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The Special Issue on the Built Environment, Transport, and Public Health will have a call for abstracts following which full papers will be requested. Authors will be required on their abstract to indicate whether they propose a full paper (up to 6,000 words) or a shorter paper (1500-3000 words).
Introduction
The built environment has been described as everything man-made in the physical environment, from metropolitan land use patterns, individual building design, and a wide array of transportation infrastructure that determines the relative utility of travel options and physically shape, connect, or bisect communities. Features of the built environment have been studied for decades to understand relationships between land use and transportation investment impacts on travel patterns, vehicle emissions, and air quality. Respiratory effects of urbanization patterns remain a central focus of public policy globally and therefore a highly relevant issue for this special issue. For an equal length of time, the built environment has been studied for its relationship to travel mode choice, including walking, cycling, and transit use. However, since the late 1990s and early 2000s, the built environment has also been shown to have health impacts affecting levels of physical activity and obesity, diabetes, respiratory function, depression, coronary heart disease, certain cancers, and life expectancy. In roughly the same time frame, transportation and urban design features of the built environment have been implicated in traffic-related injuries and fatalities.
Yet, much remains unknown. Nearly all studies to date have been cross sectional, providing evidence of association but not of causation. There is conflicting evidence, for example, on the degree to which the built environment contributes to obesity, with some studies suggesting significant relationships and others not, at least not after controlling for residential self-selection. We encourage submittals that employ an ecological framework where physical features are measured and spatially linked directly with behaviors and exposures at a scale where observed relationships are arguably and ideally measurably a function of the environments where people spend their time. The built environment may be characterized at one or more of the following scales: macro scale (regional), meso scale (community or neighborhood), and micro (street, public park, or building); or ideally consider the interaction between all three. Studies that offer increased variation in built environment features and comparative insights into effects of contrasting cultural and institutional settings across countries are encouraged. For the purposes of this call, transport includes walking, cycling, public transportation, and automobile use. Health includes behaviors (physical activity, diet, and social interaction); exposures including air pollutants and noise, crime, traffic safety, and other social conditions; and a range of mental and physical health outcomes.
As well as full length papers, short technical notes and viewpoints will be considered for this special issue.
Scope of the Special Issue
To illustrate the breadth of this call, some examples of appropriate topics include but are not limited to:
-- Historical links between the built environment, transport, and public health
-- Potential for the built environment to contribute to public health goals
-- Potential for transport to contribute to public health goals
-- Advances in regional transportation planning toward health goals
-- Community design and physical activity
-- Community design and air quality
-- Policy and legislation for healthy places
-- Built environment and climate change
-- Built environment and mental health
-- Built environment and traffic safety
-- Planning and obesity prevention
-- Metrics of the built environment as they relate to health behavior and outcomes
-- New empirical results on the link between the built environment and physical activity (including transport walking and cycling)
-- Local case studies of health promotion through transport
-- State policy initiatives on transportation as relates to health
-- Safe Routes to School or Transit
-- Role of transit and transit-oriented development in active living
-- Health impact assessment as it relates to transport
-- Urban heat islands and their health effects
-- Built environment and vehicle emissions
-- Synthesis papers summarizing what is known about the role of active transportation in obesity prevention, compared to, e.g., the role of changing diets or time use patterns
Key Dates
Submission of abstracts
January 11th , 2015
Selection of abstracts for full-paper submission
February 10, 2015
Full paper submission
May 10, 2015
Decision on full papers
July 10 2015
Revision and resubmission (if necessary)
October 10, 2015?
Publication of special issue
2016
Inquiries
All inquiries regarding this call should be directed to Drs. Lawrence Frank, University of British Columbia (lawrence.frank@ubc.ca), Billie Giles-Corti, University of Melbourne (b.giles-corti@unimelb.edu.au), and Reid Ewing, University of Utah (ewing@arch.utah.edu), Abstracts should be sent to:transportandhealth@gmail.com
