Abstract
Observational Validation of Urban Design Measures in NYC
Track: Health and Human Services
Author(s): Marnie Purciel, Andrew Rundle, Kathryn Neckerman, James Quinn
Increasingly urban planners, architects, and public health researchers have been seeking to examine urban design as an important factor in the creation of pedestrian-friendly cities. Validated measures of urban design are required for systematic research on physical activity. Drawing on the Maryland Urban Design Inventory, an observational scale for rating blocks on urban design, our team observed a sample of 588 New York City blocks, measuring five urban design constructs: Imageability, Enclosure, Complexity, Human Scale, and Transparency. To expand our measurement capacity to a citywide scale, we developed a GIS version of the instrument using publicly available spatial data and are validating digitally generated scores with observational results. Our preliminary validation study results show significant correlations between observer and GIS scores: Imageability-0.78; Enclosure-0.61; Human Scale-0.76; Transparency-0.73; and Complexity-0.85. This presentation will review the GIS methods used to construct digital measures and the observational validation results.
Marnie Purciel
Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy
420 W. 118th Street
Mail code 3355
New York , New York 10027
United States
Phone: 212-854-6068
E-mail: mlp2111@columbia.edu
Andrew Rundle
Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University
722 W 168th Street
New York , New York 10032
United States
Phone: 212-854-6068
E-mail: mlp2111@columbia.edu
Kathryn Neckerman
Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy, Columbia University
420 W. 118th St.,
Mail code 3355
New York , New York 10027
United States
Phone: 212-854-6068
E-mail: mlp2111@columbia.edu
James Quinn
Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy, Columbia University
420 W. 118th St.
Mail code 3355
New York , New York 10027
United States
Phone: 212-854-6068
E-mail: jq2145@columbia.edu