602.751.86
The Built Environment: Influences and Challenges to Improving Population Health
Location
Internet
Term
3rd Term
Department
MAS Office
Credit(s)
3
Academic Year
2024 - 2025
Instruction Method
Asynchronous Online
Auditors Allowed
No
Available to Undergraduate
No
Grading Restriction
Letter Grade or Pass/Fail
Course Instructor(s)
Contact Name
Frequency Schedule
Every Year
Resources
Prerequisite
Introduction to Online Learning
The built environment, how we design and build communities where we live, work, and play, has a fundamental effect on our health and physical, mental, social, environmental, and economic well-being. The built environment is a vast, evolving area of interdisciplinary research.
Focuses on describing the relations between the urban and suburban built environments in the U.S., with emphasis on land use and transportation infrastructure, access to healthy food, access to green space and recreational opportunities, and exposures to air pollution and noise that accompany these community designs all of which have been shown to have an impact on community health. Explores the use of Health Impact Assessments for assessing the programs and policies that do not traditionally evaluate public health outcomes.
Learning Objectives
Upon successfully completing this course, students will be able to:
- Define the built environment and evaluate common metrics used to assess it
- Explain how the built environment can affect public health, both positively and negatively
- Apply the results of a Health Impact Assessment to evaluate and recommend interventions that aim to improve health by modifying the built environment
- Explain how climate change and globalization can affect public health through the built environment
- Explain how land use and transportation policies can affect human, animal, and ecosystem health (One Health)
- Develop a framework for how to create sustainable communities that protect vulnerable populations and improve population health
Methods of Assessment
This course is evaluated as follows:
- 10% Participation
- 30% Reflection
- 30% Midterm
- 30% Final Exam