Standards for Environmental Measurement Using GIS: Toward a Protocol for Protocols

Ann Forsyth · Kathryn H. Schmitz · Joel Koepp

66 citations0/0 files storedJournal of Physical Activity and Health

No readable copy stored yet — this record is metadata only.

No open-access location is known for this record yet.

Literature note Cite in a project Citation map

Urban Transport and Accessibility Physical Activity and Health Urban Green Space and Health

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Interdisciplinary research regarding how the built environment influences physical activity has recently increased. Many research projects conducted jointly by public health and environmental design professionals are using geographic information systems (GIS) to objectively measure the built environment. Numerous methodological issues remain, however, and environmental measurements have not been well documented with accepted, common definitions of valid, reliable variables. METHODS: This paper proposes how to create and document standardized definitions for measures of environmental variables using GIS with the ultimate goal of developing reliable, valid measures. Inherent problems with software and data that hamper environmental measurement can be offset by protocols combining clear conceptual bases with detailed measurement instructions. RESULTS: Examples demonstrate how protocols can more clearly translate concepts into specific measurement. CONCLUSIONS: This paper provides a model for developing protocols to allow high quality comparative research on relationships between the environment and physical activity and other outcomes of public health interest.

Paper brief

Loading…

Cite this work

Citation unavailable for this work.

BibTeX RIS CSL-JSON

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Citations in this library

Citation map →

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 66 citations exist upstream.

References

1997Travel demand and the 3Ds: Density, diversity, and design 1999Systematic Social Observation of Public Spaces: A New Look at Disorder in Urban Neighborhoods 2003Environmental correlates of walking and cycling: Findings from the transportation, urban design, and planning literatures 2003Neighborhood-Based Differences in Physical Activity: An Environment Scale Evaluation 2002How the built environment affects physical activity 2001Travel and the Built Environment: A Synthesis 2003Relationship between Urban Sprawl and Physical Activity, Obesity, and Morbidity 1994Impacts of Mixed Use and Density on Utilization of Three Modes of Travel: Single-Occupant Vehicle, Transit, and Walking

Cited by

2011Mixed Land Use and Obesity: An Empirical Comparison of Alternative Land Use Measures and Geographic Scales 2010Finding food: Issues and challenges in using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to measure food access 2010Concordance of Commercial Data Sources for Neighborhood-Effects Studies 2021A Generalized Framework for Measuring Pedestrian Accessibility around the World Using Open Data

Explore the map →

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.

Imported from OpenAlex (CC0) — nothing here is generated.