Citation:

Wilson, A. AND L. Jackson. Utilizing 1-Meter Land Cover Data to Increase Sensitivity of Studies Exploring Relationships between Urban Natural Spaces and Health across Multiple Communities. International Conference on Urban Health, San Francisco, CA, April 01 - 04, 2016.

Impact/Purpose:

To promote awareness of EnviroAtlas-Communities research resulting in free, high-quality geospatial data for urban health analyses.

Description:

Purpose: Previous studies have positively correlated human nature exposures with health promoting outcomes such as increased physical activity, improved cognitive function, increased social engagement, and reduced ambient air pollution. When using remotely-sensed data to investigate these relationships, researchers must first identify an appropriate spatial resolution to characterize exposures. Metric development is often limited by the lack of fine-scale land cover data, especially across multiple communities. As a result, researchers commonly use coarse resolution imagery and the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index—an aggregate measure of total greenness. Using one-meter resolution land cover data developed from aerial photography, we derived spatial metrics of proximity to specific types of natural areas for EnviroAtlas, a United States Environmental Protection Agency web-based ecosystem services mapping tool. Methods: We derived nine natural-area exposure metrics for 16 diverse United States Census Urban Areas by applying focal statistics to EnviroAtlas high-resolution land cover grids. Each one-meter resolution pixel value represents the sum of total green space, tree cover, or water within a radial buffer of 50m, 500m, or 1,000m. Values represent spatially explicit urban natural exposures such as street trees along residential blocks, and views of greenery or water potentially visible from buildings. Results were compared with 30-meter Normalized Difference Vegetation Index data derived from Landsat satellite imagery for 2011, a comparable time frame. Conclusion: Our analysis highlights the enhanced benefits and applied uses of high-resolution land cover data to assess fine-scale exposures to natural features. EnviroAtlas metrics are available to external researchers for linking with points of interest such as homes and schools. Combined with address-level cohort, case-control, or cross-sectional data, these metrics can improve the precision of exposure estimates in analyses of relationships between urban natural spaces and public health.This research has been reviewed and approved by EPA; it does not necessarily reflect Agency policy.

Record Details: