43 lines
7.1 KiB
Markdown
43 lines
7.1 KiB
Markdown
---
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title: "Built environment"
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chunk: 3/3
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source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Built_environment"
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category: "reference"
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tags: "science, encyclopedia"
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date_saved: "2026-05-05T15:35:46.285628+00:00"
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instance: "kb-cron"
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---
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=== Health ===
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The built environment can heavily impact the public's health. Historically, unsanitary conditions and overcrowding within cities and urban environments have led to infectious diseases and other health threats. Dating back to Georges-Eugene Haussmann's comprehensive plans for urban Paris in the 1850s, concern for lack of air-flow and sanitary living conditions has inspired many strong city planning efforts. During the 19th century in particular, the connection between the built environment and public health became more apparent as life expectancy decreased and diseases, as well as epidemics, increased. Today, the built environment can expose individuals to pollutants or toxins that cause chronic diseases like asthma, diabetes, and coronary vascular disease, along with many others. There is evidence to suggest that chronic disease can be reduced through healthy behaviors like a proper active lifestyle, good nutrition, and reduced exposure to toxins and pollutants. Yet, the built environment is not always designed to facilitate those healthy behaviors. Many urban environments, in particular suburbs, are automobile reliant, making it difficult or unreasonable to walk or bike to places. This condition not only adds to pollution, but can also make it hard to maintain a proper active lifestyle. Public health research has expanded the list of concerns associated with the built environment to include healthy food access, community gardens, mental health, physical health, walkability, and cycling mobility. Designing areas of cities with good public health is linked to creating opportunities for physical activity, community involvement, and equal opportunity within the built environment. Urban forms that encourage physical activity and provide adequate public resources for involvement and upward mobility are proven to have far healthier populations than those that discourage such uses of the built environment.
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=== Social ===
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==== Housing and segregation ====
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Features in the built environment present physical barriers which constitute the boundaries between neighborhoods. Roads and railways, for instance, play a large role in how people can feasibly navigate their environment. This can result in the isolation of certain communities from various resources and from each other. The placement of roads, highways, and sidewalks also determines what access people have to jobs and childcare close to home, especially in areas where most people do not own vehicles. Walkability directly influences community, so the way a neighborhood is built affects the outcomes and opportunities of the community that lives there. Even less physically imposing features, such as architectural design, can distinguish the boundaries between communities and decrease movement across neighborhood lines.
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The segregation of communities is significant because the qualities of any given space directly impact the wellbeing of the people who live and work there. George Galster and Patrick Sharkey refer to this variation in geographic context as "spatial opportunity structure", and claim that the built environment influences socioeconomic outcomes and general welfare. For instance, the history of redlining and housing segregation means that there is less green space in many Black and Hispanic neighborhoods. Access to parks and green space has been proven to be good for mental health which puts these communities at a disadvantage. The historical segregation has contributed to environmental injustice, as these neighborhoods suffer from hotter summers since urban asphalt absorbs more heat than trees and grass. The effects of spatial segregation initiatives in the built environment, such as redlining in the 1930s and 1940s, are long lasting. The inability to feasibly move from forcibly economically depressed areas into more prosperous ones creates fiscal disadvantages that are passed down generationally. With proper public education access tied to the economic prosperity of a neighborhood, many formerly redlined areas continue to lack educational opportunities for residents and, thus, job and higher-income opportunities are limited.
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=== Environmental ===
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The built environment has a multitude of impacts on the planet, some of the most prominent effects are greenhouse gas emissions and Urban Heat Island Effect.
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The built environment expands along with factors like population and consumption which directly impact the output of greenhouse gases. As cities and urban areas grow, the need for transportation and structures grows as well. In 2006, transportation accounted for 28% of total greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. Building's design, location, orientation, and construction process heavily influence greenhouse gas emissions. Commercial, industrial, and residential buildings account for roughly 43% of U.S. CO2 emissions in energy usage. In 2005, agricultural land use accounted for 10–12% of total human-caused greenhouse gas emissions worldwide.
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Urban heat islands are pockets of higher temperature areas, typically within cities, that effect the environment, as well as quality of life. Urban Heat Islands are caused by reduction of natural landscape in favor of urban materials like asphalt, concrete, brick, etc. This change from natural landscape to urban materials is the epitome of the built environment and its expansion:
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== See also ==
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== References ==
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== Further reading ==
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Jackson, Richard J.; Dannenberg, Andrew L.; Frumkin, Howard (2013). "Health and the Built Environment: 10 Years After". American Journal of Public Health. 103 (9): 1542–1544. doi:10.2105/ajph.2013.301482. PMC 3780695. PMID 23865699.
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Leyden, Kevin M (2003). "Social Capital and the Built Environment: The Importance of Walkable Neighborhoods" (PDF). American Journal of Public Health. 93 (9): 1546–1551. doi:10.2105/ajph.93.9.1546. PMC 1448008. PMID 12948978. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2017-10-18. Retrieved 2014-02-26.
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Jeb Brugmann, Welcome to the urban revolution: how cities are changing the world, Bloomsbury Press, 2009
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Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Random House, New York, 1961
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Andrew Knight & Les Ruddock, Advanced Research Methods in the Built Environment, Wiley-Blackwell 2008
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Paul Chynoweth, The Built Environment Interdiscipline: A Theoretical Model for Decision Makers in Research and Teaching, Proceedings of the CIB Working Commission (W089) Building Education and Research Conference, Kowloon Sangri-La Hotel, Hong Kong, 10 - 13 April 2006.
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Richard J. Jackson with Stacy Sinclair, Designing Healthy Communities, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, 2012
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Russell P. Lopez, The Built Environment and Public Health, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, 2012
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== External links ==
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Australian Sustainable Built Environment Council (ASBEC)
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Faculty of Built Environment, UTM, Skudai, Johor, Malaysia
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Designing Healthy Communities, link to nonprofit organization and public television documentary of same name
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The Built Environment and Health: 11 Profiles of Neighborhood Transformation |