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Historic Sanborn fire insurance maps of cities in the United States are utilized extensively for comprehending past built environments and evaluating potential environmental risks. While previous research in the spatial humanities has explored diverse contemporary applications for these maps, there has been limited attention devoted to the evolution of Sanborn fire insurance maps over their nearly century-long production history. This study delves into the components of fire insurance maps produced by the Sanborn Map Company, shedding light on their varying formats, scales, and annotations, discussing how they have changed over time. The paper also examines the map correction process and identifies potential alternative sources for accessing fire insurance maps. Additionally, the diverse nature of these maps as source materials is contemplated, emphasizing the valuable insights that can be gained by critically analyzing the construction of Sanborn fire insurance maps. Given the significant reliance of numerous spatial humanities projects on these historic maps, particularly those focused on urban areas, this paper provides important contextualization of this source of geospatial information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the focus on embodied carbon within the built environment has grown in the U.S., local jurisdictional codes have increasingly proposed and implemented code language that requires the use of concrete mixtures that have reduced environmental impacts. This paper provides details about the various ways that localized sustainable concrete provisions have been proposed and implemented in the U.S., including limits on cement content and Global Warming Potential (GWP). These laws and code revisions vary in their measurement of low-carbon concrete and their exemptions and incentives. While the current version of the ACI Building Code, ACI 318-19, does allow for the consideration of sustainability in concrete design, specifics about how the relative sustainability of concrete mixtures and systems are to be measured and compared are not included. This paper addresses how the changing landscape of local jurisdictional codes is driving the development of future ACI 318 provisions to play a part in providing more consistency in the application of sustainable design practices in the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Good bridge designers strive to balance their desire to build structures that serve their community, blend with the surrounding environment and are attractive to users, with financial and other project constraints. For long span bridges, commonly adopted types achieve good aesthetics just through the expression of a suitable, effective structural form. More than a century of achievements and advancements in the design of suspension, cable-stayed bridges, tied arches, trusses and other types of long span bridges do offer an array of possible solutions that, if developed with the right sensitivity and good attention to details, can bring lasting aesthetic value to the built environment. Although a "Form follows Function" approach does not always translate into good bridge aesthetics, that approach can be more challenging for short and medium span bridges, for which utilitarian structural schemes are more commonly adopted. The development of conceptual studies, good structural design and attention to detailing can achieve aesthetic results for these bridge types while meeting project financial constraints through a strong partnership with owners and the right attention to the needs of the community and the surrounding environment. The Vitruvius concept from "De Architectura" of 2050 years ago—a structure must exhibit the three qualities of firmitas, utilitas, venustas—still provides a good framework to develop simple criteria and aesthetics guidelines for bridge designers. This paper presents a range of examples, from concept studies to built projects, to highlight current challenges and possible accomplishments in the aesthetic design of highway and pedestrian bridges of short and medium span. The projects presented in this paper aim to highlight the challenges faced by designers when looking for possible solutions rather than to provide guidelines or describe accomplishments. The projects are all located in the United States and directly involved the author as part of the design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A longstanding line of research in urban studies explores how cities can be understood through their appearance. However, what remains unclear is to what extent urban dwellers' everyday life can be explained by the visual clues of the urban environment. In this paper, we address this question by applying a computer vision model to 27 million street view images across 80 counties in the United States. Then, we use the spatial distribution of notable urban features identified through the street view images, such as street furniture, sidewalks, building façades, and vegetation, to predict the socioeconomic profiles of their immediate neighborhood. Our results show that these urban features alone can account for up to 83% of the variance in people's travel behavior, 62% in poverty status, 64% in crime, and 68% in health behaviors. The results outperform models based on points of interest (POI), population, and other demographic data alone. Moreover, incorporating urban features captured from street view images can improve the explanatory power of these other methods by 5% to 25%. We propose "urban visual intelligence" as a process to uncover hidden city profiles, infer, and synthesize urban information with computer vision and street view images. This study serves as a foundation for future urban research interested in this process and understanding the role of visual aspects of the city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Having grown up in an "always-on" technological environment, Generation Z differ significantly in attitudes and lifestyles compared to previous generations. However, their travel behaviors have not been widely discussed and adequately understood. Using data from the latest three National Household Travel Surveys in the United States, we in this paper identify the uniqueness of Gen Z in travel behaviors and preferences, and use the zero-inflated Poisson model to test the impacts of key factors on the mode choices. Results from the longitudinal analysis indicated that Gen Z are not always more environmentally friendly than same-age people in the past decades, while Gen Z have a stronger tendency to travel in a green way in response to changes in built environment than their counterparts decades ago. These findings demonstrate that Gen Z, who have been greatly affected by technological advances and social media, may show unprecedented potential to support sustainable transportation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To describe the quality of food and physical activity (PA) environments by World Bank Income level in jurisdictions from the Children's Healthy Living Program. Baseline cross-sectional community data were analyzed from 11 jurisdictions categorized by World Bank Income levels to describe exposure to different food and PA outlets. The Children's Healthy Living Program was a multilevel, multijurisdictional prevalence study and community intervention trial that reduced child obesity in the US-Affiliated Pacific region. US-Affiliated Pacific region. Food (n = 426) and PA (n = 552) Outlets. Physical activity and food scores that reflect the quality of the outlets that support being physically active and healthy eating options, respectively. Descriptive statistics are presented as means ± SD or percentages. High-income-income level jurisdictions had higher food and PA scores than middle-income level jurisdictions. The US-Affiliated Pacific region has limited quality food and PA outlets in underserved communities at risk for obesity. The findings in this paper can be used to develop tools and design interventions to improve the food and PA environment to increase a healthier, active lifestyle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Between 1949 and 1966, the Stephen Smith Home, one of the oldest African American "homes for the aged" in the United States, went from partially condemned to new construction. Through his leadership at this historic Philadelphia institution, administrator Hobart C. Jackson learned firsthand the "double jeopardy" of Black aging, culminating in the 1970s with his national advocacy efforts on behalf of minority elders. The intersectionality of age and race was intimately tied to the built environment of homes for the aged, the precursor of today's nursing home. This paper considers how structural racism and ageism were materially manifested in the strug gle of African American eldercare institutions to respond to protean building and safety regulations for se nior care. I introduce a necessary architectural analy sis into histories of aging in the United States by examining how building maintenance, upkeep, and volunteerism offer a way of understanding social history. This research reveals Philadelphia's Stephen Smith Home to be both representative and singular: like other African American facilities, the home strug gled with building obsolescence and funding shortfalls, but unlike many of its counter parts, it nonetheless survived and developed into a hybrid campus of historic and newly built structures within a growing Black neighborhood. Ultimately this article does foundational work in exploring the shifting building and social cultures of the charitable old age home in the mid-twentieth century by examining a mode of community- based care that, when rendered within the built environment, contrasts greatly with con temporary perceptions of institutionalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using an online stated preference survey and secondary data across four different geographic settings in the contiguous United States (U.S.), this paper elucidates the relationships between physical activity levels, built environment, and access to infrastructure (connectivity). Secondary data were collected to characterize the area surrounding respondents' reported residences. We estimated two multi-group structural equation models to measure how statistical constructs vary across settings. The models' results suggest that the built environment has a lower effect on respondents' physical activity in isolated rural and suburban areas than in urban areas and large rural towns, which are denser and promote higher physical activity levels. We conclude that the built environment and access to infrastructure have a non-monotonic relationship with physical activity when considering the levels of rurality. • Physical activity levels vary across settings with different rurality levels. • An increase in physical activity can serve as a proxy for active travel behavior. • Access to infrastructure has a non-monotonic relationship with rurality. • Urban areas consistently reported having the highest physical activity levels. • Our surroundings can encourage or inhibit physical activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has long been known that social and physical environments can shape individual and population health, for better or worse. Master-planned communities (MPCs) in the US are custom-designed residential neighborhoods with defined boundaries planned and developed under a single, private owner or entity from their inception. Across the US, these vary greatly in scale ranging from 100 to over 50,000 homes, but broadly all provide residents with housing, infrastructure, landscaping, and purpose-built facilities to support socialization. Current research in the urban planning literature suggests that MPCs can influence the health of their residents. However, few studies have examined the use of MPCs as settings to conduct individual or population health research. In this paper, we examine the potential of MPCs as context for observational or intervention studies aimed at understanding individual and population-level health and well-being. We first summarize links between built and social environment and individual and population health research. Next, we describe the history of planned communities in the US. Then, we review specific features of MPCs related to governance, development, design, and social structure. We end by exploring how those specific features may lead to potential opportunities and challenges when using MPCs in health research. Through this discussion, we highlight MPCs as overlooked settings that may offer potential for collaborative, innovative, and socially engaged health research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Researchers highlight the importance of urban form and sprawling development patterns as determinants of economic mobility in the United States. However, the relationship is complex because sprawl affects other variables too, which themselves may affect upward mobility. This study uses a structural equation model to estimate the direct and indirect effects of urban sprawl, and related components of the built environment, on mobility at the census tract level. The results suggest that compactness has a positive direct effect on mobility, but an overall negative indirect effect on mobility through the tested mediating factors. Hence, there are both positive and negative side-effects associated with compactness in regards to economic mobility. In light of these findings, this paper recommends policies, programs, and procedures for the planning community to aid in alleviating the negative consequences of sprawl on economic mobility, while maintaining the positive ones. • Urban sprawl directly and indirectly effects upward economic mobility at the census tract level in the United States. • The direct effect of compactness on mobility is positive, though the total indirect effect is negative. • More compact census tracts have higher rates of upward mobility than more sprawling ones. • Indirect effects through social capital, poverty, job access, housing stock, and education quality are negative. • Indirect effects through concentrations of non-white minorities and food deserts are positive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]