Browsing by Subject "urbanization"

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
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    Center for Urban Health: Enhancing the health of cities by focusing on communities and the environment
    (Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research, 2012-04-13) Filippelli, Gabriel; Johnson, Daniel P.; Wiehe, Sarah; Zollinger, Terry
    Urban sustainability is a new philosophy of developing healthy, productive communities that (1) promote and use locally-produced foods and products, (2) ensure safe access to natural spaces, and (3) establish low-carbon transportation systems. Urban living is arguably the most sustainable form of community given the concentration of resources, protection of arable land, and vertical structure of housing. In fact, urbanization is becoming the global norm; the percentage of global population living in urban settings has increased from less than 30% in 1950 to 47% in 2000; the percentage of urban dwellers is expected to increase to 60% by 2025. The promise of a healthy and sustainable urban future is clouded, however, by the reality of environmental insults, economic disparities, and behavioral pressures that exist in modern cities. The challenge is not how to build a shiny carbon-neutral city from scratch, but rather how to transition our current urban state toward one that is healthier, has less environmental impact, and is more prepared to respond and adjust to variety of environmental, social, and health changes in the future. Several groups at IUPUI and in the community are collaborating to explore connections between environment, behavior, health, and climate as related to urban environments. These translational efforts are inter- and trans-disciplinary, as evidenced by earth scientists publishing with pediatricians, and geographers publishing with epidemiologists. These efforts are largely undertaken with a geospatial and geotemporal research template. This template allows environmental, health, and behavioral data to be collected individually but with reference to space and time, which become important metadata components for analysis. The Center for Urban Health promotes discovery by building research collaborations among Center Investigators, providing seed funds for new research areas, funding graduate fellowships, and sponsoring educational activities such as public lectures and a Visiting Scholars Program.
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    Factors of Concern Regarding Zika and Other Aedes aegypti-Transmitted Viruses in the United States
    (Oxford Academic, 2017-03) Moreno-Madriñán, Max J.; Turell, Michael; Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health
    The recent explosive outbreaks of Zika and chikungunya throughout the Americas has raised concerns about the threats that these and similar diseases may pose to the United States (U.S.). The commonly accepted association between tropical climates and the endemicity of these diseases has led to concerns about the possibility of their redistribution due to climate change and transmission arising from cases imported from endemic regions initiating outbreaks in the United States. While such possibilities are indeed well founded, the analysis of historical records not only confirms the potential critical role of traveling and globalization but also reveals that the climate in the United States currently is suitable for local transmission of these viruses. Thus, the main factors preventing these diseases from occurring in the United States today are more likely socioeconomic such as lifestyle, housing infrastructure, and good sanitation. As long as such conditions are maintained, it seems unlikely that local transmission will occur to any great degree, particularly in the northern states. Indeed, a contributing factor to explain the current endemicity of these diseases in less-developed American countries may be well explained by socioeconomic and some lifestyle characteristics in such countries.
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    Settlement in Transition: a Transformation of a Village into a Small Town in Western Sudan
    (Springer, 2018-03) Ibrahim, Mohamed Babiker; Zulu, Leo C.; Bein, Frederick L.; Geography, School of Liberal Arts
    UN-Habitat projects Sub-Saharan Africa’s global share of the urban population to increase from 11.3% in 2010 to 20.2% by 2050. Yet little is documented about the underlying urbanization processes, particularly of emergence of small towns. This article uses household interviews, focus groups, observation, and secondary data to examine the spontaneous transformation of a western Sudanese village, Shubbola, into a small town. We use changes in building construction approach, materials, and style as an indicator of development and provide rare documentation of the process, the main actors, choices taken, timescales, and outcomes of the rapid urbanization of Shubbola between 2006 and 2013. Housing transformation was variable but involved a gradual process of replacing traditional non-durable building materials (wood and straw) with modern durable ones (sun- or fire-cured bricks, cement blocks, and metal roofs). Unlike traditional top-down models of urbanization generally driven by government investment, Shubbola epitomizes an organic, bottom-up process dependent on self-reliance and agriculture development fueled by remittances from urban-based relatives. While many small towns with similar origins fail to do so, Shubbola already provided important urban services to its inhabitants and surrounding rural areas. The study enhances understanding of small towns and underlying urbanization processes and their contribution to often neglected bottom-up, low-cost processes that do not fit traditional top-down models. It also contributes to literature and policy on sustainable cities and their role in sustainable development as encapsulated in UN Sustainable Development Goal 11. The study contributes to understanding the processes and implications of rapid urbanization in the Sudan and Africa and other world regions.
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    Sky View Factor Measurements in Support of Local Climate Zone Classification
    (Indiana View, 2020) Adhikari, Bikalpa; Wilson, Jeffrey S.; Geography, School of Liberal Arts
    Increasing urbanization coupled with threats from global climate change are driving research innovations that seek to inform sustainability of urban socio-ecological systems. The Local Climate Zone (LCZ) classification system developed by Stewart and Oke (2012) provides a framework for examining relationships between urban morphology and temperature, as well as a standardized approach to facilitate data integration from around the globe. In addition to urban heat island studies, parameters used to define LCZs are increasingly applied in related fields, such as modeling fine-scale variations in urban air quality (Badach et al., 2020).