THE SCHOOL OF CITY AND REGIONAL PLANNING

GEORGIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

Under the provisions of the regulations for the degree

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY 

on Wednesday, July 06, 2016
2:00 – 4:00 PM
in CGIS conference room (Room 203)

will be held the

DISSERTATION DEFENSE
 
for
 
Arthi Rao

"Landscape Anthropometrics: A multi-scale approach to integrating health into the regional landscape"
 
The Examiners Are:

Dr. Catherine L. Ross (Advisor), Georgia Institute of Technology

Dr. Brian Stone, Georgia Institute of Technology

Dr. Nisha Botchwey, Georgia Institute of Technology

Dr. Adjo A. Amekudzi-Kennedy, Georgia Institute of Technology

Dr. Gonzalo M. Vazquez-Prokopec, Emory University

 
Faculty and students are invited to attend this examination.

Abstract:

The explication of “healthy places” is currently a discipline-specific endeavor, fragmented along three primary axes. The first dichotomy exists in the anthropocentric vs. biocentric philosophies to defining healthy places. The second rift is evident in the reductionist methods and metrics employed to evaluate contextual impacts on human health. The third gap is with respect to scale. While there is abundant research investigating health and the built environment at the neighborhood scale, connections at the regional scale remain largely unexplored.

This research creates a consistent, scalable approach for incorporating health considerations into regional land planning for metropolitan areas. A prototypical framework is presented for the Atlanta metropolitan region. Determinants of healthy places from Social/Landscape Epidemiology, Urban Planning and Landscape Ecology are incorporated into defining the landscape and its associated pattern metrics. Key research objectives are to — 1) provide a new method to measuring urban form and health relationships through the use of landscape metrics 2) analyze urban form to understand configuration, mix, spatial distribution and proportions of land uses and socioeconomic factors that can support better health outcomes. Methodologically, this research examines associations between landscape patterns at nested scales (county and tract) with health outcomes measured by mortality rates across chronic conditions such as cancer, diabetes and heart disease. Two primary research questions are explored— 1) Are landscape patterns significant determinants of mortality rates? 2) At what scale do landscape patterns matter for reduced mortality rates?

Landscape Pattern metrics are generated using GIS software. Random Forest, Hierarchical Clustering and other classification techniques are used to identify preliminary landscape signatures and associations. Hierarchical impacts of regional determinants and tract-level landscape patterns on local health outcomes are examined through multilevel logistic modeling. The aim is to present a succinct set of landscape metrics to inform land use planning for healthy communities.