PA and to examine associations between neighbourhood built and social environmental factors with both self-reported and directly measured PA and overweight/obesity in adults living in Ottawa, Canada. Methods: A systematic review was conducted to identify observational and experimental studies of adult populations that used both self-report and direct measures of PA and to assess the agreement between the measures. Associations between objectively measured neighbourhood-level built recreation and social environmental factors and self-reported individual-level data including total and leisure-time PA (LTPA) and overweight/obesity were examined in the adult population of Ottawa, Canada using multilevel models. Neighbourhood differences in directly measured BMI and PA (using accelerometry) were evaluated in a convenience sample of adults from four City of Ottawa neighbourhoods with contrasting socioeconomic (SES) and built recreation (REC) environments. Results: Results from the review generally indicate a poor level of agreement between self-report and direct measures of PA, with trends differing based on the measures of PA, the level of PA examined and the sex of the participants. Results of the multilevel analyses identified that very few of the built and social environmental variables were ii significantly associated with PA or overweight/obesity. Greater park area was significantly associated with total PA in females. Greater green space was shown to be associated with lower odds of male LTPA. Factors from the social environment were generally more strongly related to male outcomes. Further to the recreation and social environment, factors in the food landscape were significantly associated with male and female PA and overweight/obesity. Results of the directly measured PA and BMI investigation showed significant neighbourhood-group effects for light intensity PA and sedentary time. Post-hoc tests identified that the low REC/high SES neighbourhood had significantly more minutes of light PA than the low REC/low SES. BMI differed between the four neighbourhoods, but the differences were not significant after controlling for age, sex and household income. Conclusions: Results of this dissertation show that the quantity of PA can differ based on its method of measurement (i.e. between self-report and direct methods) with implications for the interpretation of study findings. It also identifies that PA and BMI can differ by neighbourhood and recognizes that the relationships between neighbourhood environments and PA and body composition are complex, may be differ between males and females, and may not always follow intuitive relationships. Furthermore it suggests that other factors in the environment not examined in this dissertation may influence adult PA and BMI and that longitudinal and intervention studies are needed.

Increasing evidence suggests that the environment is related to many public health challenges. Unequal distributions of services and resources needed for healthy lifestyles may contribute to increasing levels of health disparity. However, empirical studies are not sufficient to understand the relationship between health disparity and the built environment. This dissertation examines how health disparity are associated with the built environment and if the environmental conditions that support physical activity and healthy diet are associated with lower health disparity. This research uses a multidisciplinary approach, drawing from urban planning, regional economics and public health. The data came from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, and the GIS derived environmental data and the 608-respondent survey data from a larger study conducted in urbanized King County, Washington. Health disparity was measured with the Gini-coefficient, and health status and obesity were used as indicators of health. Hot spot analysis was used to identify the spatial aggregations of high health disparity, and multiple regression models identified the environmental correlates of health disparity. The overall trend showed that disparity has increased in most states in the US over the past decade and the southern states showed the highest disparity levels. Strong spatial autocorrelations were found for disparities, indicating that disparity levels are not equally distributed across different geographic areas. From the multivariate analyses estimating disparity levels, spatial regression models significantly improved the overall model fit compared to the ordinary least-square models. Areas with more supportive built environments for physical activity had lower health disparities, including proximity to downtown (+) and access to parks (+), day care centers (+), offices (+), schools (+), theaters (+), big box shopping centers (-), and libraries (-). Overall results showed that the built environment, compared to the personal factors, was more strongly correlated with health disparities. This study brings attention to the problem of health disparity in the US, and provides evidence supporting the existence of spatial disparity in the environmental support for a healthy lifestyle. Further research is needed to better understand environmental and socioeconomic conditions associated with health disparity among more diverse population groups and in different environmental settings.

In this study the Ottoman built environmet in the last period of the nineteenth century Anatolian city is examined. The study aims to explain the construction of new buildings as well as the transformation of earlier types during the process of contemporary modernization and centralization in the Empire. The main frame of the study is formed of the public and the private spaces that formed the urban built environment, and the transformation of these spaces. The city of Tokat has been chosen as the area of study, which still conserves built structures of the Ottoman as well as the earlier periods that are typical of an Anatolian city of the nineteenth century. Examining the transformation of public buildings and residential architecture in this city, this study emphasizes differences in degress of changes in public and private spaces, and the relation of such transformation with the central authority.

The trend towards patient-and family-centered care (PFCC) invites families of critically ill patients to participate more fully in the care and recovery of their loved ones through partnerships with the medical team and personalized care that respects the values, beliefs and experiences of the individual. In response to the growing needs of families, healthcare institutions are re-designing the way patient and family care is delivered in terms of policy, culture and the physical environment. Despite the many benefits that come with closer collaboration, nurses report that "challenging" families are a key source of workplace stress. This exploratory case study documents some of these challenges as perceived by staff nurses at Emory University Hospital's Neuro ICU while examining the role the built environment plays in shaping such perceptions. Through a series of ethnographic interviews and observational methodologies, the study identifies some of the challenges and benefits that come with balancing patient and family needs. Nurse strategies developed to reassert spatial and temporal control over work environments are also identified. The second phase of research compares communication patterns generated from two different ICUs to explore the link between unit design and the frequency and quality of nurse-family interactions. Findings suggest that space plays a role in moderating the degree of nurse exposure to the often unstructured and unpredictable aspects of family interactions. These encounters, set within a highly charged critical care setting, may contribute to these perceived challenges. Healthcare stands at an important moment of transition in which attitudes, behaviors and expectations are changing. Together these results reinforce the need for adequate tools, training and education to further support nurses in the transition to this new care culture.

The aim of this study was to investigate and analyze what is required for the environmental quality objective Good built environment to be fulfilled by 2020 in the Swedish county Jämtland. The focus of the study was to gain an understanding of the work that the local government does and further investigate the problems that the officials face with implement these questions in themunicipal planning. The study is based on semi structured interviews with officials in the municipalities of Jämtland county. General plan and programs for the municipality have been reviewed, based on how the plans highlights these issues linked to sustainability and Good built environment. The results of the study show that there are major problems with the formulations of the environmental quality goal in itself and its specifications. The environmental quality goal is formulated to suit the entire Sweden. But as it turns out in the analysis it does not work on the basis of the conditions inJämtland with sparsely populated areas and scattered dwellings. The environmental quality goal needs to be formulated after the conditions that the county has to be measured and fulfilled by 2020. The officials agreed that a regional vision is needed, adapted to Jämtland conditions.

In the first part of this thesis, GPS data for a year's worth of travel by 255 Seattle households is used to illuminate how plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) can match household needs. Data from all vehicles in each of these households were analyzed at a disaggregate level primarily to determine whether each household would be able to adopt various types of PEVs without significant issues in meeting travel needs. The results suggest that a battery-electric vehicle (BEV) with 100 miles of all-electric range (AER) should meet the needs of 50% of Seattle's one-vehicle households and the needs of 80% of the multiple-vehicle households, when households charge just once a day and rely on another vehicle or mode just 4 days a year. Moreover, the average one-vehicle Seattle household uses each vehicle 23 miles per day and should be able to electrify close to 80% of its miles, while meeting all its travel needs, using a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle with 40-mile all-electric-range (PHEV40). Households owning two or more vehicles can electrify 50 to 70% of their total household miles using a PHEV40, depending on how they assign the vehicle across drivers each day. Cost comparisons between the average single-vehicle household owning a Chevrolet Cruze versus a Volt PHEV suggest that, when gas prices are $3.50 per gallon and electricity rates are 11.2 ct per kWh, the Volt will save the household $535 per year in energy/fuel costs. Similarly, the Toyota Prius PHEV will provide an annual savings of $538 per year over the Corolla. The results developed in this research provide valuable insights into the role of AER on PEV adoption feasibility and operating cost differences. The second part of this thesis uses detailed travel data from the Seattle metropolitan area to evaluate the effects of built-environment variables on the use of non-motorized (bike + walk) modes of transport. Several model specifications are used to understand and explain non-motorized travel behavior in terms of household, person and built-environment variables. Land-use measures like land-use mix, density, and accessibility indices were also created and incorporated as covariates to appreciate their marginal effects. The models include a count model for household vehicle ownership levels, a binary choice model for the decision to stay within versus departing one's origin zone (i.e., intra- versus inter-zonal trip-making), discrete choice models for destination choices and mode choices, and a zero-inflated negative binomial model for non-motorized trip counts per household. The mode and destination choice models were estimated separately for interzonal and intrazonal trips and for each of three different trip types (home-based work, home-based non-work, and non-home-based), to recognize the distinct behaviors at play when making shorter versus longer trips and different types of trips. This comprehensive set of models highlights how built-environment variables -- like the number and type of intersections present around one's origin and destination, the number of bus stops available within a certain radius, household and jobs densities, parking prices, land use mixing, and walk-based accessibility -- can significantly shape the pattern of one's non-motorized movement. The results underscore the importance of street connectivity (quantified as the number of 3-way and 4-way intersections in a half-mile radius), higher bus stop density, and greater non-motorized access in promoting lower vehicle ownership levels (after controlling for household size, income, neighborhood density and so forth), higher rates of non-motorized trip generation (per day), and higher likelihoods of non-motorized mode choices. Destination choices are also important for mode choices, and local trips lend themselves to more non-motorized options than more distance trips. Intrazonal trip likelihoods rose with higher street connectivity, transit availability, and land use mixing. For example, the results suggest that an increase in the land-use mix index by 10% would increase the probability of choosing to travel within the zone by 12%. As expected destinations with greater population and job numbers (attraction), located closer (to a trip's origin), offering lower parking prices and greater transit availability, were more popular. Interestingly, those with more dead ends (or cul de sacs) attracted fewer trips. Among all built environment variables tested, street structure offered the greatest predictive benefits, alongside jobs and population (densities and counts). For example, a 1-percent increase in the average number of 4-way intersections within a quarter-mile radius of the sampled households is estimated to increase the average household's non-motorized trip generation by 0.36%. A one-standard-deviation increase in the (mean) number of 4-way intersections at the average trip origin is estimated to increase the probabilities of bike and walk modes for interzonal home-based-work trips by 57% and 30%, respectively. In contrast, increasing the number of dead-ends at the origin by one standard deviation is estimated to decrease the probability of biking for both home-based-work and non-work trips by ~30%. These results underscore the importance of network density and connectivity for promoting non-motorized activity. The regional non-motorized travel (NMT) accessibility index ( derived from the logsum of a destination choice model) also offers strong predictive value, with NMT counts rising by by 7% following a 1% increase in this variable -- if the drive alone accessibility index is held constant (along with all other variables, evaluated at their means). Similarly, household vehicle ownership is expected to fall by 0.36% with each percentage point increase in the NMT accessibility index, and walk probabilities rise by 26.9% following a one standard deviation increase in this index at the destination zone. A traveler's socio-economic attributes also have important impacts on NMT choices, with demographics typically serving as much stronger predictors of NMT choices than the built environment. For example, the elasticity of NMT trip generation with respect to a household's vehicle ownership count is estimated to be -0.52. Males and tose with drivers licenses are estimated to have 17% and 39% lower probabilities, respectively, of staying within their origin zone, relative to women and unlicensed adults (ceteris paribus). Non-motorized model choices also exhibit strong sensitivity to age and gender settings. Several of the regional variables developed in this work, and then used in the predictive models, are highly correlated. For example, bus stop and intersection densities are very high in job- and population-dense areas. For example, the correlation co-efficients between the bus stop density and 4-way intersection density is 0.805, between NMT and SOV AIs is 0.830 and between 4-way intersection density and NMT AI is 0.627. As a result, many variables are proxying for and/or competing with each other, as is common in models with many land use covariates, and it is difficult to quantify the exact impact of each of these variables. Nonetheless the models developed here provide valuable insight into the role of several new variables on non-motorized travel choices. Some final case study applications, moving all households to the downtown area (that has high accessibility indices and density), illustrate to what extent these revealed-data-based models will predict shifts toward and away from non-motorized trip-making. It appears that average household vehicle ownership level reduces to 0.57 from 1.89 (a 70% reduction) and average two-day NMT trip generation increases to 5.92 from 0.83 (an increase of more than 6 times). Such ranges are valuable to have in mind, when communities seek to reduce reliance on motorized travel by defining new built-environment contexts. / text

The aim of this work is to understand how certain public buildings play an essential role in the evolution of cultural identity over time. Its main approach distinguishes the denotation of tangible heritage from the connotation of its intangible counterpart. These terms are not understood through semiotics, but, through phenomenology. In other words, meaning is not transmitted by an object; it is adjudicated by a subject. In this sense, the phenomenological experience of such buildings is divided in two: perception brings forth an initial denotation of some universal validity; while memories and dreams engender connotations that are rooted in specific spatiotemporal conditions. In this model, denotation stems from the tangible aspects of heritage, while connotation grows from its intangible dimension. To examine the interaction of these components over time, three case studies are surveyed: Rome's Pantheon, Teotihuacan's Sun Pyramid, and Granada's Alhambra. Their examination begins with an analysis of their basic, primordial denotation, as "centers of power." This type of analysis is followed by a condensed history, which identifies the physical transformations that each building experienced over time. Lastly, a series of context companions present a horizon of expectations, from which multiple users at a given time may have received inspiration to elaborate different connotations of meaning. These sections are portrayed as "glimpses" of intellectual history and literary criticism. Their approach is mostly driven by Wilhelm Dilthey's theory of worldviews and Hans Robert Jauss's reception theory. Each case study suggests a different characterization of an overall historical outcome, associated with the cultural evolution of specific groups: the Pantheon reflects some sense of continuity, for Western Civilization; the Sun Pyramid conveys an overwhelming sense of loss, for Mesoamerica; and Alhambra displays a pervasive sense of exclusion, for al-Andalus. The spirit behind these characterizations strives to understand the modalities in which heritage and cultural identity are shaped by the passage of time. Its goal is to increase our awareness about the fragility of the intangible heritage, when it is separated from its tangible substrate. / text

European modernist architectural design and urban planning for suburbs have often been theorized as dystopic creation myths. These narratives focus on the unfulfilled promises of activist designers to deliver equality, overscaled and generic neighborhoods, and contemporary social exclusion. Södertälje offers another view. This dissertation combines history, ethnography, and formal analysis to examine how architects, urban planners, and immigrant residents conflict and collaborate in the production of the city. The Swedish town of Södertälje serves as a lens through which to view these processes: it is both a nexus of high modernist spatial and social planning and the ostensible capital of the diasporic Syriac Christians, who now comprise approximately 26% of the local population. Postwar Swedish designers sought to reduce class differences through home standardization and a blurred public-private divide; this happened just as the country received numerous refugees, including Syriacs, who had left difficult conditions in Turkey, Syria, and Lebanon and quickly concentrated in Södertälje. There, they became active designers of a new urban landscape, first claiming welfare state public spaces but then slightly altering their uses. This suggests that “generic” modernist urbanism was more successful at accommodating difference than has typically been argued. More recently, Syriacs have built a state-of-the-art soccer stadium and colossal churches that – while sited in industrial zones in Södertälje – function as monuments and pilgrimage sites for the diaspora. In new, Syriac-dominated neighborhoods of custom-designed, single-family houses, Syriac participation has exceeded the “voice” that planners typically allocate to immigrants; their architectural displays of difference and affluent forms of segregation generate anxieties for planners trained in the welfare state’s traditions, which have long linked spatial uniformity to social equality. In aggregate, the Syriacs’ discrete projects have changed the way that the city functions, both in space and in the practices of the town’s expert designers, a development that I label “urban design from below.” This justifies a call for new orientations toward modernism, segregation, and participation in space making and suggests future trends for other European peripheries, where immigrants are also using and reconstructing postwar housing projects.