Development, scoring, and reliability for the Microscale Audit of Pedestrian Streetscapes for Safe Routes to School (MAPS-SRTS) instrument

BACKGROUND

Active commuting to school can be a meaningful contributor to overall physical activity in children. To inform better micro-level urban design near schools that can support active commuting to school, there is a need for measures that capture these elements. This paper describes the adaptation of an observational instrument for use in assessing micro-scale environments around urban elementary schools in the United States.

METHODS

The Micro-scale Audit of Pedestrian Streetscapes for Safe Routes to School (MAPS-SRTS) was developed from existing audit instruments not designed for school travel environments and modifications for the MAPS-SRTS instrument include the structure of the audit tool sections, the content, the observation route, and addition of new subscales. Subscales were analyzed for inter-rater reliability in a sample of 36 schools in Austin, TX. To assess reliability for each subscale, one-way random effects single-measure intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC) were used.

RESULTS

Compared to the 30 original subscales, the adapted MAPS-SRTS included 26 (86.6%) subscales with revised scoring algorithms. Most MAPS-SRTS subscales had acceptable inter-rater reliability, with an ICC of 0.97 for the revised audit tool.

CONCLUSIONS

The MAPS-SRTS audit tool is a reliable instrument for measuring the school travel environment for research and evaluation purposes, such as assessing human-scale determinants of active commuting to school behavior and documenting built environment changes from infrastructure interventions.

Street environments and crime around low-income and minority schools: Adopting an environmental audit tool to assess crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED)

Crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED) suggests an association between micro-scale environmental conditions and crime, but little empirical research exists on the detailed street-level environmental features associated with crime near low-income and minority schools. This study focuses on the neighborhoods around 14 elementary schools serving lower income populations in Seattle, WA to assess if the distribution of crime incidences (2013-2017) is linked with the street-level environmental features that reflect CPTED principles. We used a total of 40 audit variables that were included in the four domains derived from the broken windows theory and CPTED principles: natural surveillance (e.g., number of windows, balconies, and a sense of surveillance), territoriality (e.g., crime watch signs, trees), image/maintenance (e.g., graffiti and a sense of maintenance/cleanness), and geographical juxtaposition (e.g., bus stops, presence of arterial). We found that multiple crime types had significant associations with CPTED components at the street level. Among the CPTED domains, two image/maintenance features (i.e., maintenance of streets and visual quality of buildings) and two geographical juxtaposition features (i.e., being adjacent to multi-family housing and bus stops) were consistently associated with both violent and property crime. The findings suggest that local efforts to improve maintenance of streets and visual quality of buildings and broader planning efforts to control specific land uses near schools are important to improve safety in marginalized neighborhoods near schools that tend to be more vulnerable to crime. Our research on micro-scale environmental determinants of crime can also serve as promising targets for CPTED research and initiatives.

Does environmental audit help to improve water quality? Evidence from the China National Environmental Monitoring Centre

As an essential re-supervision system of the environmental regulation, the environmental audit can help improve the quality of the ecological environment by correcting the deviation of local governments' environmental regulatory behavior. This study constructed a conceptual model of environmental audit affecting water quality, and empirically examined the effects and mechanism through the difference in difference (DID) regression and the mediating analysis. The panel data were collected from 76 cities covered by the surface water quality monitored by China Environmental Monitoring Station from 2006 to 2017. The results indicated that: (1) the overall effect of the environmental audit on the water quality was positive but not significant; (2) the environmental audit mainly encouraged local governments to strengthen superficial regulations with lower cost, more immediate and perceptible effects, but failed to promote the advanced regulation to reduce the pollution sources and fundamentally improve the water quality. On this basis, the policy implications were proposed that the environmental audit should be strengthened to further promote the advanced regulation and improve water quality constantly.

Transit environments for physical activity: Relationship between micro-scale built environment features surrounding light rail stations and ridership in Houston, Texas

INTRODUCTION

Health professionals promote transport-related physical activity because travelers oftentimes walk or bike to and from transit stops or stations. Although previous studies have examined the associations between macro-scale built environment features surrounding light rail transit (LRT) stations (e.g., density) and LRT ridership, this study examined the associations between numerous micro-scale features (e.g., street-level noise pollution) and ridership.

METHODS

This analysis originated from the Houston Travel-Related Activity in Neighborhoods (TRAIN) Study, a project evaluating how an LRT extension impacted adult physical activity in Houston, Texas. In 2014, researchers used the Analytic Audit Tool to quantify 58 micro-scale built environment features within six categories: Land Use Environment, Transportation Environment, Facilities, Aesthetics, Signage, and Social Environment. Feature data were obtained from 590 street segments within 0.25 miles of 22 LRT stations. For each station, separate composite indices were created per category by averaging the computed feature scores (1-7) within each category, with higher scores signifying more physical activity-promoting features. Station-level LRT ridership data were obtained from monthly ridership reports for the 12 months following station opening. Linear mixed models were constructed to examine the associations of the six built environment categories with ridership, adjusting for season, weekday vs. weekend day, and station as a random intercept.

RESULTS

Holding all other variables constant, every one-unit increase in composite index scores for Transportation Environment and Social Environment was associated with an increase in daily ridership by 425 and 488 riders, respectively (p < 0.05). Every one-unit increase in composite index score for Signage was associated with a decrease of 722 riders daily (p < 0.05). The relations of Land Use Environment, Facilities, and Aesthetics with ridership were statistically null (p > 0.05).

CONCLUSIONS

Enhancements to the Transportation Environment and Social Environment may slightly increase overall LRT ridership, and consequently, utilitarian physical activity.

Foot-based audit of streets adjacent to new light rail stations in Houston, Texas: measurement of health-related characteristics of the built environment for physical activity research

Background

Active travel to and from a transit station may provide significant amounts of physical activity and improve health. The ease with which people can traverse the distance to the transit station may impede or support active travel. Therefore, transit stations that have features that are supportive of utilitarian physical activity would be desirable. This study aimed to characterize the built environment surrounding new light rail transit (LRT) stations in the City of Houston, Texas.

Methods

In 2014, we used a series of systematic protocols and a standardized environmental audit instrument, the Analytic Audit Tool, to collect data on segments (streets) that surround 22 LRT stations that were being newly built. Using Geographic Information System (GIS), we assembled all the segments that intersect a 0.25-mile circular buffer around each station for the audit exercise. Several 3- to 4-member teams of trained auditors completed the audit exercise on a subset of these identified segments. Our analysis were descriptive in nature. We provided the frequency distributions of audited features across the study area. We also followed an original algorithm to produce several composite index scores for our study area. The composite index score is indicative of the prevalence of physical activity friendly/unfriendly features in the study area.

Results

In all, we audited a total of 590 segments covering a total of 218 US Census blocks, and eight City of Houston super neighborhoods. Findings suggest the environment around the new LRT stations may not be supportive of physical activity. In general, the audited segments lacked land use integration; had abandoned buildings, had uneven sidewalks; were not bike-friendly, had minimal presence of public-recreational facilities that would support physical activity; and had significant physical disorder. Notably, certain attractive and comfort features were frequently to usually available.

Conclusions

Current findings, which will be compared to follow-up audit data, can be useful for future researchers and practitioners interested in the built environment around LRT stations.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (10.1186/s12889-019-6560-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Reliability and validity of environmental audits using GigaPan® technology in parks

Park quality and features can contribute to more engaging places for play and recreation. However, assessing park characteristics remains a challenge. This study measured the reliability of GigaPan® as a method for assessing park characteristics as well as the validity of GigaPan® compared to Google Street View (GSV) and direct observation (DO). A total of 65 target areas (16 parks total) in Pittsburgh, PA were assessed using GigaPan®, GSV, and DO from July 2015–January 2016. For reliability and validity, 14 and 28 variables were examined, respectively. Cohen's kappa was used to assess inter-rater reliability. Sensitivity and specificity were used to measure validity. Of the 14 variables included in the inter-rater reliability analysis, five variables had almost perfect reliability (kappa > 0.80) and three variables had substantial reliability (kappa > 0.60). Of the 28 variables included in the validity analysis, GigaPan® was able to correctly classify 17 of the 28 variables and GSV was able to correctly classify 15 of the 28 variables with a sensitivity >80%. There were no significant differences between sensitivity and specificity between GSV and GigaPan®. GigaPan® performed similarly to GSV with DO being used as the gold standard. Further, GigaPan overall had high reliability among the features measured. A strength of GigaPan® is the ability to be implemented quickly in the field, making it a viable alternative to GSV particularly when temporality is an important factor.

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GigaPan®, a robot system for taking panoramic photos, had high reliability among the park attributes measured

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GigaPan® is a valid method to assess park attributes and offers some advantages over other methods

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GigaPan® had comparable validity to Google Earth for assessing features, amenities and incivilities

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GigaPan® should be used in future studies to help identify the association between park attributes and health outcomes

Physical and spatial assessment of school neighbourhood built environments for active transport to school in adolescents from Dunedin (New Zealand)

Adolescent active transport to school (ATS) is influenced by demographic, social, environmental and policy factors. Yet, the relationship between school neighbourhood built environment (SN-BE) and adolescents' ATS remains largely unexplored. This observational study examined associations between observed, objectively-measured and perceived SN-BE features and adolescents' ATS in Dunedin (New Zealand). Adolescents' perception of safety of walking to school was the strongest correlate of ATS among adolescents living ≤ 2.25 km of school, whereas assessed micro- and macro-scale SN-BE features were not significantly correlated with ATS. Adolescents' perceptions of walking safety should be considered as a part of comprehensive efforts to encourage ATS.

Validity of environmental audits using GigaPan® and Google Earth Technology

Background

Health behaviors are shaped by the context in which people live. However, documenting environmental context has remained a challenge. More specifically, direct observation techniques require large investments in time and resources and auditing the environment through web-based platforms has limited stability in spatio-temporal imagery. This study examined the validity of a new methodology, using GigaPan^® imagery, where we took photos locally and, stitched them together using GigaPan^® technology, and quantified environmental attributes from the resulting panoramic photo. For comparison, we examined validity using Google Earth imagery.

Methods

A total of 464 street segments were assessed using three methods: GigaPan^® audits, Google Earth audits, and direct observation audits. Thirty-seven different attributes were captured representing three broad constructs: land use, traffic and safety, and amenities. Sensitivity (i.e. the proportion of true positives) and specificity (i.e. the proportion of true negatives) were used to estimate the validity of GigaPan^® and Google Earth audits using direct observation audits as the gold standard.

Results

Using GigaPan^®, sensitivity was 80% or higher for 6 of 37 items and specificity was 80% or higher for 31 of 37 items. Using Google Earth, sensitivity was 80% or higher for 8 of 37 items and specificity was 80% or higher for 30 of 37 items. The validity of GigaPan^® and Google Earth was similar, with significant differences in sensitivity and specificity for 7 items and 2 items, respectively.

Conclusion

GigaPan^® performed well, especially when identifying features absent from the environment. A major strength of the GigaPan^® technology is its ability to be implemented quickly in the field relative to direct observation. GigaPan^® is a method to consider as an alternative to direct observation when temporality is prioritized or Google Earth imagery is unavailable.