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Objective: Built environment interventions provide structural solutions to complex urban challenges. Though community voices are part of municipal decision-making, planners and public health professionals need tools to better integrate their perspectives for desired changes (what) when implementing built environment interventions (how). We present two simultaneous concept mapping exercises conducted in Montréal, Canada, to facilitate the consideration of these dimensions., Methods: Community members were prompted about neighbourhood changes that could improve their quality of life; stakeholders were prompted about factors that contribute to successful implementation of interventions. Through each exercise, items were generated, grouped, and rated on importance and feasibility. Concept maps were produced using multidimensional scaling and hierarchical cluster analysis. The clusters identified by community members and stakeholders were combined into a Community × Stakeholder Matrix, which supported discussions on interventions with the research's Advisory Committee., Results: Thirty-two community members generated 41 responses, which resulted in 6 clusters: (1) strengthen public transportation, (2) reduce space dedicated to cars, (3) foster local social connections, (4) develop quality cycling infrastructure, (5) improve pedestrian accessibility, and (6) green the city. Thirty-seven stakeholders generated 40 items, which resulted in 5 clusters: (1) collaboration with stakeholders and citizens, (2) planning and evaluation, (3) common vision for the future, (4) regulatory framework and funding, and (5) context-informed approach., Conclusion: Capturing the collective vision of our urban environments and the processes underlying change through concept mapping can lead to more successful changes. We propose combining understandings of the what and how into a matrix to support evaluation and strategic planning of interventions and better integrate community voices into operational planning., (© 2024. The Author(s) under exclusive license to The Canadian Public Health Association.)

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted a major contradiction in contemporary urban planning. This is the relationship between the entrepreneurial modes of urban politics that shape contemporary planning practice and the interrelated dynamics of economic precarity and informalisation of low-income communities that exacerbate contagion, and therefore enable pandemic spread. Through a review of literature on the urban dimensions of COVID-19, and on the historical relationship between pandemics and urban planning, we develop a framework for analysing the debates that are emerging around planning approaches to addressing contemporary pandemic risk in low-income, informalised communities. We argue that post-pandemic debates about urban planning responses are likely to take shape around three discourses that have framed approaches to addressing informalised communities under entrepreneurial urbanism – a revanchist approach based on territorial stigmatisation of spaces of the poor, an incrementalist approach premised on addressing the most immediate drivers of contagion, and a reformist approach that seeks to address the structural conditions that have produced economic precarity and shelter informality. We further argue that any effort to assess the political outfall of the COVID-19 pandemic in a given context needs to take an inter-scalar approach, analysing how debates over informality take shape at the urban and national scales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose of Review: Most people with dementia live in the community. As lifespan increases, one in three persons aged 85+ are expected to live with dementia. We conduct a systematic search to identify frameworks for dementia care and prevention in community settings. This is important to ensure quality of life for people living with cognitive decline (PLCD)., Recent Findings: 61 frameworks are synthesized into the dementia care and prevention in community (DCPC) framework. It highlights three levels of provision: built environment and policy supports, access and innovation, and inclusion across stages of decline. Domains of intervention include: basic needs; built environment health and accessibility; service access and use; community health infrastructure; community engagement; mental health and wellbeing; technology; end-of-life care; cultural considerations; policy, education, and resources. Personhood is not adequately represented in current built environment frameworks. This is supplemented with 14 articles on lived experiences at home and social practices that contribute to PLCD's social identity and psychological safety., Summary: Policy makers, health and built environment professionals must work together to promote "personhood in community" with PLCD. Clinicians and community staff may focus on inclusion, social identity and a sense of at-homeness as attainable outcomes despite diagnosis., (Copyright © 2023 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.)

The idea for this specialist meeting (Santa Barbara, December 2008) originates in discussions over the potential of integrating design more fully into GIS, and over the development of curriculum in spatial thinking. The central question might be posed as "To what extent are the fundamental spatial concepts that lie behind GIS relevant in design?" or "To what extent can the fundamental spatial concepts of design be addressed with GIS?" or perhaps "Is it possible to devise a curriculum designed to develop spatial thinking in both GIS and design?" The position papers from participants address these questions.

At a time when the world is critical of the Brazilian government and the loss of Amazonian rainforest, Brian J. Godfrey casts his 40-year gaze on Rio de Janeiro. Geographer Godfrey deftly uses various scales of analysis - global, hemispheric, national, regional, metropolitan, and neighborhood - to point out how memory can be used to reinvent places both in Rio and elsewhere. Godfrey's real nugget is chapter 3's examination of Little Africa in Rio. [Extracted from the article]

Early-life exposure to neighborhood violence can negatively affect children's socioemotional development and long-term health outcomes. Community-level interventions that modify the built environment to facilitate social encounters can have a positive impact on health. An example of such interventions is the building of green spaces and playgrounds. This case study describes collaboration among residents, local organizations, and a university that aimed to increase the utilization of a vacant lot by converting it into a green space with a playground. Informal conversations at volunteer gatherings and neighborhood association meetings indicated a positive impact of this project in the community. We propose a model for future program implementation and research to improve health in disinvested and disordered communities. We conclude that more research is needed on community partnerships that modify the built environment to decrease community violence. Community-based participatory research may be successful in evaluating future projects with this goal., (© 2022 Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

The first wave of environmental justice literature tended to define environmental racism as the disparate siting of toxic waste facilities in low‐income areas and communities of colour. More recently, environmental justice scholars have turned to a critical environmental justice framework to explore questions of spatial equity in relation to movements like Black Lives Matter. It is increasingly clear that the state, the built environment, economic development, and race converge in communities who face increased surveillance, divestment, and gentrification. Using Hyde Park on the South Side of Chicago as a case study, I draw on qualitative and historical methods to interrogate dominant narratives surrounding policing in urban environments. This paper highlights how Black geographies, as an analytic, highlight the intersection of police brutality and the built environment in Hyde Park. Legacies of urban renewal, now framed as neighbourhood revitalisation, and narratives around criminality and race all influence community police relations in the area. As the University of Chicago expands, so does its police force, and so do conflicts over who can use public spaces and how these spaces are used. I argue that institutions like the University of Chicago rely on the police to racially manage and expand their built environment. I also look to Black Lives Matter as a way to understand police brutality as enmeshed with toxic ecologies. This pairing of activism, ecology and policing allows a more nuanced analysis of the racialised underpinnings of the built environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article is a call for papers in the Health Promotion & Chronic Disease Prevention in Canada journal. It focuses on the topic of natural experiments on built environments, health behaviors, and chronic diseases. The built environment, which includes structures, recreation facilities, transportation systems, and community design, has been linked to the development of chronic diseases and health behaviors. Natural experiments, which are interventions that occur without a researcher's manipulation, offer an opportunity to evaluate the effects of changes to the built environment on health behaviors and chronic disease risk. The special issue aims to provide evidence on the effectiveness of built environment interventions in a Canadian context. The journal is seeking research articles that present new findings or synthesize existing evidence on natural experiments and their impact on health behaviors and chronic disease prevention. The submission deadline is November 30, 2024. [Extracted from the article]

The Physical Activity Neighborhood Environment Scale (PANES) has been used internationally; however, PANES properties have not been assessed in all geographical contexts. Our objectives were to assess the reliability and validity of an online and paper version of the PANES in Canadian adults. Reliability was estimated using intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC), percent of overall agreement (p0) and Cohen's Kappa coefficient (κ). Lower 95% confidence interval (CI) ICC ranged from 0.10 to 0.70. Lower 95%CI for κ statistics ranged from −0.20 to 0.64 and p0 ranged from 80.1% to 95.7%. Cronbach's alpha coefficients (α) estimated internal consistency of the PANES (α = 0.58 for the paper version and α = 0.55 for the online version). Mean scores for the PANES Built Environment Index (BEI) significantly differed by neighborhood street pattern (p <.05). The PANES administrated via paper or online provides reliable overall agreement and valid estimates of the self-reported neighborhood built environment supportiveness of physical activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses a special issue of the journal Facilities that focuses on future-proof facilities management (FM) practices with an emphasis on sustainability. The issue features ten papers that cover a range of topics, including the impact of the indoor environment on education, safety and security measures, green methods, reactive maintenance, occupant perspectives in office settings, maintenance strategies in high-rise buildings, design guidelines for hospitals during the COVID-19 outbreak, e-waste management practices in India, and factors crucial for urban space maintainability. The papers provide valuable insights and practical recommendations for future-proofing FM practices in various built environments. [Extracted from the article]

The built environment of an older person's home can reduce or promote the possibility of a fall or other injury. A user-friendly tool can help the residents to evaluate their home environment within the context of their specific functional and mobility challenges, so that needed modifications can be identified and completed before an event causing injury occurs. The increasing use of telehealth and other digital technologies has paved the way for technology-based person-initiated home assessments that may allow people to evaluate and improve their homes proactively. The purpose of this literature review was to systematically analyze existing published paper- and technology-based home assessment tools to understand the structure and key characteristics of existing tools and to understand the limitations in existing home assessment tools. This review identified and compared 24 studies based on structure, content, and implementation. While a vast variety of tools and methods currently exist for conducting in-home or remote home assessment for older adults, there is a lack of a comprehensive and user-friendly technology-based tool that older adults can use to conduct an environmental assessment of their home in relation to their functional abilities, such that modifications may be identified that can prevent falls and other injuries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the siege of the Gaza Strip, a self-governing Palestinian territory, since 2007. Research on sieges tends to concentrate on the coping strategies of besieged communities, humanitarian issues associated with the impacts, humanitarian access, and the prioritisation of needs, with little or no attention paid to reconstruction. However, Gaza is unusual as a siege environment within which reconstruction has become a high priority in the aftermath of its three destructive wars with Israel. Following an overview of research on sieges in contemporary warfare and a brief contextualisation of Gaza, this paper examines why reconstruction outcomes have varied over time through the application of a theoretical framework that stipulates the importance of four key factors: time; needs; scarcity; and political context. Based on an analysis of these variables, Gaza was found to be a most-likely case for reconstruction under siege. Nonetheless, the large-scale reconstruction necessary to transform Gaza has not been actualised., (© 2019 The Authors Disasters © 2019 Overseas Development Institute.)

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses the articles in the issue on topics including urban regeneration, covering multifunctional city centers, Dutch new town maturation, land use intensity in Egypt, and core city revitalization.