Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1982. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ROTCH. / Bibliography: leaves 189-202. / As cities grew larger and more complex at the end of the eighteenth century, they suffered new and more pressing public health problems. The responses to these problems had, in time, an effect on the environment that produced them. This thesis is an examination of the relationship between public health reforms and the urban environment. Public health reforms were stimulated by the perceived deterioration of health in the city. The nature of public health responses designed to cope with this problem was determined, in part, by medical theory, social reform movements, and the physical environment. This thesis examines the nature of these relationships, and their effect on the form of cities in America from the colonial period to the first decades of this century. Chapter one is an explanation of general problems created by the growth of cities and the consequent attempts to formulate a theory of city form. It is a general discussion of where public health ideas belong in this complex process. The subsequent chapters examine the influence of public health theory and practice on the urban environment in three different time periods. The last chapter shows how another change in public health theory resulted in the uncoupling of broad-based health concerns from urban designs, a characteristic of the twentieth century until recent years. / by Victoria Vespe Ozonoff. / M.S.

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The presence of naturally occurring and man-made public health threats necessitate the design and implementation of mitigation strategies, such that adequate response is provided in a timely manner. Since multiple variables, such as geographic properties, resource constraints, and government mandated time-frames must be accounted for, computational methods provide the necessary tools to develop contingency response plans while respecting underlying data and assumptions. A typical response scenario involves the placement of points of dispensing (PODs) in the affected geographic region to supply vaccines or medications to the general public. Computational tools aid in the analysis of such response plans, as well as in the strategic placement of PODs, such that feasible response scenarios can be developed. Due to the sensitivity of bio-emergency response plans, geographic information, such as POD locations, must be kept confidential. The generation of synthetic geographic regions allows for the development of emergency response plans on non-sensitive data, as well as for the study of the effects of single geographic parameters. Further, synthetic representations of geographic regions allow for results to be published and evaluated by the scientific community. This dissertation presents methodology for the analysis of bio-emergency response plans, methods for plan optimization, as well as methodology for the generation of synthetic geographic regions.